Method and system for transmitting data in a network of aircraft in flight
AssigneesAirbus Operations GmbH, Airbus SAS
InventorsSeverine Vermande, Fabrice Vermande, Etienne Maynier
Life of this patent
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Abstract
In a communications network including aircraft in flight and at least one ground station, which constitute communication nodes of the network, data are transmitted from a source node to a destination node following a non-predetermined path through the network that includes at least one node which is a so-called intermediate aircraft. Before transmitting data from a transmitting node to at least one receiving node, it envisages a step of selecting the receiving node defining a portion of the path without knowledge of the next portion of the path.
Claims17
A method for data transmission in a communications network comprising an aircraft in flight and at least one ground station, which constitute communication nodes of the communications network, the method comprising:
- selecting, at the aircraft in flight, a destination node;
- and
- selecting, at the aircraft in flight, an intermediate node between the aircraft in flight and the destination node in the communications network, wherein the intermediate node comprises an intermediate aircraft, and wherein selecting the intermediate node comprises finding, in response to selecting the destination node, a plurality of aircraft within a communication range of the aircraft in flight and selecting the intermediate aircraft from the plurality of aircraft within the communication range based on the destination node, wherein finding the plurality of aircraft within the communications range comprises performing a radio sweep around the aircraft using a first communication system having a relatively small bandwidth and being used only for controlling communication by detecting nodes and opening and closing communication from a second communication system;
- and
- transmitting, using the second communication system, the data at a high rate from the aircraft in flight to the intermediate aircraft for routing to the destination node.
A data transmission system in a communications network comprising an aircraft in flight and at least one ground station, which constitute communication nodes of the communications network, wherein the system is on-board the aircraft in flight and wherein the system comprises:
- a transmitter;
- and
- a hardware platform configured to select a destination node and an intermediate node between the aircraft in flight and the destination node in the communications network, wherein the intermediate node comprises an intermediate aircraft, and wherein selecting the intermediate node comprises finding, in response to selecting the destination node, a plurality of aircraft within a communication range of the aircraft in flight and selecting the intermediate aircraft from the plurality of aircraft within the communication range based on the destination node, wherein the hardware platform is configured to transmit, using the transmitter, the data from the aircraft in flight to the intermediate aircraft for routing to the destination node, and wherein the destination node is a ground station, and wherein selecting the intermediate node comprises selecting the intermediate aircraft because the intermediate aircraft is in the geographic direction of the ground station.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.