Method and Systems for Increasing Capacity and Safety of Aeronautical Safety-of-Life Services and Data Links

• US 20180315323A1
• Filed: 06/01/2016
• Published: 11/01/2018
• Est. Priority Date: 10/22/2015
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Thales Alenia Space Italia SPA (Thales SA)
• Original Assignee: Thales Alenia Space Italia SPA (Thales SA)
• Inventors: Winkler, Roberto
• Granted Patent: US 10,453,347 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• CPC Class Codes: G08G 5/0013 with a ground station
• CPC Class Codes: G08G 5/0021 located in the aircraft
• CPC Class Codes: G08G 5/0026 located on the ground
• CPC Class Codes: G08G 5/0069 specially adapted for an unmanned aircraft
• CPC Class Codes: G08G 5/0095 Aspects of air-traffic control not provided for in the other subgroups of this main group
• CPC Class Codes: H04B 7/18593 Arrangements for preventing unauthorised access or for providing user protection arrangements for secret or secure communication H04L9/00
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 43/08 Monitoring or testing based on specific metrics, e.g. QoS, energy consumption or environmental parameters
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 47/00 Traffic control in data switching networks arrangements for detecting or preventing errors in the information received H04L1/00
• 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
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 69/00 Network arrangements, protocols or services independent of the application payload and not provided for in the other groups of this subclass networks security protocols H04L9/40; wireless communication networks H04W
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 4/02 Services making use of location information
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 4/024 Guidance services
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 4/029 Location-based management or tracking services
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 4/44 for communication between vehicles and infrastructures, e.g. vehicle-to-cloud [V2C] or vehicle-to-home [V2H]
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 72/51 based on terminal or device properties
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 72/542 using measured or perceived quality

Abstract

Disclosed herein is a method for managing aeronautical safety-critical services or data links, comprising: receiving quality measurement data indicative of a quality parameter measured for an aeronautical safety-critical service or data link used by an aircraft; receiving a four-dimensional position associated with the quality measurement data, wherein said four-dimensional position includes a three-dimensional space position and a corresponding time that are computed based on a Global Navigation Satellite System and related to the measured quality parameter; tagging the quality measurement data with the associated four-dimensional position; determining, on the basis of the tagged quality measurement data and of a predefined task policy, a task to be performed, which task includes an adaptation of the aeronautical safety-critical service used by the aircraft or of resources allocated to the aeronautical safety-critical data link used by the aircraft, wherein said adaptation is based on said tagged quality measurement data; and performing the determined task.

Claims

1. Method for managing aeronautical safety-critical services or data links, comprising:

a) receiving quality measurement data indicative of a quality parameter measured for an aeronautical safety-critical service or data link used by an aircraft;

b) receiving a four-dimensional position associated with the quality measurement data, wherein said four-dimensional position includes a three-dimensional space position and a corresponding time that are

computed based on a Global Navigation Satellite System, and

related to the measured quality parameter;

c) tagging the quality measurement data with the associated four-dimensional position;

d) determining, on the basis of the tagged quality measurement data and of a predefined task policy, a task to be performed, which task includes an adaptation of

the aeronautical safety-critical service used by the aircraft or

resources allocated to the aeronautical safety-critical data link used by the aircraft,

wherein said adaptation is based on said tagged quality measurement data; and

e) performing the determined task.

2. The method of claim 1, wherein the determined task to be performed includes:

said adaptation, or

a transmission of aircraft tracking data related to the aeronautical safety-critical service or data link used by the aircraft.

3. The method of claim 2, wherein the determined task to be performed includes:

said adaptation, or

said transmission, or

a change in quality parameter measuring.

4. The method of claim 3, wherein the determined task to be performed includes:

said adaptation, or

said transmission, or

said change in quality parameter measuring, or

discarding or ignoring the tagged quality measurement data.

5. The method according to claim 3, further comprising:

performing the steps a), b) and c) by a first apparatus (210);

indentifying, by the first apparatus (210), a second apparatus (220) to which the tagged quality measurement data are to be sent;

sending the tagged quality measurement data from the first apparatus (210) to said second apparatus (220);

checking, by said second apparatus (220), whether the tagged quality measurement data are received from an associated and authenticated source;

if the tagged quality measurement data are not received from an associated and authenticated source, discarding, by said second apparatus (220), the tagged quality measurement data;

if the tagged quality measurement data are received from an associated and authenticated source, deciding, by said second apparatus (220), on the basis of the predefined task policy, to

perform the step d) by said second apparatus (220), or

forward the tagged quality measurement data from said second apparatus to a third apparatus, thereby charging the latter with performing said step d).

6. The method of claim 5, wherein the second apparatus (220):

is coupled to

a first database (221) storing association and authentication data, and

a second database (222) storing data indicative of the predefined task policy;

checks whether the tagged quality measurement data are received from an associated and authenticated source on the basis of the association and authentication data stored on the first database (221); and

decides whether to perform the step d) or forward the tagged quality measurement data to the third apparatus on the basis of the data stored on the second database (222).

7. The method of claim 6, wherein the determined task to be performed includes:

said adaptation, or

said transmission, or

said change in quality parameter measuring, or

an update/modification of the association and authentication data stored on the first database (221).

8. The method according to claim 5, wherein the second apparatus (220) and the third apparatus are distributed among:

one or more manned and/or unmanned aircraft; and

/or

one or more air traffic control ground stations; and

/or

one or more satellites.

9. System (200) configured to carry out the method as claimed in claim 1.

10. The system of claim 9, including:

a first apparatus (210) configured to perform the steps a), b) and c) of said method; and

a second apparatus (220) configured to perform the step d) of said method.

11. The system of claim 10, wherein the second apparatus (220) is configured to:

check whether the tagged quality measurement data are received from an associated and authenticated source;

if the tagged quality measurement data are not received from an associated and authenticated source, discard said tagged quality measurement data;

if the tagged quality measurement data are received from an associated and authenticated source, decide, on the basis of the predefined task policy, to

perform the step d), or

forward the tagged quality measurement data to a third apparatus, thereby charging the latter with performing said step d).

12. The system of claim 11, wherein the second apparatus (220) is:

coupled to

a first database (221) storing association and authentication data, and

a second database (222) storing data indicative of the predefined task policy; and

configured to

check whether the tagged quality measurement data are received from an associated and authenticated source on the basis of the association and authentication data stored on the first database (221), and

decide whether to perform the step d) or forward the tagged quality measurement data to the third apparatus on the basis of the data stored on the second database (222).

13. Aircraft equipped with the system as claimed in claim 9.

14. Air traffic control ground station equipped with the system as claimed in claim 9.

15. Satellite equipped with the system as claimed in claim 9.