System and method for communicating with a plurality of remote communication units

• US 8,244,268 B2
• Filed: 09/30/2009
• Issued: 08/14/2012
• Est. Priority Date: 09/30/2009
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: the united states of america as represented by the secretary of the navy
• Original Assignee: the united states of america as represented by the secretary of the navy
• Inventors: Brown, Christopher A., Figg, Andrew, Schneider, John F.
• Primary Examiner(s): Gary, Erika
• Application Number:
  US12/571,315
• Publication Number:
  US 20110077001A1
• Time in Patent Office: 1,049 Days
• Field of Search: None
• US Class Current: 455/452.2
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 24/00 Supervisory, monitoring or testing arrangements
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 28/06 Optimizing the usage of the radio link, e.g. header compression, information sizing , discarding information system modifying transmission characteristic according to link quality by modifying frame length H04L1/0007; dynamic adaptation of the packet size for flow control or congestion control H04L47/365
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 88/06 adapted for operation in multiple networks or having at least two operational modes, e.g. multi-mode terminals

Abstract

A communication system and method provides data and voice communication from a base unit to a plurality of mobile command units and a plurality of remote units located at different locations across a geographical area.

Claims

1. A plurality of command and control systems comprising:

a first command and control system including a higher command unit having a data compiler/server configured to compile data from a plurality of sources and serve the compiled data, and a data receiver/transmitter coupled to the data compiler/server;

a second command and control system including a base unit having a voice receiver/transmitter, a first data receiver/transmitter configured to receive data signals from the higher command unit and transmit data signals to the higher command unit, a data filter configured to filter data received by the first data receiver/transmitter, and a second data receiver/transmitter configured to transmit filtered digital data signals from the base unit;

a third command and control system including a mobile command unit having a voice receiver/transmitter configured to receive voice signals from the base unit and transmit voice signals to the base unit, a data receiver/transmitter configured to receive data signals from the base unit and transmit data signals to the base unit, an audio module coupled to the voice receiver/transmitter, the audio module being configured to extract voice information data from the voice signals received by the voice receiver/transmitter and to generate a plurality of digital voice packets from the extracted voice information data, a data module coupled to the data receivers receiver/transmitter, the data module being configured to convert a plurality data signals received by the data receiver/transmitter into a plurality of digital data packets, and a digital data transmitter coupled to the audio module and the data module, the digital data transmitter being configured to transmit a digital data stream including the digital voice packets and the digital data packets; and

a fourth command and control system including a remote unit having a remote digital data receiver/transmitter configured to receive the digital data stream from the mobile command unit;

a computing device coupled to the remote digital data receiver/transmitter, the computing device being configured to separate and process the voice packets and the data packets from the digital data stream, and a user interface, wherein said user interface comprises a data filter input selection function which permits a user to input, store and transmit a plurality of filter data parameters to mobile command unit and the base unit, wherein said data filter within said base unit receives, stores and executes filtering of data information with the data filter based on said filter parameters.

2. The system of claim 1, wherein said mobile command unit communicates with the base unit via at least one of a wideband multi-band multi-transmission radio, a Wi-Fi connection, and a Bluetooth connection.

3. The system of claim 1, wherein said mobile command unit communicates with the remote unit via at least one of an encrypted wireless local area network connection and an encrypted Wi-Fi connection.

4. The system of claim 1, wherein said data filter further comprises user profile data which is adapted to store first and second user category data, wherein filter data received by said data filter comprises a user category data which is used by said data filter to determine if a filter data update request is authorized or unauthorized.

5. The system of claim 1, wherein voice communication between the base unit, the mobile command unit and the remote unit is open, unfiltered communication, while data communication is filtered by the data filter of the base unit.

6. The system of claim 1, wherein communication between the higher command unit, the base unit, the mobile command unit and the remote unit utilizes at least one of Narrowband Waveforms, Wideband Waveforms, UHF Satcom Waveforms.

7. The system of claim 1, wherein communication between the higher command unit, the base unit, the mobile command unit and the remote unit occurs at frequencies from 30 MHz-2 GHz.

8. The system of claim 1, wherein the plurality of data sources providing data to the a data compiler/server of the higher command unit include at least one of radar information data, data from aircraft, satellite generated data, manually input data from the base unit, and manually input data from an operator of the higher command unit.