System and method for wireless routing of data from an aircraft

• US 7,835,734 B2
• Filed: 09/20/2007
• Issued: 11/16/2010
• Est. Priority Date: 09/20/2007
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Honeywell International Inc.
• Original Assignee: Honeywell International Inc.
• Inventors: Prewett, Adam C., Eckert, Richard J.
• Primary Examiner(s): Le; Danh C
• Application Number:
  US11/858,673
• Publication Number:
  US 20090082013A1
• Time in Patent Office: 1,153 Days
• Field of Search: 455/431, 455/550.1, 455/445, 340/945, 701/33
• US Class Current: 455/431
• CPC Class Codes: H04B 7/18506 Communications with or from aircraft, i.e. aeronautical mobile service
• 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

Abstract

An avionics communication system comprises a wireless router located on an aircraft and configured to transceive wireless signals; and a processing unit located in the aircraft and configured to supply the wireless router with configuration parameters after determining it is time to connect to a ground network, the configuration parameters based on the location of the aircraft; wherein the wireless router uses the configuration parameters to establish a wireless connection with the ground network and route data from at least one client application on the aircraft to at least one ground application server.

Claims

1. An avionics communication system comprising:

a wireless router located on an aircraft and configured to transceive wireless signals; and

a processing unit located in the aircraft and configured to supply the wireless router with configuration parameters after determining it is time to connect to a ground network, the configuration parameters based on the location of the aircraft;

wherein the wireless router uses the configuration parameters to establish a wireless connection with the ground network and route data from at least one client application on the aircraft to at least one ground application server.

2. The avionics communication system of claim 1, wherein the at least one client application comprises an application processing one of Aircraft Communications Addressing and Reporting System (ACARS) messaging, Aeronautical Telecommunications Network (ATN) messaging, Quick Access Recorder (QAR) data, dataloading functions, and Built-in Test Equipment (BITE) data.

3. The avionics communication system of claim 1, further comprising at least one of a flight management system (FMS) and a user input device, wherein each of the FMS and user input device provides data to the processing unit indicating the airport where the aircraft is located.

4. The avionics communication system of claim 1, wherein the configuration parameters include one or more of network preference, network timeout, network SSID, and network security key.

5. The avionics communication system of claim 1, wherein the processing unit is configured to supply the at least one client application on the aircraft with ground application server configuration parameters based on the airport where the aircraft is located.

6. The avionics communication system of claim 5, wherein the ground application server configuration parameters include one or more of the ground application server address, port number, and authentication key.

7. The avionics communication system of claim 1, wherein the wireless router is configured to transceiver wireless signals formatted according to one of General Packet Radio Service (GPRS), IEEE 802.11a, IEEE 802.11b, and IEEE 802.11g.

8. A method of communicating with a ground application server from an aircraft, the method comprising:

determining when to connect to a ground network;

when it is time to connect to the ground network, selecting configuration parameters based on the airport where the aircraft is located;

loading a wireless router located on the aircraft with the selected configuration parameters; and

establishing a wireless connection between the wireless router and a wireless communication device using the loaded configuration parameters.

9. The method of claim 8, wherein determining when to connect to a ground network comprises one of detecting proximity of the aircraft to a gate, and comparing the strength of a desired wireless signal to a threshold.

10. The method of claim 8, wherein determining when to connect to a ground network comprises one of evaluating the speed of the aircraft, and comparing the altitude of the aircraft with the altitude of the airport.

11. The method of claim 8, wherein selecting configuration parameters comprises selecting at least one of network preference, network timeout, security key, and network SSID.

12. The method of claim 8, wherein establishing a wireless connection comprises establishing a wireless connection according to one of the General Packet Radio Service (GPRS) standard, IEEE 802.11a standard, IEEE 802.11b standard, IEEE 802.11g standard, IEEE 802.11n standard, and WiMax.

13. The method of claim 8, further comprising selecting ground application server configuration parameters based on the airport where the aircraft is located and passing the selected ground application server configuration parameters to at least one client application running on the aircraft.

14. The method of claim 8, further comprising determining when to terminate the established wireless connection based on one of the proximity of the aircraft to a gate, and a comparison of the wireless signal strength to a threshold.

15. A program product comprising program instructions embodied on a processor-readable medium for execution by a programmable processor, wherein the program instructions are operable to cause the programmable processor to:

determine when to connect to a ground network;

retrieve configuration parameters based on the airport at which the aircraft is located;

output the retrieved configuration parameters to a wireless router on the aircraft;

receive a signal indicating the wireless router has established a wireless connection with a wireless communication device on the ground; and

output data to at least one ground application server over the established wireless connection after the signal is received from the wireless router.

16. The program product of claim 15, wherein the program instructions are further operable to determine when to connect to the ground network based on the proximity of the aircraft to a gate at the airport, and a comparison of the wireless signal strength to a threshold.

17. The program product of claim 15, wherein the program instructions are operable to retrieve configuration parameters comprising at least one of network preference, network timeout, security key, and network SSID.

18. The program product of claim 15, wherein the program instructions are further operable to retrieve ground application server configuration parameters based on the airport where the aircraft is located and pass the retrieved application server configuration parameters to one or more client applications on the aircraft.

19. The program product of claim 15, wherein the program instructions are further operable to format data as TCP/IP data packets to be output to the at least one ground application server over the established wireless connection.

20. The program product of claim 15, wherein the program instructions are further operable to determine when to terminate the wireless connection.