Vehicle entertainment system having multiple download channels

• US 6,598,227 B1
• Filed: 03/24/1999
• Issued: 07/22/2003
• Est. Priority Date: 03/24/1999
• Status: Expired due to Fees

• Current Assignee: Rockwell Collins, Inc. (Raytheon Technologies Corporation d/b/a RTX)
• Original Assignee: Rockwell Collins, Inc. (Raytheon Technologies Corporation d/b/a RTX)
• Inventors: Berry, Dickey J., Renton, Joseph J.
• Primary Examiner(s): Miller, John
• Assistant Examiner(s): BELIVEAU, SCOTT E
• Application Number:
  US09/275,570
• Time in Patent Office: 1,581 Days
• Field of Search: 725/75-77, 725/91, 725/92, 725/94, 725/95, 707/9, 707/10, 711/171, 711/172, 711/173
• US Class Current: 725/77
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/2146 located in mass transportation means, e.g. aircraft, train or bus flight-deck installations for entertainment or communications B64D11/0015; arrangements specially adapted for transportation systems in broadcast systems H04H20/62; moving wireless networks H04W84/005
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/231 Content storage operation, e.g. caching movies for short term storage, replicating data over plural servers, prioritizing data for deletion
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/2383 Channel coding or modulation of digital bit-stream, e.g. QPSK modulation arrangements for detecting or preventing errors in the information received by adapting the channel coding H04L1/0009; analogue front ends or means for connecting modulators, demodulators or transceivers to a transmission line H04L27/0002
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/2393 involving handling client requests scheduling or organising the servicing of application requests H04L67/60
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/472 End-user interface for requesting content, additional data or services; End-user interface for interacting with content, e.g. for content reservation or setting reminders, for requesting event notification, for manipulating displayed content end-user interfaces for retrieving video data from a database G06F16/739; network services for supporting unicast streaming H04L65/612
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/8173 End-user applications, e.g. Web browser, game
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 7/17318 Direct or substantially direct transmission and handling of requests

Abstract

A vehicle entertainment system distributes an executable program in more than one channel of a modulated RF signal by using a plurality of download lines provided between the system file server and the RF modulator. The multiple download lines permit a passenger seat that missed the time window for downloading an executable program to request and download the executable program even before the first download has completed. The multiple download lines also permit downloads of different executable programs to take place at the same time. The vehicle entertainment system further includes a dedicated download processor and a buffer. The dedicated download processor is provided to reduce the processing load of the file server processor, in particular, to take over the task of generating a continuous stream of data responsive to a download request and supplying them to the RF modulator. The buffer provides the dedicated download processor an area where previously retrieved executable program may be stored for subsequent fast access.

Claims

1. In a vehicle entertainment system having a plurality of seat controller cards (SCCs) executing programs downloaded from a system controller, a method of managing high speed download (HSDL) requests from the SCCs, said method comprising the steps of:

receiving a HSDL request from a SCC for a requested program;

processing the HSDL request;

placing the HSDL request on a buffer manager input queue;

extracting the HSDL request from the buffer manager input queue;

checking to see if the requested program is stored in a download buffer;

placing the HSDL request in the channel manager input queue if the requested program is stored in the download buffer;

examining the download buffer to see if there is sufficient memory to load the requested program if the requested program is not in the download buffer;

unloading a least requested program from the download buffer if memory space is not available;

commanding the HSDL processor to load the requested program into the download buffer when sufficient memory is available;

placing the download request into the channel manager input queue when the requested program is loaded into the download buffer;

retrieving the download request from the channel manager input queue;

determining if an earlier request involving the same buffer number has started to download; and

downloading the requested program using at least one RF channel of a modulated RF signal that is distributed to the SCCs if the earlier request has not started to download.

2. The method according to claim 1, wherein the step of processing the HSDL request further comprises the steps of:

examining a buffer manager input queue to see if a same earlier HSDL request from another SCC is present;

placing the HSDL request on the buffer manager input queue if the same earlier request is not present; and

processing the HDSL request and the same earlier HSDL request if one is present in the buffer manager input queue.

3. The method according to claim 1 wherein the step of unloading a least requested program is repeated until sufficient memory is available.

4. The method according to claim 1, wherein the step of downloading includes the steps of:

delivering the executable programs from the system controller to a modulator;

RF modulating the executable programs at the modulator to produce the modulated RF signal carrying the executable program in more than one RF channel.

5. The method according to claim 4, wherein the executable programs are delivered from the system controller to the modulator by way of a plurality of parallel data paths.

6. The method according to claim 5, further comprising the step of confirming that one of the parallel data paths is available and delivering the requested program by way of the available parallel data path.