Serial networking fiber-to-the-seat inflight entertainment system

• US 9,118,547 B2
• Filed: 02/20/2014
• Issued: 08/25/2015
• Est. Priority Date: 08/06/2009
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Anuvu IP Holdings LLC
• Original Assignee: Lumexis Corporation
• Inventors: Petrisor, Gregory C., Cline, Douglas, Wicklund, Rolf
• Primary Examiner(s): Hamza, Faruk
• Assistant Examiner(s): HAQUE, ABUSAYEED M
• Application Number:
  US14/185,599
• Publication Number:
  US 20140269262A1
• Time in Patent Office: 551 Days
• US Class Current: 1/1
• CPC Class Codes: H04B 10/038 using bypasses
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 12/40182 by using a plurality of communication lines
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 12/437 Ring fault isolation or reconfiguration for SDH/SONET ring networks H04J3/085
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 2012/4028 the transportation system being an aircraft
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 41/0668 by dynamic selection of recovery network elements, e.g. replacement by the most appropriate element after failure
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 41/0677 Localisation of faults
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 45/18 Loop-free operations
• 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
• 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 21/2221 being a cable television head-end CATV in broadcast systems H04H20/78
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/2225 Local VOD servers
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/41422 located in transportation means, e.g. personal vehicle arrangements specially adapted for transportation systems in broadcast systems H04H20/62
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/43632 involving a wired protocol, e.g. IEEE 1394 high-speed IEEE 1394 serial bus H04L12/40052

Abstract

An entertainment system that has improved failure recovery characteristics and reduces the connection components is disclosed. In one aspect, an inflight entertainment system comprises a plurality of physically interconnected head end line replaceable units and a plurality of serially-connected networking line replaceable units physically interconnected in a serial configuration, wherein two of the serially-connected networking line replaceable units at the edge of the serial configuration are physically interconnected with two of the head end line replaceable units, respectively, wherein a loop-free head end data path is maintained between active head end line replaceable units by regulating link participation in the head end data path, and wherein one or more loop-free serially-connected networking data paths are maintained between at least one of the two head end line replaceable units and active serially-connected networking line replaceable units by regulating link participation in the serially-connected networking data paths.

Claims

1. An inflight entertainment system comprising:

a plurality of interconnected head end line replaceable units (HE-LRUs);

a plurality of serially-connected networking line replaceable units (SN-LRUs) interconnected in a serial configuration by links, the plurality of SN-LRUs comprising a first edge unit at a first edge of the serial configuration and a second edge unit at a second edge of the serial configuration;

the first edge unit being interconnected with a first of the HE-LRUs without an intervening area distribution box;

the second edge unit being interconnected with a second of the HE-LRUs without an intervening area distribution box; and

a network management system comprising a plurality of processors and configured to;

determine a first grouping of the SN-LRUs and a second grouping of the SN-LRUs, wherein;

the first grouping includes the first edge unit and the second grouping includes the second edge unit;

the first grouping forms a first loop-free serially-connected networking data path in communication with the first HE-LRU; and

the second grouping forms a second loop-free serially-connected networking data path in communication with the second HE-LRU; and

regulate link participation in the first and second serially-connected networking data paths, thereby maintaining data communication between each of the SN-LRUs and one of the first and second HE-LRUs.

2. The system of claim 1, wherein the network management system is configured to maintain the data communication between each of the SN-LRUs and one of the first and second HE-LRUs by removing a link from the first loop-free serially-connected networking data path.

3. The system of claim 2, wherein the selected link is selected using hop count information.

4. The system of claim 3, wherein the selected link is selected to minimize the maximum number of hops between any of the SN-LRUs that are active and either of the first and second HE-LRUs.

5. The system of claim 1, wherein the network management system is configured to maintain the data communication between each of the SN-LRUs and one of the first and second HE-LRUs by adding a selected link to the first loop-free serially-connected networking data path in response to detecting a failure on the second loop-free serially-connected networking data path.

6. The system of claim 5, wherein the failure is a link failure.

7. The system of claim 5, wherein the failure is a line replaceable unit failure.

8. The system of claim 1, wherein the network management system is located in at least one of the SN-LRUs.

9. The system of claim 1, wherein the network management system is located in at least one of the HE-LRUs.

10. The system of claim 1, wherein the SN-LRUs each include a first port and a second port, each SN-LRU being configured to determine if it is a middle line replaceable unit by comparing hop counts received on the first and second ports.

11. The system of claim 10, wherein if the hop counts on first and second ports are equal or differ by one hop, then the SN-LRU identifies as a middle line replaceable unit.

12. The system of claim 11, wherein the network management system removes a link adjacent to the SN-LRU that identified as the middle line replaceable unit.

13. The system of claim 1, wherein the HE-LRUs are interconnected in a serial configuration.

14. The system of claim 1, wherein the plurality of SN-LRUs comprises at least one video display line replaceable unit.

15. The system of claim 1, wherein the plurality of SN-LRUs comprises at least one cabin management terminal line replaceable unit.

16. The system of claim 1, wherein the plurality of SN-LRUs comprises at least one data-loader line replaceable unit.

17. A method of maintaining a loop-free data path in an in-flight entertainment system having a chain of serially networked line replaceable units (SN-LRUs), a first edge SN-LRU of the chain being connected with a first head-end line replaceable unit (HE-LRU) and a second edge SN-LRU of the chain being connected with a second HE-LRU, the method comprising:

determining a first portion of the chain of SN-LRUs, the first portion of the chain comprising a first loop-free data path in communication with the first HE-LRU;

determining a second portion of the chain of SN-LRUs, the second portion of the chain comprising a second loop-free data path in communication with the second HE-LRU;

each of the SN-LRUs being in the first portion of the chain or the second portion of the chain, the first and second portions of the chain not overlapping;

removing a link that connects an SN-LRU of the first portion of the chain and an SN-LRU of the second portion of the chain;

detecting a failure event; and

replacing, in response to the failure event, the link that connects the SN-LRU of the first portion of the chain and the SN-LRU of the second portion of the chain.

18. The method of claim 17, further comprising sending first data from the first HE-LRU to the first edge SN-LRU of the chain without sending the first data through an area distribution box, and sending second data from the second HE-LRU to the second edge SN-LRU of the chain without sending the second data through an area distribution box.

19. The method of claim 17, wherein detecting the failure event comprises detecting a failure of a link connecting adjacent SN-LRUs in the first portion of the chain.

20. The method of claim 17, wherein detecting the failure event comprises detecting a failure of one of the SN-LRUs in the first portion of the chain.

21. The method of claim 17, further comprising determining a topology of the chain of SN-LRUs.

22. The method of claim 21, wherein determining the topology comprises using a hop count.