Data transmission system for aircraft

• US 6,925,088 B1
• Filed: 11/13/2000
• Issued: 08/02/2005
• Est. Priority Date: 11/12/1999
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Airbus Operations GmbH (Airbus SE)
• Original Assignee: Airbus Deutschland GmbH (Airbus SE)
• Inventors: Moreaux, Jean-Paul
• Primary Examiner(s): Patel, Ajit
• Application Number:
  US09/712,833
• Time in Patent Office: 1,723 Days
• Field of Search: 370315-322, 370/389, 370/392, 370/400, 370/401, 370/407, 370/466, 370/465, 370/474, 709/252
• US Class Current: 370/407
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 12/44 Star or tree networks
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 47/10 Flow control; Congestion control
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 47/2433 Allocation of priorities to traffic types
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 69/40 for recovering from a failure of a protocol instance or entity, e.g. service redundancy protocols, protocol state redundancy or protocol service redirection management of faults, events, alarms or notifications in data switching networks H04L41/06

Abstract

A data transmission system for aircraft is formed by a global transmission network that includes at least one subnet with at least one star distributor. At least one peripheral unit is connected to the star distributor. The star distributor is so wired or circuit connected that each subnet forms a cross-distributor for a respective peripheral unit connected to the subnet.

Claims

1. A data transmission system comprising a total network that comprises a plurality of sub-networks, wherein:

a first sub-network among said sub-networks comprises a first star distributor and a plurality of first peripheral units respectively connected by a corresponding plurality of individual physical data channels to said first star distributor;

each said sub-network is implemented in a link layer (layer TWO) of an open systems interconnection OSI reference model;

said first star distributor comprises a first switch implemented in said link layer (layer TWO) of said OSI reference model;

said first star distributor is connected to said first peripheral units respectively via said individual physical data channels so as to form a cross-distributor for all of said first peripheral units connected to said first star distributor, so that each of said first peripheral units is able to communicate directly with each other one of said first peripheral units via said cross-distributor using exclusively media access control MAC addresses on said link layer (layer TWO) of said OSI reference model.

2. The data transmission system according to claim 1, wherein said sub-networks are further connected to each other on a network layer (layer THREE) of said OSI reference model.

3. The data transmission system according to claim 1, wherein a second sub-network among said sub-networks comprises a converter adapted to connect said data transmission system to at least one other external data transmission system.

4. The data transmission system according to claim 3, further in combination with said at least one other external data transmission system which comprises:

an aircraft-specific data bus system that is implemented according to an ARINC standard and that is connected to said converter; and

a non-aircraft-specific general data bus system that is not implemented according to an ARINC standard and that is connected to said converter.

5. The data transmission system according to claim 1, wherein each one of said sub-networks comprises a respective star distributor comprising a respective switch implemented in said link layer (layer TWO) of said OSI reference model, and further comprising a superordinated star distributor that is connected via additional individual physical data channels to said star distributors of said sub-networks and that comprises a further switch implemented in said link layer (layer TWO) of said OSI reference model.

6. The data transmission system according to claim 1, wherein said peripheral units include at least one receiving peripheral unit, and further comprising a data protocol based on a frame structure determined by an IEEE standard (Institute of Electrical and Electronic Engineers), said frame structure further including a redundancy identification field (R/Id) for filtering identical, repeatedly received frames in said receiving peripheral unit.

7. The data transmission system according to claim 6, wherein said frame structure further includes a message identification field (M/Id) for identifying a message in case of a periodic data transmission.

8. The data transmission system according to claim 1, wherein at least one of said peripheral units comprises communication functions implemented therein, said communication functions including periodic transmission and reception functions (401, 411) for assembling, identifying, addressing and encoding messages into a transmittable format.

9. The data transmission system according to claim 8, wherein said at least one peripheral unit further comprises a priority service (404) implemented therein, and wherein said priority service is adapted for sorting a transmission of requested data sets in accordance with a respective priority of each of said data sets, said priority being determined by a transmission characteristic, a time related characteristic, and a protocol type of each said data set.

10. The data transmission system according to claim 1, wherein at least one of said peripheral units is a receiving peripheral unit, said sub-networks are arranged or connected in parallel, at least one of said peripheral units (302) is a transmitting peripheral unit having implemented therein a redundancy service (405) for a transparent transmission of frames, and said redundancy service provides each of said frames with an identification for evaluation by said at least one receiving peripheral unit.

11. The data transmission system according to claim 10, wherein said transmitting peripheral unit, further comprises at least one media access control service (407) implemented therein, and said media access control service controls a logic access to a respective one of said sub-networks by said frame.

12. The data transmission system according to claim 11, wherein said media access control service respectively acts on one physical layer (408) of said OSI reference model for transmitting respectively one additional transmission status signal and one additional reception status signal.

13. The data transmission system according to claim 1, wherein said star distributor (301) comprises a receiver section (E) and a transmitter section (S), said receiver section comprises a receiver media access control service (506) and a physical layer input (507) of said OSI reference model, and said transmitter section comprises a transmitter media access control service (509) and a physical layer output (508) of said OSI reference model.

14. The data transmission system according to claim 13, wherein said receiver section (E) further comprises at least one service (505) for checking a validity of a source address of a frame with reference to a respective receiving input port of said receiver section at which said frame was received.

15. The data transmission system according to claim 13, wherein said transmitter section (S) further comprises at least one service (511) for checking a validity of a destination address of a frame with reference to a respective transmitting output port of said transmitter section at which said frame is to be transmitted.

16. The data transmission system according to claim 1, wherein said star distributor comprises a static allocation table in which respective receiver addresses of said peripheral units are statically allocated to respective output ports of said star distributor, and in which respective transmitter addresses of said peripheral units are statically allocated to respective input ports of said star distributor.

17. A data transmission system comprising a total network that comprises a plurality of interconnected sub-networks, wherein:

a first sub-network among said sub-networks comprises a first star distributor and a plurality of first peripheral units respectively connected by a corresponding plurality of individual physical data channels to said first star distributor;

a second sub-network among said sub-networks comprises a converter;

said data transmission system further comprises an aircraft-specific data bus system that is implemented according to an ARINC standard and that is connected to said converter; and

said data transmission system further comprises a general data bus system that is not implemented according to an ARINC standard and that is connected to said converter.