METHOD FOR ALLOCATION OF NETWORK RESOURCES IN AN OPERATIONS NETWORK FOR A SELECTED ENVIRONMENT

• US 20140059230A1
• Filed: 12/20/2012
• Published: 02/27/2014
• Est. Priority Date: 08/22/2012
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: GE Aviation Systems Limited (GE Aerospace)
• Original Assignee: GE Aviation Systems Limited (GE Aerospace)
• Inventors: Wood, Timothy John
• Granted Patent: US 9,282,150 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 709/226
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 47/803 Application aware
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/12 specially adapted for proprietary or special-purpose networking environments, e.g. medical networks, sensor networks, networks in vehicles or remote metering networks

Abstract

A method for allocation of network resources in an operations network for a selected environment includes, among other things, a plurality of applications communicating over a network having a bandwidth capacity and a plurality of modes including at least a first mode and a second mode.

Claims

1. A method for allocation of network resources in an operations network for a selected environment, the operations network comprising a plurality of applications communicating over a network having a bandwidth capacity, wherein the selected environment operates in a plurality of modes including at least a first mode and a second mode, the method comprising the steps of:

determining a set of first preferred applications of the plurality of applications communicating over the network in the first mode and a set of second preferred applications of the plurality of applications communicating over the network in the second mode;

allocating a first portion of the network resources to the set of first preferred applications in the first mode and a second portion of the network resources to the set of second preferred applications in the second mode; and

operating the network with preference given to the first set of preferred applications when the selected environment is operating in the first mode of operation and to the second set of preferred applications when the selected environment is operating in the second mode of operation.

2. The method of claim 1 wherein the first set of preferred applications has at least one application different than the second set of preferred applications.

3. The method of claim 1 wherein the first set of preferred applications is the same as the second set of preferred applications, but the network allocations assigned to each network resource can be different in at least one of the preferred applications in the first mode and the second mode.

4. The method of claim 1 wherein the first portion of the network resources allocated to the set of first preferred applications in the first mode is different than the second portion of the network resources allocated to the set of second preferred applications in the second mode.

5. The method of claim 1 and further comprising at least one additional selected environment mode that is different than the first mode and the second mode.

6. The method of claim 1 wherein the first portion of the network resources allocated to the set of first preferred applications in the first mode and the second portion of the network resources allocated to the set of second preferred applications in the second mode exceeds the bandwidth capacity of the operations network.

7. The method of claim 1 and further comprising the step of providing at least one of a hardware interlock and a logical interlock to enforce the step of operating the network with preference given to the first set of preferred applications when the selected environment is operating in the first mode of operation and to the second set of preferred applications when the selected environment is operating in the second mode of operation.

8. The method of claim 1 wherein the first portion of the network resources allocated to the set of first preferred applications in the first mode and the second portion of the network resources allocated to the set of second preferred applications in the second mode is measured by a percentage of network link capacity utilized by a corresponding application on the operations network.

9. The method of claim 1 wherein the set of first preferred applications of the plurality of applications communicating over the network in the first mode comprise applications necessary to maintain safety-critical operations of the selected environment.

10. The method of claim 1 and further comprising the step of maximizing network traffic for safety-critical operations when the selected environment is in the first mode.

11. The method of claim 1 and further comprising the step of maximizing network traffic for maintenance operations when the selected environment is in the second mode.

12. The method of claim 1 and further comprising the step of transmitting at least one of maintenance data, flight data, engine condition monitoring data, recorder logs, and passenger manifest data when the selected environment is in the second mode.

13. The method of claim 1 and further comprising the step of manually switching the operating mode between the first mode and the second mode when the operating conditions of the aircraft either change or are expected to change.

14. The method of claim 1 and further comprising the step of automatically switching the operating mode between the first mode and the second mode based upon at least one preselected criterion.

15. The method of claim 1 wherein the plurality of applications can each comprise a computer-implemented process including at least one of an application, a service, a process, a batch, and an executable.

16. The method of claim 1 wherein the operations network comprises at least one of a LAN, a WAN, an Ethernet, a wired computer network, and a wireless network.

17. The method of claim 1 where the first set of preferred applications and the second set of preferred applications each include a subset of safety critical applications necessary for the basic operation of the selected environment.

18. The method of claim 1 and further comprising the step of analyzing the first and second sets of preferred applications to ensure that each set of preferred applications meets operational requirements specified for each operational mode of the selected environment.

19. The method of claim 1 wherein the selected environment comprises an aircraft, and the first mode comprises an in-flight mode and a second mode comprises an on-the-ground maintenance mode.