Data processing: vehicles – navigation – and relative location – Vehicle control – guidance – operation – or indication – Aeronautical vehicle
Reexamination Certificate
2000-08-17
2002-03-05
Cuchlinski, Jr., William A. (Department: 3661)
Data processing: vehicles, navigation, and relative location
Vehicle control, guidance, operation, or indication
Aeronautical vehicle
C701S120000, C701S014000, C340S945000, C342S036000, C244S00100R
Reexamination Certificate
active
06353779
ABSTRACT:
BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION
1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to the exchanges of information between the ground and an aircraft by digital transmission. It relates more particularly to the selection of the most appropriate communications mode for establishing an air-ground and ground-air digital transmission link with an aircraft, taking account of the capabilities of the digital transmission networks existing on the ground in the area overflown by the aircraft, of the extent of the transmission facilities equipping the aircraft and of their availability as well as of the qualities and of the costs of the various communications modes possible at the instant in question.
2. Description of the Related Art
Exchanges of information in digital mode between an aircraft and the ground have the benefit of being more reliable than exchanges of phraseology in voice mode, since they do not depend on the intonation of the speaker and on the oral comprehension of a listener. It is for this reason that they are more and more being imposed in aeronautics, in supplement to or in replacement for voice-mode transmissions.
Thus an aeronautical digital communications network has existed since the 70's, in Europe and in the United States, which is known by the title ACARS (an acronym for the expression in English: “Arinc Communication Addressing and Reporting System”) and which has since been extended to near-global coverage. This ACARS aeronautical digital telecommunications network is implemented throughout the world on behalf of the airlines by various operators who offer ground-ground and ground-air coverage. It uses, at the choice of the pilot of the aircraft who makes the decision on the basis of the options of the moment, either a direct air-ground and ground-air digital communications mode by VHF sub-network according to a specific protocol, a mode known as: “VDL Mode A” (VDL being the abbreviation for the expression in English: Very High Frequency Data Link), or an indirect air-ground and ground-air digital communications mode by means of a sub-network of telecommunications satellites according to another specific protocol, a mode known as: “Satcom Data 2”, the protocols having been defined and standardized on the occasion of international conferences organized by the AEEC (an acronym for the expression in the English language: “Airline Electronic Engineering Committee”), which is a grouping bringing together airlines, aircraft manufacturers, equipment manufacturers and civil aviation authorities under the authority of ICAO (the International Civil Aviation Organization).
The ACARS aeronautical digital telecommunications network is very heavily used by aircraft (about 85% of the aircraft with more than 100 seats) to exchange messages with the airlines. Attempts have been made to use it in the same way for air traffic control, especially over the Pacific Ocean with the FANS-1/A ATC system (the acronym being an abbreviation of the expression in English: “Air Traffic Control, Future Air Navigation Systems), but it exhibits characteristics which do not ensure security for air traffic control functions in areas of heavy traffic. This is because it allows only exchanges of printable characters, its reliability is limited to 94% and it is not encrypted and therefore unprotected against malevolent acts.
Aware of these difficulties, ICAO has had a new, higher-performance aeronautical digital telecommunications network defined and standardized, called ATN (abbreviation of the expression in English: “Aeronautical Telecommunication Network”), which is dedicated to information exchange between an aircraft and the ground for simultaneous activities of air traffic control, called ATC, and of information exchange with the airlines, called AOC (abbreviation of the expression in English: “Aeronautical Operational Communications). This ATN aeronautical digital telecommunications network, intended to be world-wide, can employ either an indirect air-ground and ground-air digital communications mode via a sub-network of telecommunications satellites at UHF according to a specific protocol known as: “Satcom Data 3”, or an air-ground and ground-air digital communications mode in line-of-sight mode, via a VHF sub-network according to another specific protocol, a mode known as “VDL Mode 2”, or an air-ground and ground-air digital communications mode, also line-of-sight but via a sub-network using a secondary radar according to yet another specific protocol, a mode known as: “Mode S”, or an air-ground and ground-air digital communications mode via an HF sub-network according to yet another specific protocol, a mode which is known as “HF DL” (an abbreviation of the expression in English: “High Frequency Data Link”), and which uses the reflections in the upper atmosphere so as to get round the curvature of the earth and to obtain transmission links with a range greater than line of sight, the various protocols having been defined and standardized on the occasion of conferences organized by AEEC under the authority of ICAO. The choice between the various options for air-ground and ground-air digital communications modes of these sub-networks is made on the basis of the availabilities of the moment by an automatic unit known as “router”, which acts without the knowledge of the pilot of the aircraft, on the basis of a standardized routing policy.
The larger capacity and the greater reliability of the ATN network mean that it is possible to transport, on an ATN network, messages available in the format of the ACARS network by means of an ACARS onto ATN gateway system installed at a software level on board the communications computers which are carried on the aircraft and which undertake the processing of the information to be exchanged, and within the ground terminal nodes of the ATN network.
The operational deployment of the ATN aeronautical digital telecommunications network is expected to take up to about the year 2015, at which time it should completely replace the ACARS aeronautical digital telecommunications network. Meanwhile the two networks will exist jointly, obliging the pilot of an aircraft who wishes to exchange information in digital form with the ground to choose the digital transmission method used: pure ACARS, ACARS onto ATN gateway or pure ATN, on the basis of his preferences, of those of his airline, of the transmission equipment of his aircraft and of the transmission equipment available on the ground in the area overflown, the choice of the ACARS or ATN network depending on the area of coverage.
Among the parameters influencing the pilot's choice feature cost, performance and security of the communications, as well as the availability of the transmission equipment on board the aircraft and on the ground in the area overflown.
The cost of the communications is booked to the airline in the case of commercial information, or to the aviation authority (STNA in France, FAA in the USA, etc.), in the case of information relating to management of air traffic. It depends on the method of digital communications by sub-network employed for the exchanges with the ground (ATN satellite, ACARS satellite, ATN VHF radio, ACARS VHF radio, ATN HF radio, ACARS HF radio, mode-S radar transponder) and on the link on the ground between the radio-frequency receiving and sending head-end equipment and the terminal system targeted by the routers of the network.
The availability of the transmission equipment on board the aircraft depends on the physical communications facilities installed on board the aircraft, on their level of activity and on their capacity to establish a link in a given digital communications mode via a sub-network. These physical facilities consist of transmission-reception systems and of associated antennae. They are not necessarily all redundant for exchanges of information on the two aeronautical digital telecommunications networks, ATN and ACARS. It may be, for example, that the VHF and SATCOM systems are shared between the two networks, ATN and ACARS, and only usable
Bernas Pierre
Simon Georges Henri
Cuchlinski Jr. William A.
Hernandez Olga
Oblon & Spivak, McClelland, Maier & Neustadt P.C.
Thomson-CSF Sextant
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