Status reporting system and method

• US 7,418,261 B2
• Filed: 04/19/2005
• Issued: 08/26/2008
• Est. Priority Date: 04/20/2004
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: The Boeing Co.
• Original Assignee: The Boeing Co.
• Inventors: Fagan, C. L., D'Annunzio, Michael A, Forbes, Ben C, Phan, Tri M
• Primary Examiner(s): NGUYEN, THUAN T
• Application Number:
  US11/108,944
• Publication Number:
  US 20050233739A1
• Time in Patent Office: 1,225 Days
• Field of Search: 455/341, 455/427, 455/431, 455/437, 455/438, 455/12.1, 455/552.1, 455/403, 455/518, 701/117, 701/213, 701/200, 701/214, 340/993, 340/825.49
• US Class Current: 455/431
• CPC Class Codes: G07C 5/008 communicating information to a remotely located station transmission systems for measured values G08C
• CPC Class Codes: G07C 5/085 using electronic data carriers

Abstract

A status reporting system for components used in a mobile platform includes a fault manager within the mobile platform for assigning a state indicator to each component. Each state indicator indicates the operational current state of the component. A management system external to the mobile platform, in one example being a ground based management system, is in communication with the mobile platform via a wireless communication link. A component summary including the state indicators of all the components is periodically transmitted from the mobile platform as an information packet, via the wireless link, to the management system for review. The management system can thus remotely monitor the operational status of various important components on a periodic basis, for example every five minutes. This saves significant bandwidth over that which would be required if a continuous wireless link was to be employed to remotely monitor various components on the mobile platform.

Claims

1. A status reporting system for a component in a mobile platform comprising:

a fault manager disposed on the mobile platform for assigning a state indicator to the component, the state indicator operable to indicate a current operational state of the component;

a database forming a component summary including the state indicator, and being in communication with the fault manager;

a management system external to the mobile platform and in communication with the mobile platform; and

wherein the component summary is periodically transmitted from the mobile platform to the management system via a wireless communications link for review by the management system.

2. The status reporting system of claim 1, wherein the component summary includes a plurality of fields containing information relating to the mobile platform and relating to the component, in addition to the state indicator.

3. The status reporting system of claim 1, wherein the component summary is transmitted approximately every five minutes.

4. The status reporting system of claim 1, wherein the state indicator represents pre-defined conditions for the component.

5. The status reporting system of claim 1, wherein the component summary includes a version identifier, the version identifier uniquely identifying a specific version of the component for the management system.

6. The status reporting system of claim 1, wherein the component summary includes an identification number for uniquely identifying the mobile platform to the management system.

7. The status reporting system of claim 1, wherein the component summary includes an up-time field for tracking how long the component has been functional for the management system.

8. The status reporting system of claim 1, wherein the component summary includes a load metric for tracking how many users have accessed the component over a given time period for the management system.

9. The status reporting system of claim 1, wherein the component summary includes a security status for determining if the component is secure for the management system.

10. The status reporting system of claim 1, further comprising a database in the mobile platform, the database operable to store information regarding the component.

11. The status reporting system of claim 10, wherein the management system accesses the database if the component has a state indicator indicating predefined conditions have been met.

12. A status reporting system for remotely monitoring a component used in a mobile platform, the system comprising:

a fault manager within the mobile platform for assigning a state indicator to the component, the state indicator operating to indicate a current operational status of the component;

a database forming a component summary including the state indicator,

a management system located remotely from the mobile platform;

a transponded satellite communications link for wireless connecting the fault manager and the management system in communication with each other;

the component summary being periodically transmitted from the mobile platform, in accordance with a predetermined time frame, to the management system via the satellite communications link for review by the management system.

13. The system of claim 12, wherein the component summary includes a plurality of fields containing information relating to the mobile platform and the component.

14. The system of claim 12, wherein the state indicator indicates a plurality of predefined operating conditions for the component.

15. The system of claim 12, wherein the component summary includes a version identifier that uniquely identifies a specific version of the component for the management system.

16. The system of claim 15, wherein the component summary comprises an identification number associated uniquely with the mobile platform.

17. The system of claim 15, wherein the component summary includes at least one of:

a load metric for tracking how many users have accessed the component over a given time period; and

a security status for determining if the component is secure for the management system.

18. A method for reporting the operational status of a plurality of components used in a mobile platform, the method comprising:

assigning a state indicator to each of the components that indicates a real time operational state of each said component;

assimilating the state indicators into a data packet of information;

using a wireless transmission medium to periodically transmit the data packet from the mobile platform at a predetermined time interval, the data packet being updated with new state indicators prior to each transmission from the mobile platform;

using a monitoring system located remotely from the mobile platform to receive the data packets and analyze the operational status of each said component in real time; and

if any one of the components is indicated as having a predetermined operational status, then establishing a continuous wireless communications link between the monitoring system and the mobile platform to further analyze the one component having the predetermined operational status.