Line of sight aircraft data transfer system
AssigneeGE Aviation Systems LLC
InventorsSteven Lane Misenheimer, Joseph Steffler
Life of this patent
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Abstract
Techniques for establishing a establishing of a high-bandwidth data connection with an aircraft using highly directional EM beam shaped transmissions are provided. In one example, a method comprises: determining a first line of sight that is unobstructed to an antenna of an aircraft, establishing a wireless data connection having a defined data transfer rate between the aircraft and the communication device using highly directional EM beam shaped transmissions along the unobstructed line of sight, transferring a defined amount of data between the aircraft and the communication device using the wireless data connection.
Claims20
A system, comprising:
- a first directional antenna;
- a processor;
- and
- a memory communicatively coupled to the processor, the memory having stored therein computer-executable components, the computer-executable components comprising:
- a location component configured to:
- in response to receiving a first signal from a first aircraft, determine a first line of sight that is unobstructed to a first antenna of the aircraft, and
- in response to not being able to determine the first line of sight that is unobstructed to the first antenna of the first aircraft, determine a second line of sight to an intermediate node that can establish a second communication channel with the aircraft;
- a communication component configured to:
- in response to the determination of the first line of sight, transmit a first highly directional beamformed electromagnetic (EM) signal from the first directional antenna along a line of sight based on the first line of sight to establish a first communication channel with the aircraft, and
- in response to the determination of the second line of sight, transmit the first highly directional beamformed EM signal from the first directional antenna along the line of sight based on the second line of sight to establish a first communication channel with the aircraft through the intermediate node.
A computer-implemented method, comprising:
- in response to receiving a first signal from a first aircraft, determining, by a system operatively coupled to a processor, a first line of sight that is unobstructed to a first antenna of the aircraft, and in response to not being able to determine the first line of sight that is unobstructed to the first antenna of the first aircraft, determine a second line of sight to an intermediate node that can establish a second communication channel with the aircraft;
- in response to the determination of the first line of sight, transmitting, by the system, a first highly directional beamformed electromagnetic (EM) signal from a first directional antenna along a line of sight based on the first line of sight to establish a first communication channel with the aircraft;
- and
- in response to the determination of the second line of sight, transmitting, by the system, the first highly directional beamformed EM signal from a first directional antenna along the line of sight based on the second line of sight to establish a first communication channel with the aircraft through the intermediate node.
A non-transitory computer-readable medium having instructions stored thereon that, in response to execution, cause a communication device including a processor to perform operations comprising:
- in response to receiving a first signal from a first aircraft, determining a first line of sight that is unobstructed to a first antenna of the aircraft, and in response to not being able to determine the first line of sight that is unobstructed to the first antenna of the first aircraft, determine a second line of sight to an intermediate node that can establish a second communication channel with the aircraft;
- in response to the determination of the first line of sight, transmitting a first highly directional beamformed electromagnetic (EM) signal from a first directional antenna along a line of sight based on the first line of sight to establish a first communication channel with the aircraft;
- and
- in response to the determination of the second line of sight, transmitting the first highly directional beamformed EM signal from a first directional antenna along the line of sight based on the second line of sight to establish a first communication channel with the aircraft through the intermediate node.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.