STATEFUL CONNECTIONLESS OVERLAY PROTOCOL FOR INFORMATION TRANSFER ACROSS MULTIPLE DATALINKS

• US 20140003335A1
• Filed: 06/29/2012
• Published: 01/02/2014
• Est. Priority Date: 06/29/2012
• Status: Active Application

• Current Assignee: Honeywell International Inc.
• Original Assignee: Honeywell International Inc.
• Inventors: Roy, Aloke
• Granted Patent: US 10,284,482 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 370/328
• CPC Class Codes: H04B 7/18506 Communications with or from aircraft, i.e. aeronautical mobile service
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 47/34 ensuring sequence integrity, e.g. using sequence numbers
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 69/14 Multichannel or multilink protocols

Abstract

A method and system for data communications is provided. The method reduces the overall transmission time of the information to a destination by simultaneously sending different segments of the information over a plurality of data connections. The method comprises presenting information content for transmission to a destination entity, and simultaneously sending different segments of the information over a plurality of data link connections. All segments of the information are received from the plurality of data link connections at the destination entity, and the data segments are reconstructed back into the information content at the destination entity.

Claims

1. A method for data communications, the method comprising:

presenting information content for transmission to a destination entity;

simultaneously sending different segments of the information over a plurality of data link connections;

receiving all segments of the information from the plurality of data link connections at the destination entity; and

reconstructing the data segments back into the information content at the destination entity.

2. The method of claim 1, wherein the information content is presented by an upper layer of a communications network and fragmented into a plurality of data segments.

3. The method of claim 2, further comprising determining a diversity path for each of the data segments.

4. The method of claim 3, further comprising estimating one or more transmission characteristics of each diversity path.

5. The method of claim 4, further comprising associating each data segment with a selected diversity path based on the transmission characteristics of the selected diversity path.

6. The method of claim 4, further comprising determining a lifetime for each data segment based on underlying transmission characteristics for each data segment.

7. The method of claim 1, wherein the destination entity is an aircraft.

8. The method of claim 1, wherein the destination entity is an aircraft operator host or a router.

9. The method of claim 7, wherein the data link connections are between the aircraft and one or more digital service providers.

10. A system for data communications, the system comprising:

a plurality of different data communication devices;

at least one processor operatively coupled to the data communication devices;

a processor readable medium having instructions executable by the processor to perform a transmit process and a receive process for the data communication devices;

wherein the transmit process comprises;

receiving information from a network upper layer;

determining a plurality of diversity paths to a network destination peer;

fragmenting the information into data segments for transmission over each diversity path;

associating each data segment with a corresponding diversity path based on transmission characteristics of the diversity path; and

transmitting the data segments simultaneously over the corresponding diversity path for each data segment;

wherein the receive process comprises;

receiving an information segment from a diversity data link;

determining whether the information segment is part of a multiple segment transmission;

storing the information segment when the information segment is part of a multiple segment transmission;

determining whether all information segments of the multiple segment transmission have been received;

when all information segments have been received;

constructing a full information content from the information segments; and

delivering the full information content to a network upper layer;

when all information segments have not been received;

determining whether a remaining lifetime of the received information segments is less than or equal to a pre-defined threshold and whether there are any missing information segments;

requesting retransmission of missing information segments when the remaining lifetime is less than or equal to the pre-defined threshold and there are missing information segments; and

constructing a full information content from the information segments when the remaining lifetime is not less than or equal to the pre-defined threshold.

11. The system of claim 10, wherein the data communication devices are selected from the group consisting of VHF communication devices, satellite communication devices, wireless communication devices, and cellular communication devices.

12. The system of claim 10, wherein the transmit process and the receive process are implemented by a software overlay protocol operated by a digital service provider.

13. The system of claim 10, wherein the transmit process and the receive process are implemented by a software overlay protocol operated by an aircraft operator host or router.

14. The system of claim 10, wherein the transmit process and the receive process are implemented by a software overlay protocol operated in an aircraft.

15. The system of claim 10, wherein the transmit process further comprises estimating one or more transmission characteristics of each diversity path.

16. The system of claim 10, wherein the transmit process further comprises determining a lifetime for each data segment.

17. The system of claim 10, wherein the transmit process further comprises creating a header for each data segment.

18. The system of claim 17, wherein the header includes one or more of a path identification, lifetime information, segment identification, or time of day.

19. The system of claim 10, wherein the information segment is stored until the remaining lifetime of the information segment has expired, or all segments of the information has been received and the full information content is delivered to the network upper layer.

20. A computer program product, comprising:

a computer readable medium having instructions executable by a processor to perform a transmit process and a receive process for data communications;

wherein the transmit process comprises;

receiving information from a network upper layer;

determining one or more diversity paths to a network destination peer;

estimating one or more transmission characteristics of each diversity path;

fragmenting the information into data segments for transmission over each diversity path;

associating each data segment with a corresponding diversity path based on the transmission characteristics of the diversity path;

determining a lifetime for each data segment based on underlying transmission characteristics of each data segment;

creating a header for each data segment; and

transmitting the data segments simultaneously over the corresponding diversity path for each data segment;

wherein the receive process comprises;

receiving an information segment from a diversity data link;

determining whether the information segment is part of a multiple segment transmission;

storing the information segment when the information segment is part of a multiple segment transmission, wherein the information segment is stored until a remaining lifetime of the information segment has expired;

determining whether all information segments of the multiple segment transmission have been received;

when all information segments have been received;

constructing a full information content from the information segments; and

delivering the full information content to a network upper layer;

when all information segments have not been received;

determining whether the remaining lifetime of the received information segments is less than or equal to a pre-defined threshold and whether there are any missing information segments;

requesting retransmission of missing information segments when the remaining lifetime is less than or equal to a pre-defined threshold and there are missing information segments; and

constructing a full information content from the information segments when the remaining lifetime is not less than or equal to pre-defined threshold.