Data compression and acceleration for air to ground communications

• US 9,577,742 B1
• Filed: 04/23/2014
• Issued: 02/21/2017
• Est. Priority Date: 10/10/2013
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Satcom Direct, Inc.
• Original Assignee: Satcom Direct, Inc.
• Inventors: Bantoft, Ken
• Primary Examiner(s): Ngo, Ricky
• Assistant Examiner(s): Ng, Christine
• Application Number:
  US14/259,796
• Time in Patent Office: 1,035 Days
• Field of Search: 370/316, 370/328, 370/338, 370/389, 370/392, 370/401
• US Class Current: 1/1
• CPC Class Codes: H04B 7/18506 Communications with or from aircraft, i.e. aeronautical mobile service
• CPC Class Codes: H04B 7/18508 with satellite system used as relay, i.e. aeronautical mobile satellite service
• CPC Class Codes: H04B 7/18513 Transmission in a satellite or space-based system
• CPC Class Codes: H04B 7/18584 Arrangements for data networking, i.e. for data packet routing, for congestion control data switching networks H04L12/00

Abstract

Systems, methods and devices for mobile ground-to-air and air-to-ground communication network acceleration. The aircraft-based data acceleration device, system and method creates a faster connection to increase data throughput by accelerating, compressing (when possible) and or caching frequency transmitted data streams. The data communication network acceleration system and method integrates use of acceleration, compression, and caching technologies in the ground-based communication system and the aircraft-based data communication accelerator and corresponding onboard data communication router.

Claims

1. An accelerated ground-to-air and air-to-ground communication system comprising:

at least one mobile aircraft-based communication system adapted to transmit and receive accelerated and or compressed data signals, the aircraft-based communication system including;

an ISDN interface and two or more simultaneous network interfaces to allow multiple avionic systems to operate on an aircraft wherein a satellite communication link allows simultaneous use of two or more of Inmarsat, Swiftbroadband, Swift64, Ku-Band, and Ka-Band satellite connections to deterministically forward data communications over two or more of said communication links based on preset policies by a user;

an onboard data communication router device adapted to route accelerated and non-accelerated signals and increase effective network capacity of ground to air and air to ground communication systems, the onboard data communication router device including QoS/Prioritization to locate bandwidth per device or person and prevents a single device from consuming all available bandwidth as well as prioritizing traffic for a VVIP;

a multi-user onboard data communication accelerator device communicatively coupled to the onboard data communication router device and to a data network and adapted to accelerate and decelerate data signals from the data network and the onboard data communication router device; and

a cache memory integrated with the onboard data communication accelerator device for storing and tracking frequently accessed data streams;

a ground-based communication systems adapted to accelerate and or compress data signals for transmission and to receive accelerated and/or compressed data signals, decelerate and/or decompress the data signals, and cache and track the frequently accessed data streams at the ground-based communication system; and

a satellite communication system communicatively coupled to the mobile air communication systems and to the ground-based communication system and adapted to transmit accelerated and non accelerated data signals between the mobile air communication systems and the ground-based communication systems.

2. The system of claim 1, wherein the ground-based communication systems comprises:

a ground based data communication router device adapted to route accelerated and non-accelerated signals,

a multi-user ground based data communication accelerator device communicatively coupled to the ground based data communication router device and to a data network, and adapted to accelerate and decelerate data signals from the data network and the ground based data communication router device; and

a ground based cache memory coupled with the ground based data communication router for storing and tracking frequently accessed data streams.

3. The systems of claim 1, wherein the mobile aircraft-based communication systems further comprises:

a data communication device communicatively coupled to the data communication accelerator device and adapted to generate and receive non-accelerated data signals, the communication device is selected from the group consisting of a computer device, a laptop computer device, a cell phone, a personal digital assistant (PDA), a media device and a mobile data device.

4. The system of claim 1, wherein mobile aircraft-based communication system is further adapted to transmit and receive non-accelerated data signals, the ground-based communication system is further adapted to transmit and receive non-accelerated data signals, and the satellite communication systems is further adapted to transmit non-accelerated data signals between the mobile air communication system and the ground-based communication system.

5. The system of claim 1, wherein the onboard data communication router device is communicatively coupled to the data network and adapted to route non-accelerated data signals to the data network by bypassing the multi-user onboard communication accelerator device.

6. The system of claim 1, wherein the data communication router device is adapted to route accelerated and non-accelerated data signals according to an IP address.

7. The system of claim 1, where in the communicative coupling between the multi-user data communication accelerator device and the data network comprises:

at least one selected from the group consisting of an ISDN channel, a SwiftBroadBand channel, WiFi network connectivity on the aircraft, and a 3G/4G cellular network connectivity when the aircraft is on the ground.

8. The system of claim 1, where in the satellite communication system is further adapted to transmit accelerated data signals between the mobile air communication system and the ground-based communication system as a data packet consisting of an ISDN packet, a Swift64 packet, a SwiftBroadBand packet, a Ku-Band packet, and a Ka-Band packet.

9. The system according to claim 1 wherein said router integrates with services including Aero V, SD Flight Tracker, Sky Ticket, Sky Shield and Aero XR to allow for acceleration, compression and optimization of multiple satellite links and to provide data caching over any satellite network.

10. A method of accelerating ground-to-air and air-to-ground communication comprising the steps of:

interfacing an ISDN interface and two or more simultaneous network interfaces to multiple avionic systems to operate on an aircraft wherein a satellite communication link allows simultaneous use of two or more of Inmarsat, Swiftbroadband, Swift64, Ku-Band, and Ka-Band satellite connections to deterministically forward data communications over two or more of said communication links based on preset policies by a user;

initiating a request for data or data transmission by a data device onboard the aircraft and sending the request for data from the data device to an onboard data communication router adapted to route accelerated and non-accelerated signals and increase effective network capacity of ground to air and air to ground communication systems;

generating a data stream including the data request or data transmission at the onboard data communication router;

one or more of accelerating, compressing and caching the data stream at an aircraft based data accelerator device coupled with the onboard data communication router, the onboard data communication router including QoS/Prioritization to locate bandwidth per device or person and prevents a single device from consuming all available bandwidth as well as prioritizing traffic for a VVIP;

transmitting the accelerated and or compressed data stream from the mobile aircraft to a ground-based communication system through a satellite communication system;

one or more of decelerating, decompressing and caching the data stream at the ground-based communication system; and

routing the decelerated and decompressed data stream to a destination.

11. The method of claim 10, further comprising the steps of:

receiving requested data from a destination source at a data communication accelerator at the ground-based communication system;

determining if a destination IP address of an aircraft is recognized as compatible with acceleration, compression and caching;

one or more of accelerating and compressing the requested data when the destination IP address is recognized as compatible with acceleration;

transmitting the accelerated and or compressed data by satellite to the onboard data communication router;

decelerating and or decompressing the accelerated data by the onboard data communication accelerator; and

sending the decelerated and or decompressed data to the requesting data device.

12. The method of claim 11, further comprising the steps of:

receiving the requested data at the ground-based communication system from a destination source;

determining if a content of the requested data is cachable;

identifying the content with a unique identifier when the content is cachable;

sending the uniquely identified content to the onboard data communication router; and

sending the requested data to the onboard data communication router when it is determined that the content is not cachable.

13. The method of claim 12 further comprising:

tracking the cached data and upon request for the cached data, indicating that the cached data stored on the aircraft based data communication accelerator device can be reused instead of retransmitting the requested data stream.

14. The method of claim 10, wherein determining cachable content step includes the step of:

determining that the content is one of a text/html data, a Javascript file or an advertisement.

15. The method of claim 10 further comprising the step of:

bypassing the aircraft based data accelerator device and transmitting the generated data stream from the onboard data communication router.

16. The method of claim 10, further comprising the step of:

simultaneously using Swiftbroadband, Swift64, Ku-Band, and Ka-Band satellite connections.

17. The method according to claim 10 further comprising the step of integrating said router with services including Aero V, SD Flight Tracker, Sky Ticket, Sky Shield and Aero XR to allow for accelerating, compressing and optimizing multiple satellite links and providing data caching over any satellite network.

18. An accelerated ground-to-air and air-to-ground communication system comprising:

an ISDN interface and two or more simultaneous network interfaces to allow multiple avionic systems to operate on an aircraft wherein a satellite communication link allows simultaneous use of two or more of Inmarsat, Swiftbroadband, Swift64, Ku-Band, and Ka-Band satellite connections to deterministically forward data communications over two or more of said communication links based on preset policies by a user;

at least one mobile aircraft-based communication systems adapted to transmit and receive accelerated and or compressed data signals, the ground-based communication system including;

an onboard data communication router device adapted to route accelerated and non-accelerated signals and increase effective network capacity of ground to air and air to ground communication systems, the onboard data communication router device including QoS/Prioritization to locate bandwidth per device or person and prevents a single device from consuming all available bandwidth as well as prioritizing traffic for a VVIP;

a multi-user onboard data communication accelerator device communicatively coupled to the onboard data communication router device and to a data network and adapted to accelerate, compress, and cache and decelerate and decompress data signals from the data network and the data communication router device; and

a cache memory integrated with the onboard data communication accelerator for storing and tracking frequently accessed data streams;

a ground-based communication system adapted to transmit and receive accelerated and or compressed data signals, the ground-based communication system including;

a ground based data communication router device adapted to route accelerated and non-accelerated signals,

a ground based multi-user data communication accelerator device communicatively coupled to the data communication router device and to a data network and adapted to accelerate, compress and cache and decelerate and decompress data signals from the data network and the data communication router device; and

a cache memory integrated with the ground based multi-user data communication accelerator device for storing and tracking frequently accessed data streams; and

a satellite communication system communicatively coupled to the mobile air communication systems and to the ground-based communication system and adapted to transmit accelerated data signals between the mobile air communication systems and the ground-based communication systems.

19. The system according to claim 18 wherein said router integrates with services including Aero V, SD Flight Tracker, Sky Ticket, Sky Shield and Aero XR to allow for acceleration, compression and optimization of multiple satellite links and to provide data caching over any satellite network.