Vehicle performance monitoring system with multi-level caching

• US 8,200,376 B2
• Filed: 07/30/2007
• Issued: 06/12/2012
• Est. Priority Date: 07/30/2007
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Symvionics, Inc.
• Original Assignee: Symvionics, Inc.
• Inventors: Mattingly, Patrick, Bretz, James, Burt, Michael
• Primary Examiner(s): Dager, Jonathan M
• Application Number:
  US11/830,332
• Publication Number:
  US 20090037034A1
• Time in Patent Office: 1,779 Days
• Field of Search: None
• US Class Current: 701/3
• 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 system and method for monitoring vehicle performance including multi-level caching. The system includes a vehicle portion with sensors, a vehicle caching data server, and a wireless transceiver and a monitoring station portion with monitoring workstations, a monitoring caching data server, and a wireless transceiver. The monitoring caching data server receives and aggregates requests for vehicle performance data from the monitoring workstations based on request priority and available bandwidth. The vehicle caching data server stores vehicle performance data from the sensors and selectively transmits a subset of the vehicle performance data to the monitoring caching data server in response to aggregate requests.

Claims

1. A method for monitoring performance of a vehicle, comprising:

receiving at a server a request for performance data from a client workstation;

prioritizing and aggregating, by the server, the request with at least one additional request to form an aggregate request;

transmitting the aggregate request from the server to the vehicle; and

receiving at the server a response comprising at least some of the performance data from the vehicle.

2. The method of claim 1, where the transmitting step does not occur until a response to a previous aggregate request has been received.

3. The method of claim 1, wherein the performance data comprises real-time telemetry.

4. The method of claim 1, wherein the prioritizing step comprises excluding at least one request from the aggregate request.

5. The method of claim 1, wherein the prioritizing step is based at least partly on a bandwidth limitation and a priority assigned to each request.

6. The method of claim 1, further comprising scrollably displaying the performance data on the client workstation.

7. A method for monitoring performance of an aircraft, comprising:

receiving aircraft performance data from a plurality of sensors aboard the aircraft;

storing the aircraft performance data on an aircraft caching data server;

aggregating requests for a subset of the aircraft performance data from a plurality of monitoring workstations to derive an aggregate request;

transmitting the aggregate request from a ground station to the aircraft;

transmitting at least some of the sensor aircraft performance data to the ground station in response to the aggregate request;

storing at least some of the aircraft performance data on a ground caching data server; and

displaying at least one requested subset of the aircraft performance data on the respective monitoring workstation.

8. The method of claim 7, wherein the aggregating step comprises prioritizing the requests and generating a combined request that can be satisfied within available bandwidth.

9. The method of claim 8, wherein the aggregating step further comprises determining whether at least one of the requests overlaps with at least another of the requests and adjusting a bandwidth limitation associated with the at least one request based on an extent of the overlap.

10. The method of claim 8, wherein low-priority requests are excluded from the combined request.

11. The method of claim 8, wherein requests for flight safety data are assigned a high-priority.

12. The method of claim 8, wherein the transmitting steps comprise transmitting via TCP/IP over a wireless Ethernet connection.

13. The method of claim 8, wherein the transmitting steps comprise transmitting via satellite.

14. The method of claim 8, wherein the requests for a subset of the aircraft performance data comprise at least one request for historical data.

15. The method of claim 14, wherein, if the historical data is stored on the ground caching data server, the ground caching data server fills the request for historical data and the request for historical data is not included in the aggregate request.

16. The method of claim 8, wherein the aircraft performance data is compressed prior to transmission.

17. The method of claim 8, further comprising transmitting an additional aggregate request after a response to a previous aggregate request has been received by the ground station.

18. The method of claim 7, wherein the displaying step comprises selectively displaying at least one of real-time data and historical aircraft performance data.

19. The method of claim 7, wherein the displaying step comprises displaying a combination of real-time and historical aircraft performance data.

20. A system for monitoring performance of a vehicle, comprising:

a plurality of monitoring workstations each configured to transmit a request for performance data in response to a user command;

a first caching data server configured to receive, prioritize, and aggregate requests for performance data from the workstations; and

a second caching data server configured to receive an aggregate request from the first caching data server and transmit performance data in response to the aggregate request,

wherein the first caching data server is not aboard the vehicle and the second caching server is aboard the vehicle.

21. The system of claim 20, further comprising a first radio transceiver coupled to the first caching data server and configured to wirelessly exchange aggregate request and performance data with a second radio transceiver coupled to the second caching data server.

22. The system of claim 20, wherein each of the plurality of monitoring workstations is configured to scrollably display performance data received from the first caching data server.

23. The system of claim 20, wherein the performance data comprises real-time telemetry.

24. The system of claim 20, further comprising a plurality of sensors aboard the vehicle and configured to transmit performance data to the second caching data server.

25. The system of claim 24, wherein the second caching data server is configured to store substantially all of the performance data received from the plurality of sensors.

26. The system of claim 24, wherein the second caching data server is configured to transmit to the first caching data server a subset of the performance data stored on the second caching data server in response to the aggregate request.

27. The system of claim 20, wherein the first caching data server is further configured to exclude requests from the aggregate request if there is insufficient bandwidth to fill all requests.

28. The system of claim 27, wherein the first caching data server is further configured to exclude a request based on a priority assigned to the request.

29. The system of claim 27, wherein excluded requests are held in a memory and included in a subsequent aggregate request.

30. The system of claim 20, wherein the first caching data server is further configured to hold the aggregate request in a memory until performance data in response to a previous aggregate request has been received from the second caching data server.

31. A method of monitoring performance of a vehicle, comprising:

receiving via computer network a plurality of requests for performance data from a plurality of monitoring workstations;

determining whether each request can be satisfied with data in a local cache;

if a request can be satisfied with data in the local cache;

transmitting responsive data from the local cache to a monitoring workstation associated with the request;

if a request cannot be satisfied with data in the local cache;

determining whether the request can be satisfied based at least in part on a bandwidth limitation and a priority assigned to the request;

if the request can be satisfied;

combining the request with at least one other request to form an aggregate request;

if the request cannot be satisfied;

transmitting an error condition to a monitoring workstation associated with the request;

transmitting the aggregate request to the vehicle;

receiving responsive performance data from the vehicle in response to the aggregate request; and

transmitting via the computer network at least a subset of the responsive performance data to at least one monitoring workstation associated with a request included in the aggregate request.

32. The non-transitory computer-readable recording medium of claim 31, wherein the subset of the responsive performance data comprises only performance data responsive to a request associated with the monitoring workstation to which the subset is transmitted.

33. A non-transitory computer-readable recording medium containing instructions for implementing the method of claim 31 on a server.