Apparatus and method for transmitting and receiving passenger service system and telephone signals over a network

• US 6,272,572 B1
• Filed: 09/16/1998
• Issued: 08/07/2001
• Est. Priority Date: 01/29/1997
• Status: Expired due to Term

• Current Assignee: Burrana IP And Assets, LLC
• Original Assignee: Rockwell Collins, Inc. (Raytheon Technologies Corporation d/b/a RTX)
• Inventors: Backhaus, Clayton R., Henrikson, Gregory K.
• Primary Examiner(s): Dharia, Rupal
• Application Number:
  US09/154,256
• Time in Patent Office: 1,056 Days
• Field of Search: 701/36, 455/567, 340/825.17, 710/100, 710/111, 710/109, 710/57, 348/8, 709/222, 709/250
• US Class Current: 710/100
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 12/403 with centralised control, e.g. polling
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 2012/4028 the transportation system being an aircraft
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 41/00 Arrangements for maintenance, administration or management of data switching networks, e.g. of packet switching networks
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 61/00 Network arrangements, protocols or services for addressing or naming
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 61/50 Address allocation

Abstract

A system and method of distributing telephone and passenger service signals from a zone interface unit to a plurality of seat electronic units in an in-flight entertainment system is described. The method uses a master/slave arrangement in which multiplexed telephone and passenger service signals are transmitted over a bus to the receiving seat electronic units.

Claims

1. A system for distributing telephone signals and passenger service signals in an in-flight entertainment system, comprising:

a first memory to store passenger service data;

a second memory to store telephone data;

a serializer to multiplex the passenger service data and the telephone data onto a bus which distributes the signal to seat electronic units in the in-flight entertainment system, wherein the multiplexed passenger service data and telephone data includes a plurality of frames;

a transmitter to send a passenger service signal to a seat electronic unit in a first portion of a frame; and

a receiver to detect an acknowledgment to the command in a second portion of a frame.

2. The system of claim 1 wherein the bus is an RS-485 bus.

3. The system of claim 1 wherein the telephone data and the passenger service data is time division multiplexed onto the bus.

4. The system of claim 1 wherein the first memory is a dual-port random access memory.

5. The system of claim 1 further comprising:

an address pointer circuit to indicate the location of data storage in the first memory.

6. The system of claim 1 further comprising:

a command stack first-in first-out memory to buffer information for transmission to the bus; and

a response stack first-in first-out buffer to buffer information received from the bus.

7. The system of claim 1, further comprising:

a zone interface unit serving as a master to control the flow of data from the serializer; and

a plurality of seat electronic units serving as slaves to receive the multiplexed signal from the serializer.

8. A method of distributing telephone and passenger service signals in an in-flight entertainment system comprising:

storing telephone data in a first memory;

storing passenger service signals in a second memory;

multiplexing the telephone data in the first memory with the passenger service signals in the second memory to create a multiplexed stream of data that includes a plurality of frames for output on a bus; and

transmitting a passenger service signal command to a seat electronic unit in a first portion of a frame and receiving an acknowledgment to the command in a second portion of a frame.

9. The method of claim 8 wherein the multiplexing is time division multiplexing which generates a synchronous stream of passenger service signals and telephone signals.

10. The method of claim 8 further comprising:

receiving the multiplexed stream at a seat electronic unit and transmitting a response on the bus.

11. The method of claim 8 wherein the bus is a bi-directional RS-485 bus.

12. The method of claim 8 further comprising:

transmitting a telephone command to the seat electronic unit in the first portion of the frame and receiving an acknowledgment to the command in a second portion of the frame.

13. The method of claim 8 further comprising:

polling the seat electronic unit in a subsequent frame to determine whether the passenger service signal command has been completed.

14. A master/slave system for transmitting passenger service signals and telephone data comprising:

a zone interface unit to receive telephone signals from a telephone line and passenger service signals, from a passenger service signal line, the zone interface unit acting as a master to initiate data transmission including passenger service signal commands and telephone signal commands in a first portion of a frame of multiplexed data;

a seat electronic unit to act as a slave, the seat electronic unit to receive the first portion of the frame of multiplexed data and respond with an acknowledgment in the second portion of the frame of multiplexed data.

15. A system of claim 14 wherein the telephone signals from the telephone line conform to an E-1 standard of telephone transmission.

16. The system of claim 14 further comprising:

a telephone coupled to the seat electronic unit, the telephone receiving digitized audio signals in the first portion of the frame of multiplexed data and transmitting digitized audio signals in the second portion of the frame of multiplexed data to the zone interface unit.