Onboard service session performance data feed and reporting

Abstract

A session performance data feed may be generated by obtaining, for a discrete time period, a performance status of an onboard service provided to a plurality of users of the onboard service. A session performance data feed may identifying, for a user of the plurality of users, a relative performance metric of the onboard service provided to the user during the discrete time period relative to others of the plurality of users of the onboard service. A session performance data feed may generate a record comprising the relative performance metric for the user during the discrete time period. A session performance data feed may provide the record to a data repository.

Description

ONBOARD SERVICE SESSION PERFORMANCE DATA FEED AND REPORTINGBackground

[0001] There are many service providers on the market that provide commercial aviation data to customers. The commercial aviation data may include information about onboard communication services available on commercial aircraft. The onboard communication services may include various communications and entertainment services such as access to the Internet, computer-based entertainment, and the like. The commercial aviation data may be provided as raw or processed data, data reports, and / or depicted in various graphical representations, including graphical user interfaces (GUIs).

[0002] Commercial aviation customers may view the information about aircraft onboard services at a high level of detail and granularity. Specifically, customers that operate aircraft on which onboard communications services are provided, for example to passengers, commonly prefer to know when, during a trip of an aircraft, the onboard services provided on the aircraft were up or down, what types of issues were experienced by users of the onboard services, and the like.

[0003] Havingthis type of information readily available may be very important to the commercial aviation customers, especially to those who are responsible for making sure that the onboard services are available on the aircraft to the passengers. The airline operators would want to know, for example, the state of the onboard services at various points of the trip of the aircraft. In fact, in some situations, the operators would want to know the real-time or near-real-time status of the onboard services so that the operators can assess, and improve, the health of the onboard services provided to the passengers as the aircraft flys over different regions, from different airports to different destinations, at different times, in different time zones, and the like.

[0004] Therefore, improved methods and tools are needed to allow users to interactively monitor and visualize the status of onboard services provided on vehicles during their trips, specifically during various parts of a trip.Summary

[0005] In some aspects, the techniques described herein relate to a method for generating a session performance data feed for performance of one or more onboard services provided during a trip of a vehicle, the method including: obtaining a performance status of an onboard service provided to a plurality of users of the onboard service; generating a relative performance metric of the onboard service relative to other onboard services; generating a record including the relative performance metric; and providing the record to a data repository.

[0006] In some aspects, the techniques described herein relate to an apparatus for generating a session performance feed for performance of one or more onboard services provided during a trip of a vehicle, the apparatus including: a processor; memory in electronic communication with the processor; and instructions stored in the memory and executable by the processor to cause the processor to perform: obtaining a performance status of an onboard service provided to a plurality of users of the onboard service; generating a relative performance metric of the onboard service relative to other onboard services; generating a record including the relative performance metric; and providing the record to a data repository.

[0007] In some aspects, the techniques described herein relate to a method for generating a session performance data feed for performance of one or more onboard services provided during a trip of a vehicle, the method including: obtaining, for a discrete time period, a performance status of an onboard service provided to a plurality of users of the onboard service; identifying, for a user of the plurality of users, a relative performance metric of the onboard service provided to the user during the discrete time period relative to others of the plurality of users of the onboard service; generating a record including the relative performance metric for the user during the discrete time period; and providing the record to a data repository.

[0008] In some aspects, the techniques described herein relate to an apparatus for generating a session performance feed for performance of one or more onboard services provided during a trip of a vehicle, the apparatus including: a processor; memory inelectronic communication with the processor; and instructions stored in the memory and executable by the processor to cause the processor to perform: obtaining, for a discrete time period, a performance status of an onboard service provided to a plurality of users of the onboard service; identifying, for a user of the plurality of users, a relative performance metric of the onboard service provided to the user during the discrete time period relative to others of the plurality of users of the onboard service; generating a record includingthe relative performance metric for the user during the discrete time period; and providing the record to a data repository.

[0009] In some aspects, the techniques described herein relate to one or more non- transitory computer-readable storage media storing computer code for generating a session performance feed for performance of one or more onboard services provided during a trip of a vehicle, the computer code including instructions, which when executed by a processor, cause the processor to perform: obtaining, for a discrete time period, a performance status of an onboard service provided to a plurality of users of the onboard service; identifying, for a user of the plurality of users, a relative performance metric of the onboard service provided to the user during the discrete time period relative to others of the plurality of users of the onboard service; generating a record includingthe relative performance metric for the user during the discrete time period; and providing the record to a data repository.

[0010] In some aspects, the techniques described herein relate to a method for visualizing a comparative performance indicator of onboard services provided in a trip of a vehicle relative to other trips, the method including: obtaining a status of one or more onboard services provided during a trip of a vehicle; identifying one or more other trips for which onboard services are provided; obtaining a second status of one or more corresponding onboard services provided to the one or more other trips; determining a comparative performance between the status and the second status of corresponding ones of the one or more onboard services; generating first graphical interface data representing: an indicium of the status of the one or more onboard services provided during the trip, and a comparative indicium correspondingto the comparativeperformance; and transmitting to a display device, the first graphical interface data to cause the display device to generate and display a comparative performance viewer that includes the indicium and the comparative indicium.

[0011] In some aspects, the techniques described herein relate to an apparatus for visualizing a comparative performance indicator of onboard services provided in a trip of a vehicle relative to other trips, the apparatus including: a processor; memory in electronic communication with the processor; and instructions stored in the memory and executable by the processor to cause the processor to perform: obtaining a status of one or more onboard services provided during a trip of a vehicle; identifying one or more other trips for which onboard services are provided; obtaining a second status of one or more corresponding onboard services provided to the one or more other trips; determining a comparative performance between the status and the second status of corresponding ones of the one or more onboard services; generating first graphical interface data representing: an indicium of the status of the one or more onboard services provided during the trip, and a comparative indicium correspondingto the comparative performance; and transmitting to a display device, the first graphical interface data to cause the display device to generate and display a comparative performance viewer that includes the indicium and the comparative indicium.

[0012] In some aspects, the techniques described herein relate to one or more non- transitory computer-readable storage media storing computer code for visualizing a comparative performance indicator of onboard services provided in a trip of a vehicle relative to other trips, the computer code including instructions which, when executed by a processor, cause the processor to perform: obtaining a status of one or more onboard services provided during a trip of a vehicle; identifying one or more othertrips forwhich onboard services are provided; obtaining a second status of one or more corresponding onboard services provided to the one or more other trips; determining a comparative performance between the status and the second status of corresponding ones of the one or more onboard services; generating first graphical interface data representing: an indicium of the status of the one or more onboard services provided during the trip, and acomparative indicium corresponding to the comparative performance; and transmitting to a display device, the first graphical interface data to cause the display device to generate and display a comparative performance viewer that includes the indicium and the comparative indicium.

[0013] This Summary is provided to introduce a selection of concepts in a simplified form that are further described below in the Detailed Description. This Summary is not intended to identify key features or essential features of the claimed subject matter, nor is it intended to be used to limit the scope of the claimed subject matter.

[0014] Other implementations are also described and recited herein.Brief Description of the Drawings

[0015] Afurther understanding of the nature and benefits of the present approaches may be realized in reference to the following drawings. In the appended drawings, similar components orfeatures may have the same reference label. Further, various components of the same type may be distinguished by following the reference label by a second label that distinguishes amongthe similar components.

[0016] FIG. 1 is an example of a block diagram of a network communications system in accordance with one or more embodiments.

[0017] FIG. 2 is an example of a block diagram of an on-ground system in accordance with one or more embodiments.

[0018] FIG. 3 is an example block diagram of an onboard system in accordance with one or more embodiments.

[0019] FIG. 4 is an example of a data schema that may be used in an onboard service session performance data feed to generate a record.

[0020] FIG. 5 is a flow chart illustrating an example method for the generation of a session performance data feed.

[0021] Fig. 6 illustrates a first performance graph and a second performance graph generated from records of a session performance data feed.

[0022] FIG. 7 is an example of a graphical interface depicting an example trip-viewer for a particular trip, including comparative indicia for a plurality of onboard services.

[0023] FIG. 8 depicts examples of trip characteristics and examples of conditions used to determine similarities / differences between trips.

[0024] Fig. 9 is a flowchart of an example method for visualizing a comparative performance indicator of onboard services provided in a trip of a vehicle relative to other trips.Detailed Description

[0025] While the invention is susceptible to various modifications and alternative forms, specific embodiments have been shown by example in the drawings and are herein described in detail. It should be understood, however, that it is not intended to limit the invention to the particular form disclosed, but rather, the invention is to cover all modifications, equivalents, and alternatives falling within the scope of the invention as defined by the claims.

[0026] Various vehicles, such as aircraft, boats, buses, trains, etc., may be equipped with onboard systems configured to provide onboard communications services (or simply onboard services) during trips undertaken by the vehicle. The onboard services may be consumed by the passengers of the vehicle, crew operating the vehicle, on-ground operators managing the vehicle fleet, and the like. A user experience related to the consumption of the onboard services may be impacted by the performance of the communications hardware and communications connections established between the vehicle, the service providers (e.g., via satellites), and on-ground systems.

[0027] The quality of onboard services provided on vehicles may be measured in terms of bandwidth, availability, reliability, usability, usage, and speed. However, other metrics or measures may be utilized without limitation. As the quality of the services provided by the vehicles increases, so does the satisfaction and enjoyment of the passengers and crew.However, maintaining high-quality onboard services often requires monitoring the servicescontinuously and carefully, and curing any identified problems with the services quickly and efficiently.

[0028] Status and / or metrics data specific to the services may be collected to effectively monitor the onboard services. This status and / or metrics data may be processed and reported and / orvisualized to assist in determining problems with the provision of onboard services on a vehicle.

[0029] In the present disclosure, the status and / or metrics data regarding onboard services provided on a vehicle may be provided as a session performance data feed. The session performance data feed may be used to provide and analyze performance information regarding onboard services in a live (or relatively real-time) fashion on a peruser basis. The session performance data feed may comprise a data schema that allows for granular data reporting specific to individual users of the onboard services. The session performance data feed may be generated in recurring time periods to showthe real-time status of onboard service performance. This may include system-wide metrics that illustrate performance across multiple vehicles for a given time period for which reporting is provided. In some instances, the status and / or metrics data may be aggregated for further analysis and processing.

[0030] In turn, the session performance data feed may allow for an understanding of a passenger experience. In one example, this may be based on usage of the onboard services by a user. The data provided in the session performance data feed may allow service providers, customers, or other entities to proactively react to passenger experiences. This may include providing passenger refunds or other interventions to improve passenger / customer experiences and boost survey results or other evaluations of the onboard services. This may also include providing information from the session performance data feed to a vehicle (or users thereon) and / or on-ground systems (or users thereof) to allow for action to be taken. For example, actions taken on the vehicle may include troubleshooting or other steps to attempt to improve the performance of the onboard services, such as rebooting or modifying equipment onboard the vehicle.Furthermore, information from the session performance data feed may be used to modifythe communication system. Such activities may involve an on-ground system that may at least partially control the communication network. This may include modifying one or more beams of a satellite system. For example, capacity balancing or the like may be performed based on information from the session performance data feed.

[0031] In one example, the data schema of the session performance data feed creates records that may be provided to a data repository. The data schema may utilize userspecific metrics that allow for data to be generated for the record. In one example, a user may be assigned a unique user identifier such that each user may be represented in the resulting records of the data repository. This may include providing each user a percentile rank for one or more performance metrics experienced by the user relative to other users of the system. The other users of the system may include selected other users or may extend to all users of onboard services provided by a service provider or offered by a vehicle operator across an entire network or fleet of vehicles.

[0032] In this regard, the session performance data feed may be maintained in a data repository. In turn, the session performance data feed may be provided to customers or other third-party entities to provide data regarding onboard service performance.Additionally or alternatively, the data repository maintaining the session performance data feed may be accessed by third parties to review, retrieve, and / or visualize the session performance data feed.

[0033] In the present disclosure, GUI data regarding the relative performance of onboard services for a given trip may be provided for users. In this regard, performance metrics regarding one or more services for a given flight may be displayed and comparative performance to one or more other trips may be presented relative to the performance metrics. This may provide a user a quick reference for understanding how the current flight compares to one or more different trips.

[0034] In various examples, the other trips used to generate the comparative performance relative to the given trip may vary or may be customizable by a user. For instance, the other trips may comprise trips with a trip characteristic similar to the giventrip. These other trips may be past trips or may also comprise or include other active trips underway.

[0035] The GUI data generated by the disclosure as presented herein may include one or more service metrics, which may include corresponding comparative performances presented in the GUI data. The comparative performance may be presented in a GUI displayed to a user. The GUI data may include features or icons for the comparative performance that allow for quick understanding of the comparative performance. For instance, the comparative performance may be represented by a directional indication and / or a magnitude indication. These may be presented as icons for quick understanding of the nature of the comparative performance.

[0036] The terms “GUI data” and “interface data,” as used herein, may refer to any data in a computer system that is related to the representation of one or more GUIs or portions thereof. GUI data may represent, for example, various graphical icons and / or other visual identifiers or features. Furthermore, the GUI data may include data or code providing instructions for generating or displaying / presenting various graphical icons and other visual identifiers and features on a display device.

[0037] GUI data may also refer to any type of user interface pages or portions of pages having any type of content. GUI data may refer, for example, to a page of a website, a page of a network-enabled application, or the like, or to any type of code used by a user interface to generate web pages, content pages, or interfaces. GUI data may comprise code conforming to any suitable or desirable language, such as hypertext markup language (HTML) code, Java or JavaScript code, Android code, iOS code, other embedded device operating system code, or the like.

[0038] Status information of onboard services provided during a trip may correspond to a performance indicator(s) of the onboard service(s) provided duringthe trip. Status information may be represented in the GUI using icons, colors, shading, or other visual objects.

[0039] An icon may have one or more features, including, for example, visual features such as color, texture, size, shape, and so forth. Certain visual features of an icon mayindicate a status level of communications services provided onboard the vehicle. By allowing for user input and interactions associated with the icons displayed in the GUI, the user may be able to access, for example, detailed information about various types of onboard services provided by the vehicle during the trip.

[0040] Vehicle data associated with a communications service provided on a vehicle may include any type of communications-service-related information associated with the vehicle. For example, vehicle data may indicate information about communications- service hardware status during vehicle travel and / or the service cases opened for the vehicle within a time period. Vehicle data may further provide information about communications-service hardware replacement or maintenance. Such information may provide insight as to whether the hardware replacement or maintenance might have contributed to the communications service performance on the vehicle.

[0041] Trip data associated with a communications service provided during a trip may include any type of communication-service-related information associated with the trip. For example, trip data may indicate the passenger experience reporting events captured during the trip or the passenger experience reporting availability of the onboard services provided during the trip.

[0042] The status of a particular one of the onboard services provided by a vehicle may be represented in a variety of ways. For example, the status may be represented by a single value (e.g., a number), by a set of metrics values (e.g., a set of numbers), by a range of values, other visual indicators, and the like. A single status value for a service type may be computed by aggregating different metric data values determined for the service type provided by the vehicle during the trip. According to another example, the status of the network connectivity provided by a vehicle may be represented by a set of metric values where each value is computed by aggregating the measures of the connections provided during the trip conducted by the vehicle within a time period.

[0043] Further still, status of an onboard service may be represented for individual users and / or individual sessions of the onboard services. In this regard, the status of the onboard service may indicate a level of service provided to individual users and / orsessions. These values may be absolute or may be relative to other users and / or sessions consuming the onboard services. In this regard, the status of an onboard service for a given user may be represented as a percentile rank relative to other users of the onboard services. The other users of the on-board services may be other users on a given vehicle of the user or may comprise users across multiple vehicles. In some examples, a user’s status for onboard services may represent a percentile ranking of the user relative to all users of communication services provided by a service provider across a given network.

[0044] The number and types of onboard services provided to passengers duringtrips may vary and depend on the implementation. Examples of communications service types may include network connectivity to the Internet and / or other networks. Examples of inflight entertainment service types may include a streamingTV service, an inflight entertainment service (providing access to content stored onboard, such as movies and shows, and the like). The availability and utilization of the onboard services may be examples of metrics data collected by computer servers installed, for example, locally in a vehicle. The servers installed in the vehicle may be referred to as onboard servers. An onboard server may transmit the collected metrics data to one or more on-ground systems, which in turn, may process and aggregate the data. The on-ground systems may then generate reporting and / or display the aggregated data on display devices.

[0045] In some implementations, the method presented herein may be implemented as part of a communications system. The communications system may include several components, which may collaborate with each other to determine and provide status information of communications services provided during a vehicle trip. The components may allow for the generation of data reporting and / or a GUI to visualize, for example, the quality of onboard services provided during the trip of the vehicle, and provide and receive detailed information about the quality of onboard services provided at individual points of the vehicle’s trip.

[0046] FIG. 1 is an example of a block diagram of a network communications system 100 in accordance with one or more embodiments. FIG. 1 , the other drawing figures, and all of the description and claims in this disclosure are intended to present, disclose, andclaim a technical system and technical methods in which specially programmed computers, using a special-purpose distributed computer system design, execute functions that have not been available before to provide a practical application of computing technology to the problem of characterizing and evaluating onboard service performance. In this manner, the disclosure presents a technical solution to a technical problem, and any interpretation of the disclosure or claims to cover any judicial exception to patent eligibility, such as an abstract idea, mental process, method of organizing human activity or mathematical algorithm, has no support in this disclosure and is erroneous.

[0047] In some implementations, communications system 100 comprises one or more communications satellites 102A-102B, one or more vehicles 104A-104B, one or more network gateways 108A-108B, one or more network performance monitoring units 110A- 110B, one or more on-ground systems 112, one or more display devices 114, and one or more data communications network 116. Other embodiments may include fewer or more components.

[0048] In some implementations, communications system 100 supports two-way communications between vehicles 104A-104B, gateways 108A-108B, network performance units 110A-110B, communications network 116, on-ground systems 112, and potentially other components (not shown) of system 100 via an air-to-ground connectivity or otherwise.

[0049] One or more display devices 114 may be configured to display, for example, icons or other features that visualize status of onboard services provided during one or more trips of the vehicles 104A-104B. For example, display device 114 may be configured to generate a GUI for presenting the icons graphically (using colors, shading, patterns, and the like) representing the onboard services provided during the one or more trips.

[0050] Satellites 102A-102B may be configured to provide network communications connectivity to communications systems implemented in vehicles 104A-104B, including target devices implemented and / or present in vehicles 104A-104B. The target devices may be mobile devices that are operated by the crew and passengers of vehicles 104A-104B, and may include smartphones, tablets, portable media players, in-seat entertainmentunits, Laptops, PDAs, and the like. Satellites 102A-102B may, for example, facilitate network communications to and from the target devices to provide Internet access, TV shows, movies, data news feeds, and the like.

[0051] Vehicles 104A-104B may be mobile machines that are configured to carry passengers, crew members, and cargo, and to provide communications network connectivity and onboard services. Although FIG. 1 depicts vehicles 104A-104B as aircraft, vehicles 104A-104B may include any type of vehicles, also including boats, trains, buses, automobiles, cruise ships, and the like. Vehicles 104A-104B may be configured to provide onboard services such as access to the Internet, inflight entertainment, and the like.

[0052] In some implementations, vehicles 104A-104B include position determination device(s), such as an inertial measurement unit (IMU) or global positioning system (GPS). Such devices, if installed, may allow the vehicle to determine the vehicle’s physical location. The Location information may be utilized by on-ground system 112 in performing certain functionalities disclosed herein. Other techniques for determining a vehicle’s location may also be used. For example, in the embodiments in which satellites 102A-102B are spot beam satellites, vehicles 104A-104B may be able to derive their locations based on the spot beams being used to communicate with the satellite network 116.

[0053] In some implementations, vehicles 104A-104B may transmit their location information to on-ground system 112. The location information may be associated with vehicle-specific metrics that are collected near or at the reported position. This may allow on-ground system 112 to correlate particular vehicle-specific metrics with specific network service areas based on the associated location of the vehicle. Location data for one or more of vehicles 104A-104B may be obtained by on-ground system 112 from a separate entity or a server not shown in the diagram of FIG. 1 . Such an entity or server may receive location data from the vehicle(s) or otherwise derive the location data in some manner.

[0054] Vehicles 104A-104B may include onboard computer systems and sensor systems configured to collect and monitor metrics data about various events reflecting the quality of the onboard services. The metrics data may include information about availability and utilization of network connectivity and / or inflight entertainment servicesavailable on vehicles 104A-104B. The events may include receiving requests for the Internet connections, data communications sessions, downloading TV programs from content providers, downloading movies from the onboard movie content servers, total usage of a user, and the like.

[0055] The metrics data collected by the onboard servers of vehicles 104A-104B may include, for example, the metrics showing availability and utilization of the network connectivity and inflight services on individual vehicles, individual trips, and / or individual portions of the trips. The metrics data may also include web browsing scores, video streaming scores, customer satisfaction scores, and the like. The metrics data may include upload speed metrics, download speed metrics, latency metrics, and the like.

[0056] The collected metrics data may be transmitted from the onboard servers of vehicles 104A-104B to on-ground systems 112 and / or network performance monitoring units 110A-110B. The metrics data may be transmitted via, for example, network gateways 108A-108B.

[0057] Network performance monitoring units 110A-110B may be configured to collect metrics data of onboard service provided on vehicles 104A-104B. The metrics data may be collected by network performance monitoring units 110A-110B themselves, by satellites 102A-102B, and / or by vehicles 104A-104B. The metrics data may be processed by any of monitoring units 110A-110B, on-ground systems 112, satellites 102A-102B, and / or vehicles 104A-104B.

[0058] On-ground systems 112 may be configured to process the collected metrics data, aggregate the data, and use the data. For example, the on-ground systems 112 may generate reporting and / or GUI data that provide performance indicators of onboard services provided during the trip of the vehicle. The reporting and / or GUI data may be used by the crew of the vehicle, operators of the vehicle control centers, fleet operators, service providers, vendors, or others, to allow them to assess the quality of the onboard services provided during the trips carried on by the vehicle or vehicles.

[0059] On-ground systems 112 may include one or more electronic hardware computers or components, including control circuitry configured to perform certain functionalities discussed in detail below.

[0060] Network gateways 108A-108B may be computer-based systems configured to perform the functionalities of communications modems. The functionalities may include modulation and demodulation of signals communicated between satellites 102A-102B and network performance monitoring units 110A-110B. The functionalities may also include packet queuing, packet acceleration and deceleration, network address translation (NAT), firewall-based security, periodic pinging, and other signal processing functionalities.

[0061] Communications network 116 may be implemented as any type of communications network or a group of communications networks. Network 116 may be configured to provide support for a variety of communications protocols, including broadband protocols, wireless protocols, and the like. Network 116 may support two-way communications between gateways 108A-108B, monitoring units 110A-110B, on-ground systems 112, display devices 114, and other computer systems and servers (not shown) implemented in system 100.

[0062] In some embodiments, a method for visualizingthe quality of onboard services provided during a vehicle's trip and providing requested detailed information about the quality of the onboard services provided at individual points of the vehicle’s trip is implemented in one or more on-ground systems. The performance indicators of the onboard services may be visualized using a GUI configured to generate and display, for example, a map viewer and flight metrics viewers depicting status information of communications services provided duringthe trip. In other examples, the performance indicators of the onboard services may be compiled into reporting, including records in a data set that may be provided or made accessible for review of the records in the data set.

[0063] FIG. 2 is an example of a block diagram of an on-ground system 200 in accordance with one or more embodiments. On-ground system 200 may be, for example, on-ground system 112 described in FIG. 1. On-ground system 200 may be implemented ina computer server or a network of computer servers, such as cloud-based systems and / or virtual compute nodes.

[0064] In some implementations, on-ground system 200 comprises a single hardware computer contained within a single physical enclosure, while in other embodiments, on- ground system 200 is implemented in a plurality of computers installed in multiple physical enclosures, some of which are within a single physical enclosure and others may be geographically distributed away from each other. The functionalities described with respect to the on-ground system 200 can be distributed among the components of the system 100 of FIG. 1 in a different manner than shown or described herein.

[0065] In some implementations, the on-ground system 200 is configured to collect, monitor, aggregate, and otherwise process metrics data indicating performance of one or more service types of onboard service provided in vehicles. On-ground system 200 may be configured to use the collected and processed information to generate, for example, reporting and / or one or more GUIs used to visualize performance indicators of onboard services provided during the trip.

[0066] On-ground system 200 may be configured to obtain, for example, a vehicle identifier of the vehicle for which onboard service is to be collected and monitored and status information for the trips carried by the vehicle. On-ground system 200 may also receive requests for obtaining status information of onboard services provided during a particular part or point of the trip.

[0067] On-ground system 200 may obtain the vehicle identifier using a variety of techniques. For example, on-ground system 200 may request the vehicle identifier from a vehicle control center of the vehicle fleet and store the identifier in a storage device of on- ground system 200.

[0068] On-ground system 200 may use the vehicle identifier as, for example, search keys in queries issued by the on-ground system to request metrics data about the onboard service provided on the correspondingvehicle. For example, on-ground system 200 may use a vehicle identifier as a search key in a query issued to an onboard server installed invehicle 104A (shown in FIG. 1) to request metrics data about an onboard service provided by vehicle 104A within a particular time period of at a particular point in time of the trip.

[0069] In other implementations, the metric data about the onboard service provided on the vehicles 104A-104B may be automatically provided by the onboard systems implemented in the vehicles 104A-104B themselves or obtained from on-ground network performance monitoring units 110A-110B, or in conjunction with the onboard systems implemented in the vehicles 104A-104B and the on-ground network performance monitoring units 110A-110B.

[0070] In some implementations, on-ground system 200 comprises one or more service monitors 202, one or more data aggregators 204, one or more performance metrics generators 206, and one or more data storage units 208. The one or more data storage units 208 may store data records and / or repositories, as described herein. System 200 may also include one or more processors 210, one or more memory units 212, one or more display devices 214, and one or more network interface cards 216. The components of the on- ground system 200 may communicate with each other directly or indirectly via a communications bus 220. Other embodiments may include fewer or more components.

[0071] Display devices 214 may be configured to display visualizations of status of onboard services provided during a trip of a vehicle. The visualized status of the onboard services may be represented in one or more viewers using, for example, indicators, icons, indicia, or other signifiers related to the status of the onboard services.

[0072] Display device 214 may be configured to generate a GUI for displayingthe viewers in a concise and communicative form. The viewers may indicate the status of onboard service provided on the trips using icons having different colors, shadings, patterns, and the like.

[0073] Display device 214 may be implemented as an electronic display, such as a CRT display, LCD display, touchscreen, mobile device screen, and the like.

[0074] Service monitor 202 may be configured to collect metrics data about various service types of onboard service provided in vehicles, shown in FIG. 1 . The events may include receiving requests for Internet connections, data communications sessions, TVprograms downloads from content providers, movies downloads from the onboard movie content servers, and the like. The events may also include receiving indications that an Internet connection was or was not available in a vehicle at a given time, that a data communications session was or was not successfully opened or closed, that a movie was orwas not successfully downloaded to a target device operated by the vehicle, and the like. Metrics data about the events may be collected as the passengers aboard the vehicle, as the vehicle travels, as the vehicle reaches its destination, and / or as the passengers depart the vehicle.

[0075] In some implementations, data aggregator 204 generates an average, maximum, minimum, mean, and / or median of two or more communications service performance metrics for a communications service provided on a vehicle for at least one trip of the vehicle 104. Data aggregator 204 may determine negative variances between communication service performance metrics of a vehicle 104 being monitored as it proceeds along its travel route. The negative variances may themselves be aggregated to produce summary metrics representing a difference in performance of a communications service of the monitored vehicle 104 compared to certain performance targets. This may provide threshold values / metrics for evaluating communication service performance. In some implementations, aggregation of negative variances may be divided by the duration of the given trip to the present point to provide an average negative variance experienced during the trip.

[0076] Data aggregator 204 may be configured to process, sort, and aggregate the collected and monitored metrics data. Processed data may be sorted and / or aggregated based on service types, vehicle identifiers, fleet identifiers, airline identifiers, airport identifiers, user identifiers, session identifiers, and the like. The type of processing performed on the data may depend on a variety of factors. For example, if the data pertains to a trip that a vehicle 104 has already completed, then the data may be aggregated based on a type of the data, a type of service that the data represents, a source that provided the data, and the like. However, if the data pertains to an ongoing trip, then the processing mayinclude selecting, from the collected data, the most recently received data reflecting the current-up-to-date availability and utilization of the onboard services.

[0077] Metrics generator 206 may be configured to use the sorted and aggregated information to determine performance metrics for determining status for the services provided to passengers while onboard the vehicle. The performance metrics may indicate, for example, the performance of one or more service types of onboard services provided on individual vehicles, individual trips, and / or individual portions of the trips. The sorted and aggregated information may be used by service monitors 202 to determine similarities / differences between the trips, as well as providing the information for the tripviewer described in more detail with reference to FIG. 7 below. Furthermore, the metrics generator 206 may be used to determine a comparative performance between a trip and other trips. The trips comprising the other trips may be similar trips to the particular trip as determined in greater detail below. The comparative metric may include comparing a status of one or more onboard services of a particular trip to an aggregation of the status of the onboard service on the other trips.

[0078] Metrics generator 206 may also be configured to encode the sorted and aggregated data into corresponding status indicators to reflect the performance provided in vehicles. In some implementations, metrics generator 206 determines the status of one or more service types of onboard services provided on selected vehicles. The status of the service type may be determined based on metrics data collected for the service type provided on the selected vehicles 104 and may include information about the service characteristics of the services provided to the passengers.

[0079] The status of a particular service type may, for example, correspond to a value (or a range of values) of the service metrics determined for the particular onboard service. The status may be associated with one or more icons to be displayed in, for example, a viewer, messages, and the like. Some of the features in, for example, messages may be represented numerically using, for example, a single number or a set of metrics values. A single number status for a particular onboard service may be computed as an aggregation of the service metrics data collected for the particular onboard service during a certaintime period. A set of metrics values for a particular onboard service may include values determined for the particular onboard service during the trip.

[0080] Other features may be represented graphically using, for example, graphical elements such as icons having certain colors, patterns, textures and the like. A graphical feature for a particular onboard service may correspond to a value or a range of values determined based on the corresponding service metrics for the particular onboard service and may be depicted using a certain icon having a certain color or pattern that graphically represents the corresponding value or the corresponding value-range of the corresponding onboard service.

[0081] In some implementations, the status may be determined by metrics generator 206 itself. Alternatively, the status may be provided by satellites 102A-102B, vehicles 104A- 104B, network gateways 108A-108B, and / or performance monitoring units 110A-110B, shown in FIG. 1 .

[0082] Service metrics may be stored in data storage 208. Alternatively, or in addition to, the information and the metrics may be communicated to computer servers, such as other on-ground systems 200, and / or computer servers installed in on-ground systems 200. The status and the metrics may be used to generate, for example, a GUI presented herein.

[0083] Processors 210 may be configured to provide the execution environment for performing various system-based functions and for performingthe methods described herein. Processors 210 may be configured to provide, for example, support for executing an operating system and system functionalities implemented in on-ground system 200.

[0084] Memory units 212 may include random access memory (RAM) and read-only memory (ROM) units. Memory 212 may be used to store operating system instructions and computer-readable and computer-executable instructions for implementing the methods described herein.

[0085] Network interface card 216 may be configured to facilitate communications between on-ground system 200 and vehicles, satellites, network monitoring stations, vehicle control centers, vehicle operator centers, vendor centers, and the like. Theinterface may be implemented in hardware, software and / or a combination thereof, and may be implemented to support various communications protocols, including wireless communications protocols, broadband communications protocols, and the like. Network interface 216 may be also used to provide connectivity with input devices (not shown) configured in on-ground system 200. The input devices may include keyboards, smartphones, touchscreens, audio devices, and the like, and may be used to provide inputs, requests for service performance information of onboard services, and the like.

[0086] In some implementations, on-ground system 200 comprises a web server (not shown in FIG. 2). The web server may be a single server or may represent a distributed network of servers across a geographic area. The web server may store instructions for generating and displaying a web-based user interface. The web-based user interface may allow a user to provide user input for configuring one or more threshold values or other performance target data discussed herein. Additionally, the web-based user interface may provide GUI data representing values for the metrics collected by the systems / components described herein. The web server may further be configured to generate and / or provide GUI data to one or more remote or local monitoring systems (e.g., on-ground systems) for generating a display and / or presentation to a user. The web server may receive indications of user input in connection with a GUI. Generation of the GUI data may be triggered by the user input indications, as described in detail later.

[0087] In some implementations, a method for visualizing quality of onboard services provided during a trip of a vehicle and providing requested detailed information about the quality of the onboard services provided at individual points of the vehicle’s trip is implemented and installed in the vehicles themselves.

[0088] In some implementations, onboard servers installed in vehicles 104 are used to collect service metrics data for the service type(s) of onboard services provided on the vehicles 104 and to transmit the collected metrics data from the onboard servers to the on- ground servers 202, which in turn, use the received metrics data to determine the status of each service type to generate, for example, a map viewer and flight metrics viewers.

[0089] FIG. 3 is an example block diagram of an onboard system 350 in accordance with one or more embodiments. The example depicted in FIG. 3 shows a vehicle 300 which is an aircraft; however, in other embodiments, vehicle 300 may correspond to a helicopter, cruise ship, bus, train, boat, and the like. To provide simple examples, it is assumed that vehicle 300 depicted in FIG. 3 corresponds to any vehicle 104A-104B shown in FIG. 1 .

[0090] In some implementations, vehicle 300 comprises the onboard system 350. Onboard system 350 may be configured to collect metrics data of the service type(s) of onboard services provided on vehicle 300. Onboard system 350 may also be configured to transmit the collected metrics data to an on-ground system, such as on-ground system 200 shown in FIG. 2. The collected metrics data may be associated with a unique identifier of vehicle 300 by the onboard system 350, and / or by the on-ground network performance monitoring unit of the onboard system 200. The unique identifier of the vehicle 300 is also referred to herein as a vehicle identifier or a vehicle ID.

[0091] If vehicle 300 corresponds to an aircraft, then the identifier may include an aircraft tail identifier (ID), a nose ID, an aircraft serial number, or the like. The identifier may be configured, or hard-coded, in a computer system implemented in vehicle 300. Where the vehicle 300 is not an aircraft, the identifier may include corresponding unique identifying information stored in a corresponding manner. Additional information associated with the vehicle may include a trip number such as a flight number, a travel segment number such as a route number, crew identifiers of crew members of vehicle 300, equipment identifiers such as serial numbers of antennas or network devices, an origination terminal identifier, a destination terminal identifier, a scheduled departure time, a scheduled arrival time, and the like.

[0092] In some implementations, vehicle 300 includes various hardware components, software components, and / or combinations thereof. For example, vehicle 300 may include one or more antennas 304, one or more transceivers 306, one or more modems 308, a communications and onboard service management system 312, one or more wireless access points (“WAPs”) 314, as well as one or more onboard media client applications implemented in one or more personal target devices 316, and / or one or more passengerseatback media systems 318. Vehicle 300 is also equipped with a power supply unit 330 and a positioning system 332.

[0093] Antenna 304, transceiver 306, and modem 308 may be collectively referred to as a two-way communications system 302. System 302 may be configured to facilitate bidirectional communications with satellites, such as satellites 102A-102B shown in FIG. 1 .

[0094] Communications system 302 may be configured to support bidirectional data communications between communications networks such as the Internet, and target devices 316, seatback media systems 318, positioning system 332, and the like. For example, system 302 may be configured to provide uplink data received from target devices 316 and / or seatback systems 318 to modem 308 to allow generating modulated uplink data in the form of a transmit intermediate frequency (IF) signal. System 302 may also support the reception of a forward downlink signal from a satellite 102 (or other system such as an air-to-ground system) and the transmission of a return uplink signal back to the satellite 102 (or other system such as an air-to-ground system) to support the bidirectional communications.

[0095] Antenna 304 may be configured to communicate signals between vehicle 300 and satellites 102 or other systems (not shown in FIG. 3). The signals may be communicated via one or more communications links (not shown). Antenna 304 may be mounted to an elevation and azimuth gimbal which points antenna 304 toward the satellite 102 and allows actively tracking the satellite.

[0096] Modem 308 may be implemented as a separate component, as shown in FIG. 3, or may be integrated with network performance monitoring system 321 of communications and onboard service management system 312. Modem 308 may be configured to generate modulated uplink data based on the uplink data received from communications and onboard service management system 312. The modulated IF signal may be delivered to transceiver 306.

[0097] Transceiver 306 may be configured to convert and then amplify the modulated uplink data to generate a return uplink signal and transmit the amplified signal via antenna system 304 to one or more satellites 102. Transceiver 306 may be also configured toreceive, via antenna system 304, a forward downlink signal from the satellites 102. Transceiver 306 may, for example, amplify and down-convert the forward downlink signal and generate modulated downlink data, such as a receive IF signal, to be then demodulated by modem 308. The demodulated downlink data may be then provided from modem 308 to communications and onboard service management system 312 for routing to target devices 316 and / or seatback systems 318.

[0098] Target devices 316 may include smartphones, laptops, tablets, iPods, PDAs, netbooks, and the like, that have been brought onto vehicle 300 by passengers and crew members. Target devices 316 and / or seatback systems 318 may communicate with communications and onboard service management system 312 via communication links (not shown) which may be wired and / or wireless. The communications links may be part of a local area network (LAN) or a wireless area network (WLAN) supported by WAPs 314. WAPs 314 may be installed in various locations of vehicle 300 and may be configured to provide the traffic switching and routing functionalities.

[0099] Positioning system 332 may include Global Positioning System (GPS) circuitry configured to determine a present location or position of vehicle 300. Positioning system 332 may receive positioning information from sensors installed throughout vehicle 300. The position information may include readings of altitude, longitude, latitude, elapsed distance from an origination terminal, and the like. In some implementations, each position reading is associated with a corresponding time value corresponding to the time at which vehicle 300 was at a particular position, and at which the particular position value was recorded.

[0100] In some examples, the system 100 (e.g., utilizing the on-ground system 200 and / or onboard system 350) may generate a session performance data feed. The session performance data feed may comprise records of data for individual users of onboard services. The session performance data feed may be generated for one or more discrete time periods during which onboard services are provided. For example, the session performance data feed may be generated at a set or varied frequency. The frequency of the discrete time periods may be, for example, one-minute periods, five-minute periods, ten- minute periods, or othervalues. In some instances, the duration of the discrete timeperiods may differ based on system performance information, the time of day, Location of the vehicle, or another parameter. For instance, for certain periods of the day (e.g., overnight periods or other periods of relatively low volume of onboard service consumption), the discrete time period may be a greater duration than during high-usage periods, in which the discrete time period for which the session performance data feed is generated may be relatively shorter. This may provide more granular data during periods of high consumption of the onboard services.

[0101] In any regard, the session performance data feed may utilize a data schema 400 to generate records for users consuming onboard services. An example of the data schema 400 is illustrated in Fig. 4. A plurality of data fields 402 may be provided for each record of the session performance data feed. The plurality of data fields 402 may include a unique flight identifier 404 associated with the flight on which onboard services are provided. This may include unique values for each trip of each vehicle monitored. The plurality of data fields 402 may also include a vehicle identifier 406. In the illustrated example, the vehicle identifier comprises a tail identifier of the aircraft. The plurality of data fields 402 may also include a session type value 410. The session type value 410 may indicate the nature of the onboard services provided to a given user. For instance, different service tiers may be provided, such as free service, paid service, premium service, etc. It may be appreciated that the different service tiers may be individually processed and / or the service tiers may be aggregated in data analysis. The plurality of data fields 402 may also include a session performance metric 412. This may include any of the performance metrics described herein, including aggregations of different metrics. In the illustrated example, the session performance metric 412 is a percentile rank of the onboard service performance provided to the users relative to other users. In addition, the plurality of data fields 402 may include a timestamp value 414 that provides an indication of the time the data was gathered. In some instances, though not shown, additional data fields may be included, such as a data field for user device type with corresponding description and example values.

[0102] With further reference to Fig. 5, a method 500 is illustrated as an example use of the session performance data feed. The method 500 is performed by one or morecomponents of the on-ground system 200 of FIG. 2, such as the service monitor 202 or the data aggregator 204. In some embodiments, the method 500 is performed by one or more components of the on-board system 300 of FIG. 3, such as the communications and onboard service management system 312. The method 500 includes an obtaining step 510 in which the performance status of an onboard service provided to a plurality of users of the onboard service is obtained during a discrete time period. This may include, for each trip monitored, obtaining the performance status from a door close event to a door open event forthe vehicle. A door close event is an occurrence of when the passengers for a given vehicle’s trip have been loaded onto the vehicle and the vehicle is readied for departure. For aircraft, this coincides with the closing of the aircraft door. Similarly, a door open event coincides with a conclusion of the trip at which point passengers may disembark. Again, for aircraft, this generally corresponds to the opening of the aircraft door once arrived at a gate of the destination. In this regard, the obtaining step 510 may be performed both when the vehicle is taxiing as well as once airborne.

[0103] The method 500 may also include an identifying step 520. The identifying step 520 may include identifying (e.g., calculating) a relative performance metric of the onboard service provided to a user duringthe discrete time period. This relative performance metric may be provided relative to other users of the onboard service. For instance, as noted above regarding the data schema 400, the session performance metric 412 may include a percentile rank of the performance of the onboard services for a given user relative to others of the users.

[0104] In turn, the method 500 may include a generating step 530, in which a record comprising the relative performance metric is generated. The record generated in the generating step 530 may be in the form of the data schema 400 as illustrated in FIG. 4. That is, the record may include the relative performance record for a specific given user to which services are provided during the discrete time period. The method 500 also includes a providing step 540 in which the record generated in the generating step 530 may be provided to a data repository. The providing step 540 may occur in real-time, for instance, at the conclusion of the discrete time period. There may be some delay from the conclusionof the discrete time period and the providing step 540, but the delay may be minimal. For example, the providing step 540 may occur prior to the conclusion of a subsequent discrete time period, prior to the conclusion of the trip, within about five minutes, within about 10 minutes, orwithin about 15 minutes.

[0105] Once the providing step 540 occurs, the record (or records) generated duringthe method 500 may be available to provide to a third-party, such as a client airline. This may include sending the records of the data repository to the client airline. Alternatively, the data repository may be accessible by the client airline. For example, the client airline may have access privileges to the data repository, or the data repository may comprise a shared cloud storage instance accessible by the onboard service provider and the client airline.

[0106] In any regard, the client airline may access the data repository and records therein to analyze the onboard services provided. For example, the client airline may take the collective ranks from a portion or the entirety of a flight and perform calculations to leverage the records in the data repository. This may include providing refunds to the users or specific client devices based on unmet performance targets or may otherwise include addressing customer issues. Additionally, as noted above, the records in the data repository may be analyzed and used to control aspects of the communications network or components thereof. This may occur at the conclusion of the trip or duringthe trip. As such, the collective ranks of the records in the data repository may provide an understanding of the experience of the onboard services at a user / device level.

[0107] In some embodiments, the method 500 may further include steps of aggregating data records in the data repository and / or analyzing aggregated or a set of data records based on one or more data record field information, such as session type, device type, flight or tail identifier, time, etc.

[0108] FIG. 6 illustrates a first performance graph 600 and a second performance graph 650. The first performance graph 600 and the second performance graph 650 each comprise individual records 602 of a session performance data feed. In this regard, the first performance graph 600 and the second performance graph 650 represent records for respective user sessions over time. The vertical axis represents the percentile rank of the 1performance metric from the respective session performance data feeds, represented as a number between 0 and 1 . The first performance graph 600 and second performance graph 650 illustrate how the session performance data feeds may be analyzed to provide feedback on service performance. For example, the first performance graph 600 illustrates a relatively stable performance metric over the course of a trip. While one low data point 604 is included, the majority of the individual records 602 are above 0.8. Lower values of the performance metric in the first performance graph 600 may correspond to a period in which the user was not usingthe onboard services. For example, the user may have taken a break, used the restroom, or otherwise been occupied without using the services or the services may have been interrupted briefly. However, such stability of many of the consecutive records 602 as shown in the first performance graph 600 may indicate general stability of the performance of the onboard services.

[0109] In contrast, the second performance graph 650 illustrates a relatively erratic behavior in which the performance metric oscillates between relatively high percentile rank values and low percentile rank values, with little consistency between consecutive records. In turn, where the first performance graph 650 represented a trip with relatively stable onboard services performance, the second performance graph 650 may represent a trip in which the user experienced degraded or erratic performance of the onboard services, which may not be explained by user behavior, such as the first performance graph 600. As such, analysis of the first performance graph 600 and the second performance graph 650 (e.g., by an airline client or the like) may allow determinations regarding the onboard service performance for the respective users represented by the first performance graph 600 and the second performance graph 650 to be made. This may drive corrective action or remedial actions such as issuing a refund to the user associated with the second performance graph 650.

[0110] In the context of the present approach and with general reference to FIG. 7, a particular trip is an ongoing trip for which a trip-viewer, such as a trip-viewer 702, may be generated and displayed using a graphical user interface, such as a graphical user interface 700. As will be described in greater detail herein, the trip-viewer may include comparativeperformance data in the form of a comparative indicium for one or more of the onboard service metrics displayed in the trip-viewer

[0111] In some embodiments, upon receiving a request for a trip detail view for a particular trip, a system implementing the presented approach may generate a graphical user interface to display a trip-viewer for the particular trip. Determiningthe other trips comprising the comparative performance, as well as determining similarity between the trips, is described in detail in FIG. 8. Non-limiting examples of the trips are the flights carried by aircraft, helicopters, and the like.

[0112] In some embodiments, the trip-viewer depicts, among other things, a comparative indicator (e.g., an icon) that indicates status of onboard services provided during the particular trip. The comparative indicator may be presented in addition to the indicator that corresponds to the comparative performance of the particular trip to other trips. For example, suppose that the characteristic used to determine similarity between the trips is a trip departure time, and the onboard service that is monitored is the quality of in-flight communications (IFC) service. In this example, the trip-viewer may depict, among other things, the indicator that indicates the status of IFC services provided during the particular trip, while the comparative indicator may illustrate the comparative performance of IFC onboard services of other trips that had a similar departure time as the particular trip.

[0113] Information depicted in the trip-viewer, includingthe indicator and comparative indicator, may be provided by, for example, an on-ground system, such as on-ground system 200 described in FIG. 2, which corresponds to on-ground system 112 described in FIG. 1. Alternatively, the information may be provided by an onboard system, such as onboard system 350 described in FIG. 3.

[0114] FIG. 7 is an example of the GUI 700 depicting the example -trip-viewer 702 for a particular trip. The depicted example of the trip-viewer 702 including comparative indicia based on comparative performance to other trips is one of many possible depictions of the information that may be shown for the particular trip and for the comparative indicia. Inother implementations, the viewers may be arranged differently and may depict the information in forms that are different than those shown in FIG. 7.

[0115] The example depicted in FIG. 7 includes a trip-viewer 702 for a particular trip.The depicted arrangement for the viewer should be viewed as an example of many different ways of arranging the content of the viewer.

[0116] Trip-viewer 702 for a particular trip may depict various information specific for the particular trip. For example, trip-viewer 702 may include a trip identification window 704 that shows a departure time of the particular trip, an estimated or actual arrival time of the particular trip, a code of the airport from which the flight departed, and a code of the airport at which the trip will end. In the depicted example, the flight took off from Havana, Cuba (HAV) airport at 16:05 UTC and landed at Miami, FL at 15:54 UTC.

[0117] Trip-viewer 702 may also depict a map 706, which graphically represents a flight path from the departing airport to the destination.

[0118] Trip-viewer 702 may further depict a tail information window 708, which may provide the tail identification of the vehicle used during the particular trip, the make of the vehicle, the model, the version of the software implemented on the vehicle, and the version of the content. Other information may also be presented in that window.

[0119] Furthermore, trip-viewer 702 may depict a flight metrics window 710. Window 710 may include flight metrics information about various onboard services provided during the particular trip. The onboard service that is monitored may include the availability of inflight communications (IFC) service. Window 710 may depict, among other things, an indicium 712 that indicates the status of IFC services provided during the particular trip. In addition, a comparative indicium 714 may depict a comparative performance between the status of the particular trip and a second status of the availability of IFC service for one or more other trips (e.g., similar trips or selected trips). In the example depicted in FIG. 7, indicium 712 indicates that the IFC onboard service availability was 60.0% of the time available duringthe particular trip. The comparative indicium 714 may show that the comparative performance of the particular trip to the other trip(s) was 27.0% lower than the status of the IFC onboard service availability for the other trip(s). Similarly, the window 710may also include indicium and comparative indicium for the number of unique devices used on the trip, the average download rate, and the data usage. In this regard, the comparative indicia may include at least one of a directional indication of the comparative performance and a magnitude of the comparative performance. For instance, the directional indication may include an icon, such as an arrow, symbol, or other indicator that indicates whether the status of the trip is better or worse than the second status of the othertrip(s). As shown in FIG. 7, this may include a directional arrow pointing“down” in the window 710 to show that the status is worse than the second status of the other trip(s). Other indicia may also be provided, such as color coding or the like to convey a directional indication. The magnitude of the comparative performance may be provided as a numericalvalue (e.g., as shown in FIG. 7 as a difference in percentage), a symbol, a bar, or other indication that shows the magnitude of the comparative performance comprisingthe difference between the status of the particular trip and a second status of the other trip(s).

[0120] Referring again to trip-viewer 702, the viewer may also include an events timeline window 716.

[0121] As noted above, the comparative indicia may represent the comparative performance of a particular trip relative to the corresponding one or more services provided on the other trip(s). In some examples, the other trip(s) may be past trips. The other trip(s) may include similar trips to the particular trip. Similarity between a particular trip (i.e., an ongoing trip) and othertrips (i.e., an already completed trips) may be determined using a variety of approaches. In some embodiments, determining similarity between a particular trip and other trips may include comparing a characteristic of the particular trip with a characteristic of the other trip(s) to determine whether the corresponding characteristics are similar. This may include checking whether the characteristic of the other trip(s) and the characteristic of the particular trip meet a condition used to determine the similarity between the trips.

[0122] The process of identifying similar trip(s) may include identifying a set of similar other trip(s) that meet the condition. The set of other trips may then be sorted to create an ordered list based on one or more criteria. In some embodiments, a certain number of theother trip(s) at the top of the ordered List may be selected for inclusion in determining the comparative performance of the particular trip for one or more onboard services. For example, the set of similar other trips may be those trips that have the same departure and destination. The set is then sorted based on their departure time, and the ten most recent past trips can then be selected for inclusion in determining the comparative performance to the particular trip.

[0123] Depending on the type of the characteristics, this may include, for example, determinin whetherthe corresponding characteristics are the same, orwhetherthe corresponding characteristics are within a predetermined time interval, or whether the corresponding characteristics are within a predetermined distance. Detailed examples are described below.

[0124] Each trip may have assigned a plurality of characteristics. The characteristics may be obtained by, for example, an on-ground system, like on-ground system 200 depicted in FIG. 2, which may correspond to on-ground system 112 depicted in FIG. 1 .

[0125] FIG. 8 depicts examples of trip characteristics 810 and examples of conditions 824-842 used to determine similarities between trips. In some embodiments, examples of trip characteristics 810 include: an origin location 812 of the trip, a departure time 814 of the trip, a destination location 816 of the trip, an arrival time 818 of the trip, a trip identifier 820, and a vehicle identifier 822 of the vehicle used in the trip. In other embodiments, additional characteristics may also be considered in determining whether an other trip and a particular trip are similar. The correspondence between trip characteristic 812-822 and conditions 824-842 is depicted in FIG. 8 using arrows.

[0126] In some embodiments, example conditions 824-842 are used to determine whether an other trip and a particular trip are similar. Typically, one of the conditions 824- 842 is preselected and used to determine the similarity between the trips. The selection of the condition used to determine the similarity between the trips may be modified or overwritten by an operator of, for example, a trip management system.

[0127] In FIG. 8, according to a condition example 824, the other trip is similar to a particular trip if both trips originated at the same location. An origin location of a trip maycorrespond to an airport at which the trip was originated. According to a condition example 826, the other trip is similar to a particular trip if an origin location of the other trip and an origin location of the particular trip are within a predetermined distance. A predetermined distance may be expressed in miles, tens of miles, and the like.

[0128] Accordingto a condition example 828, the other trip is similarto a particular trip if both trips have the same departure time. A departure time of a trip may be indicated using a date, a time, a date / time, a month, a year, and the like. According to a condition example 830, the other trip is similar to a particular trip if a departure time of the other trip and a departure time of the particular trip are within a predetermined time period. A predetermined time period may be expressed in minutes, hours, and the like.

[0129] Accordingto a condition example 832, the other trip is similarto a particular trip if both trips are destined to the same location. A destination location of a trip may correspond to an airport at which the trip ends. According to a condition example 834, the other trip is similar to a particular trip if a destination location of the other trip and a destination location of the particular trip are within a predetermined distance. A predetermined distance may be expressed in miles, tens of miles, and the like.

[0130] Accordingto a condition example 836, the other trip is similarto a particular trip if both trips have the same arrival time. An arrival time of a trip may be indicated using a date, a time, a date / time, a month, a year, and the like. Accordingto a condition example 838, the othertrip is similarto a particular trip if an arrival time of the other trip and an arrival time of the particular trip are within a predetermined time period. A predetermined time period may be expressed in minutes, hours, and the like.

[0131] Accordingto a condition example 840, the other trip is similarto a particular trip if a trip identifier of the other trip is the same as a trip identifier of the particulartrip. A trip identifier may be an encoded identifier assigned to a trip by the airlines, the airport, and the like. According to a condition example 842, the trip is similar to a particular trip if a vehicle identifier of the vehicle used during the other trip is the same as a vehicle identifier of the vehicle used during the particular trip. Examples of a vehicle identifier include a vehicle tail ID, a nose ID, an aircraft serial number, and the like.

[0132] In some other embodiments, additional conditions may be used to determine similarity between trips. For example, in some implementations, the conditions use more than one characteristic. Examples of such conditions may include a condition that checks both departure times for the trips and arrival times for the trips. Another example of such conditions includes a condition that checks both departure times forthe trips and vehicle identifiers of the vehicles used during the trips. Other conditions may include additional characteristics of the trips that have not been depicted in FIG. 8.

[0133] In some embodiments, the trip characteristics and examples of conditions 824- 842 may include characteristics and / or conditions related to or based on data fields of data schema used in an onboard service session performance data feed to generate a record, such as the data fields 402 of the data schema 400. For example, though not shown in FIG. 8, data fields 402 such as the tailjd 406, the guid 408, the session_type 410, the timestamp 414, etc., and the corresponding record value may be used to determine similarity between trips and corresponding comparative performance. Similarly, the graphical user interface 700 and the trip-viewer 702 may display indicia related to trips compared based on data fields 402 and similar data fields.

[0134] FIG. 9 is a flowchart of an example method 900 for visualizing a comparative performance indicator of onboard services provided in a trip of a vehicle relative to other trips. The method 900 may include an obtaining step 910, in which the status of one or more onboard services provided during a trip of a vehicle is obtained. As described above, this may include monitoring or measuring onboard service performance. This may be performed at the network performance monitoring system 321 of the onboard system 350 and / or the one or more service monitors 202 of the on-ground system 200.

[0135] Method 900 may also include an identifying step 920. In the step 920 one or more other trips for which onboard services are provided may be identified. As described above, the one or more other trips may comprise past trips and may include similar trips to the particular trip. At the obtaining step 930, a second status of one or more corresponding onboard services provided to the one or more other trips may be obtained. This may include retrieving historical data regarding the other trips or obtaining the status of theother trips in real time. The obtaining step 930 may also include aggregating the status of a plurality of other trips to obtain an other trip status that is a combination of the status of the onboard services of the plurality of the other trips.

[0136] The method 900 may also include a determining step 940, in which a comparative performance between the status and the second status of corresponding ones of the one or more onboard services. This may include calculating a difference between the status and the second status to provide a relative indication of the performance of the status to the second status.

[0137] In turn, at a generating step 950, first graphical interface data may be generated. The first graphical interface data may include an indicium of the status of the one or more onboard services provided during the target trip. In addition, the first graphical interface data may include a comparative indicium corresponding to the comparative performance. A transmitting step 960 may include transmitting to a display device, the first graphical interface data to cause the display device to generate and display a comparative performance viewer that includes the indicium and the comparative indicium.

[0138] Clause 1 . A method for generating a session performance data feed for performance of one or more onboard services provided during a trip of a vehicle, the method comprising: obtaining a performance status of an onboard service provided to a plurality of users of the onboard service; generating a relative performance metric of the onboard service relative to other onboard services; generating a record comprising the relative performance metric for the user during the discrete time period; and providing the record to a data repository.

[0139] Clause 2. The method of clause 1 , wherein the obtainingthe performance status of the onboard service provided to the plurality of users of the onboard service is for a discrete time period, and the method further comprises: identifying, for a user of the plurality of users, the relative performance metric of the onboard service provided to the user during the discrete time period relative to others of the plurality of users of the onboard service duringthe discrete time period.

[0140] Clause 3. The method of clause 2, wherein the record is provided duringthe trip of the vehicle at the conclusion of the discrete time period.

[0141] Clause 4. The method of any one of the clauses 1-3, further comprising: repeating the method over a plurality of discrete time periods.

[0142] Clause 5. The method of at least one of the clauses 1-4, further comprising: identifying, for each of the plurality of users, a respective performance metric of the onboard services provided to corresponding ones of the plurality of users during the discrete time period relative to the others of the plurality of users of the onboard services; and generating a respective record comprisingthe respective performance metric for each of the plurality of users during the discrete time period.

[0143] Clause 6. The method of at least one of the clauses 1-5, wherein the plurality of users comprise users of the onboard services over a plurality of vehicles.

[0144] Clause 7. The method of at least one of the clauses 1-6, wherein the relative performance metric comprises a percentile rank of the performance status of the onboard service provided to the user during the discrete time period relative to the others of the plurality of users of the onboard service.

[0145] Clause 8. The method of at least one of the clauses 1-7, wherein the plurality of users all belong to a given session type for the onboard services, and wherein the given session type comprises one of a plurality of session types for which the method is performed.

[0146] Clause 9. The method of at least one of the clauses 1-8, wherein each of the plurality of users is identified with a unique user identifier, and wherein the record comprises the unique user identifier and the relative performance metric.

[0147] Clause 10. The method of at least one of the clauses 1-9, further comprising: identifying one or more other trips for which onboard services are provided; obtaining a second status of one or more corresponding onboard services provided to the one or more other trips, wherein the relative performance metric comprises a comparative performance between the status and the second status of corresponding ones of the one or more onboard services; and generating first graphical interface data representing: an indicium ofthe status of the one or more onboard services provided during the target trip, and a comparative indicium corresponding to the comparative performance; and transmitting to a display device, the first graphical interface data to cause the display device to generate and display a comparative performance viewer that includes the indicium and the comparative indicium.

[0148] Clause 11 . The method of at least one of clauses 1 -10, wherein the one or more other trips comprise an other trip characteristic similar to a particular trip characteristic of the trip.

[0149] Clause 12. The method of at least one of clauses 1-11 , wherein the one or more other trips comprise past trips.

[0150] Clause 13. The method of at least one of clauses 1-12, wherein one or more characteristics comprise one or more of an origin location, a departure time, a destination location, an arrival time, or a trip identifier.

[0151] Clause 14. The method of at least one of the clauses 1-13, wherein the one or more other trips comprise a plurality of other trips, and wherein the second status comprises an aggregation of the one or more corresponding onboard services provided to the plurality of other trips.

[0152] Clause 15. The method of at least one of the clauses 1-14, wherein the one or more onboard services comprises at least a first onboard service and a second onboard service, and the first graphical interface data further comprises a first indicium of a first status of the first onboard service and a second indicium of a second status of the second onboard service, the first indicium and the second indicium each having a corresponding comparative indicium corresponding to the second status of the respective first onboard service and the second onboard service of the one or more other trips.

[0153] Clause 16. The method of at least one of the clauses 1-15, wherein the comparative indicium comprises at least one of a directional indication of the comparative performance and a magnitude of the comparative performance.

[0154] Clause 17. An apparatus for generating a session performance feed for performance of one or more onboard services provided during a trip of a vehicle, theapparatus comprising: a processor; memory in electronic communication with the processor: and instructions stored in the memory and executable by the processor to cause the processor to perform: obtaining a performance status of an onboard service provided to a plurality of users of the onboard service; generating a relative performance metric of the onboard service relative to other onboard services; generating a record comprising the relative performance metric for the user during the discrete time period; and providing the record to a data repository.

[0155] Clause 18. The apparatus of clause 17, wherein the obtainingthe performance status of the onboard service provided to the plurality of users of the onboard service is for a discrete time period, and the instructions further cause the processor to perform: identifying, for a user of the plurality of users, the relative performance metric of the onboard service provided to the user during the discrete time period relative to others of the plurality of users of the onboard service during the discrete time period.

[0156] Clause 19. The apparatus of at least one of the clauses 17-18, wherein the record is provided during the trip of the vehicle at the conclusion of the discrete time period.

[0157] Clause 20. The apparatus of at least one of the clauses 17-19, wherein instructions further cause the processor to perform: repeating the method over a plurality of discrete time periods.

[0158] Clause 21 . The apparatus of at least one of the clauses 17-20, wherein instructions further cause the processor to perform: identifying, for each of the plurality of users, a respective performance metric of the onboard services provided to corresponding ones of the plurality of users during the discrete time period relative to the others of the plurality of users of the onboard services; and generating a respective record comprising the respective performance metric for each of the plurality of users duringthe discrete time period.

[0159] Clause 22. The apparatus of at least one of the clauses 17-21 , wherein the plurality of users comprise users of the onboard services over a plurality of vehicles.

[0160] Clause 23. The apparatus of at least one of the clauses 17-22, wherein the relative performance metric comprises a percentile rank of the performance status of the onboard service provided to the user during the discrete time period relative to the others of the plurality of users of the onboard service.

[0161] Clause 24. The apparatus of at least one of the clauses 17-23, wherein the plurality of users all belong to a given session type for the onboard services, and wherein the given session type comprises one of a plurality of session types for which the method is performed.

[0162] Clause 25. The apparatus of at least one of the clauses 17-24, wherein each of the plurality of users is identified with a unique user identifier, and wherein the record comprises the unique user identifier and the relative performance metric.

[0163] Clause 26. The apparatus of at least one of the clauses 17-25, wherein instructions further cause the processor to perform: identifying one or more other trips for which onboard services are provided; obtaining a second status of one or more corresponding onboard services provided to the one or more other trips, wherein the relative performance metric comprises a comparative performance between the status and the second status of corresponding ones of the one or more onboard services; and generating first graphical interface data representing: an indicium of the status of the one or more onboard services provided during the target trip, and a comparative indicium correspondingto the comparative performance; and transmittingto a display device, the first graphical interface data to cause the display device to generate and display a comparative performance viewer that includes the indicium and the comparative indicium.

[0164] Clause 27. The apparatus of at least one of the clauses 17-26, wherein one or more other trips comprise another trip characteristic similar to a particular trip characteristic of the trip.

[0165] Clause 28. The apparatus of at least one of the clauses 17-27, wherein one or more other trips comprise past trips.

[0166] Clause 29. The apparatus of at least one of the clauses 17- 28, wherein one or more characteristics comprise one or more of an origin location, a departure time, a destination location, an arrival time, or a trip identifier.

[0167] Clause 30. The apparatus of at least one of the clauses 17-29, wherein the one or more other trips comprise a plurality of other trips, and wherein the second status comprises an aggregation of the one or more corresponding onboard services provided to the plurality of other trips.

[0168] Clause 31 . The apparatus of at least one of the clauses 17-30, wherein the one or more onboard services comprises at least a first onboard service and a second onboard service, and the first graphical interface data further comprises a first indicium of a first status of the first onboard service and a second indicium of a second status of the second onboard service, the first indicium and the second indicium each having a corresponding comparative indicium corresponding to the second status of the respective first onboard service and the second onboard service of the one or more other trips.

[0169] Clause 32. The apparatus of at least one of the clauses 17-31 , wherein the comparative indicium comprises at least one of a directional indication of the comparative performance and a magnitude of the comparative performance.

[0170] Clause 33. A method for generating a session performance data feed for performance of one or more onboard services provided during a trip of a vehicle, the method comprising: obtaining, for a discrete time period, a performance status of an onboard service provided to a plurality of users of the onboard service; identifying, for a user of the plurality of users, a relative performance metric of the onboard service provided to the user during the discrete time period relative to others of the plurality of users of the onboard service; generating a record comprising the relative performance metric for the user during the discrete time period; and providing the record to a data repository.

[0171] Clause 34. The method of clause 33, wherein the record is provided during the trip of the vehicle at the conclusion of the discrete time period.

[0172] Clause 35. The method of at least one of the clauses 33-34, further comprising: repeating the method over a plurality of discrete time periods.

[0173] Clause 36. The method of at least one of the clauses 33-35, wherein the plurality of discrete time periods comprise one-minute intervals, five-minute intervals, or ten- minute intervals.

[0174] Clause 37. The method of at least one of the clauses 33- 36, wherein the plurality of discrete time periods includes, for a given trip of a given vehicle, a time between a door close event and a door open event.

[0175] Clause 38. The method of at least one of the clauses 33-37, further comprising: identifying, for each of the plurality of users, a respective performance metric of the onboard services provided to corresponding ones of the plurality of users during the discrete time period relative to the others of the plurality of users of the onboard services; and generating a respective record comprisingthe respective performance metric for each of the plurality of users during the discrete time period.

[0176] Clause 39. The method of at least one of the clauses 33-38, wherein the plurality of users comprise users of the onboard services over a plurality of vehicles.

[0177] Clause 40. The method of at least one of the clauses 33-39, wherein the relative performance metric comprises a percentile rank of the performance status of the onboard service provided to the user during the discrete time period relative to the others of the plurality of users of the onboard service.

[0178] Clause 41 . The method of any one of the clauses 33-40, wherein the plurality of users all belong to a given session type for the onboard services.

[0179] Clause 42. The method of at least one of the clauses 33-41 , wherein the given session type comprises one of a plurality of session types for which the method is performed.

[0180] Clause 43. The method of at least one of the clauses 33-42, wherein each of the plurality of users is identified with a unique user identifier, and wherein the record comprises the unique user identifier and the relative performance metric.

[0181] Clause 44. The method of at least one of the clauses 33-43, further comprising: providing access to the data repository for access to a plurality of records, each corresponding to a respective one of the plurality of users.

[0182] Clause 45. An apparatus for generating a session performance feed for performance of one or more onboard services provided during a trip of a vehicle, the apparatus comprising: a processor; memory in electronic communication with the processor: and instructions stored in the memory and executable by the processor to cause the processor to perform: obtaining, for a discrete time period, a performance status of an onboard service provided to a plurality of users of the onboard service; identifying, for a user of the plurality of users, a relative performance metric of the onboard service provided to the user during the discrete time period relative to others of the plurality of users of the onboard service; generating a record comprising the relative performance metric for the user during the discrete time period; and providing the record to a data repository.

[0183] Clause 46. The apparatus of clause 45, wherein the record is provided duringthe trip of the vehicle at the conclusion of the discrete time period.

[0184] Clause 47. The apparatus of at least one of the clauses 45-46, wherein the instructions stored in the memory and executable by the processorfurther cause the processor to perform: repeating the method over a plurality of discrete time periods.

[0185] Clause 48. The apparatus of at least one of clauses 45-47, wherein the plurality of discrete time periods comprise one-minute intervals, five-minute intervals, or ten- minute intervals.

[0186] Clause 49. The apparatus of at least one of clauses 45-48, wherein the plurality of discrete time periods includes, for a given trip of a given vehicle, a time between a door close event and a door open event.

[0187] Clause 50. The apparatus of at least one of clauses 45-49, wherein the instructions stored in the memory and executable by the processorfurther cause the processor to perform: identifying, for each of the plurality of users, a respective performance metric of the onboard services provided to corresponding ones of the plurality of users during the discrete time period relative to the others of the plurality of users of the onboard services; and generating a respective record comprising therespective performance metric for each of the plurality of users duringthe discrete time period.

[0188] Clause 51 . The apparatus of at least one of the clauses 45-50, wherein the plurality of users comprise users of the onboard services over a plurality of vehicles.

[0189] Clause 52. The apparatus of at least one of the clauses 45-51 , wherein the relative performance metric comprises a percentile rank of the performance status of the onboard service provided to the user during the discrete time period relative to the others of the plurality of users of the onboard service.

[0190] Clause 53. The apparatus of at least one of the clauses 45-52, wherein the plurality of users all belong to a given session type for the onboard services.

[0191] Clause 54. The apparatus of at least one of the clauses 45-53, wherein the given session type comprises one of a plurality of session types for which the method is performed.

[0192] Clause 55. The apparatus of at least one of the clauses 45-54, wherein each of the plurality of users is identified with a unique user identifier, and wherein the record comprises the unique user identifier and the relative performance metric.

[0193] Clause 56. The apparatus of at least one of the clauses 45-55, wherein the instructions stored in the memory and executable by the processorfurther cause the processor to perform: providing access to the data repository for access to a plurality of records, each corresponding to a respective one of the plurality of users.

[0194] Clause 57. One or more non-transitory computer-readable storage media storing computer code for generating a session performance feed for performance of one or more onboard services provided during a trip of a vehicle, the computer code comprising instructions, which when executed by a processor, cause the processor to perform: obtaining, for a discrete time period, a performance status of an onboard service provided to a plurality of users of the onboard service; identifying, for a user of the plurality of users, a relative performance metric of the onboard service provided to the user during the discrete time period relative to others of the plurality of users of the onboard service;generating a record comprisingthe relative performance metric forthe user duringthe discrete time period; and providing the record to a data repository.

[0195] Clause 58. A method for visualizing a comparative performance indicator of onboard services provided in a trip of a vehicle relative to other trips, the method comprising: obtaining a status of one or more onboard services provided during a trip of a vehicle; identifying one or more other trips for which onboard services are provided; obtaining a second status of one or more corresponding onboard services provided to the one or more other trips; determining a comparative performance between the status and the second status of corresponding ones of the one or more onboard services; generating first graphical interface data representing: an indicium of the status of the one or more onboard services provided during the target trip, and a comparative indicium correspondingto the comparative performance; and transmittingto a display device, the first graphical interface data to cause the display device to generate and display a comparative performance viewer that includes the indicium and the comparative indicium.

[0196] Clause 59. The method of clause 58, wherein the one or more other trips comprise an other trip characteristic similar to a particular trip characteristic of the trip.

[0197] Clause 60. The method of at least one of the clauses 58-59, wherein the one or more other trips comprise past trips.

[0198] Clause 61 . The method of at least one of the clauses 58-60, wherein one or more characteristics comprise one or more of an origin location, a departure time, a destination location, an arrival time, or a trip identifier.

[0199] Clause 62. The method of at least one of the clauses 58-61 , wherein the other trip characteristic is similar to the particular trip characteristic when the other trip characteristic is the same as the particular trip characteristic of the trip.

[0200] Clause 63. The method of at least one of the clauses 58-62, wherein the other trip characteristic is similar to the particular trip characteristic when the other trip characteristic is within a predetermined time from the particular trip characteristic or within a predetermined distance from the particular trip characteristic.

[0201] Clause 64. The method of at least one of the clauses 58-63, wherein the one or more other trips comprise a plurality of other trips, and wherein the second status comprises an aggregation of the one or more corresponding onboard services provided to the plurality of other trips.

[0202] Clause 65. The method of at least one of the clauses 58-64, wherein the one or more onboard services comprises at least a first onboard service and a second onboard service, and the first graphical interface data further comprises a first indicium of a first status of the first onboard service and a second indicium of a second status of the second onboard service, the first indicium and the second indicium each having a corresponding comparative indicium corresponding to the second status of the respective first onboard service and the second onboard service of the one or more other trips.

[0203] Clause 66. The method of at least one of the clauses 58-65, wherein the comparative indicium comprises at least one of a directional indication of the comparative performance and a magnitude of the comparative performance.

[0204] Clause 67. The method of at least one of the clauses 58-66, wherein the comparative indica comprises an icon corresponding to the comparative performance.

[0205] Clause 68. The method of at least one of the clauses 58-67, further comprising: measuringthe status of one or more onboard services provided during the trip of the vehicle.

[0206] Clause 69. The method of at least one of the clauses 58-68, wherein the measuring occurs during the trip of the vehicle and the first graphical interface comprises a real-time display of the status of the one or more onboard services and the comparative performance.

[0207] Clause 70. An apparatus for visualizing a comparative performance indicator of onboard services provided in a trip of a vehicle relative to other trips, the apparatus comprising: a processor; memory in electronic communication with the processor; and instructions stored in the memory and executable by the processorto cause the processor to perform: obtaining a status of one or more onboard services provided during a trip of a vehicle; identifying one or more other trips for which onboard services are provided;obtaining a second status of one or more corresponding onboard services provided to the one or more other trips; determining a comparative performance between the status and the second status of corresponding ones of the one or more onboard services; generating first graphical interface data representing: an indicium of the status of the one or more onboard services provided during the target trip, and a comparative indicium correspondingto the comparative performance; and transmittingto a display device, the first graphical interface data to cause the display device to generate and display a comparative performance viewer that includes the indicium and the comparative indicium.

[0208] Clause 71 . The apparatus of clause 70, wherein the one or more other trips comprise an other trip characteristic similar to a particular trip characteristic of the trip.

[0209] Clause 72. The apparatus of at least one of clauses 70-71 , wherein the one or more other trips comprise past trips.

[0210] Clause 73. The apparatus of at least one of the clauses 70-72, wherein one or more characteristics comprise one or more of an origin location, a departure time, a destination location, an arrival time, or a trip identifier.

[0211] Clause 74. The apparatus of at least one of the clauses 70-73, wherein the other trip characteristic is similar to the particular trip characteristic when the other trip characteristic is the same as the particular trip characteristic of the trip.

[0212] Clause 75. The apparatus of at least one of the clauses 70-74, wherein the other trip characteristic is similar to the particular trip characteristic when the other trip characteristic is within a predetermined time from the particular trip characteristic or within a predetermined distance from the particular trip characteristic.

[0213] Clause 76. The apparatus of at least one of the clauses 70-75, wherein the one or more other trips comprise a plurality of other trips, and wherein the second status comprises an aggregation of the one or more corresponding onboard services provided to the plurality of other trips.

[0214] Clause 77. The apparatus of at least one of the clauses 70-76, wherein the one or more onboard services comprises at least a first onboard service and a second onboard service, and the first graphical interface data further comprises a first indicium of a firststatus of the first onboard service and a second indicium of a second status of the second onboard service, the first indicium and the second indicium each having a corresponding comparative indicium corresponding to the second status of the respective first onboard service and the second onboard service of the one or more other trips.

[0215] Clause 78. The apparatus of at least one of the clauses 70-77, wherein the comparative indicium comprises at least one of a directional indication of the comparative performance and a magnitude of the comparative performance.

[0216] Clause 79. The apparatus of at least one of the clauses 70-78, wherein the comparative indica comprises an icon corresponding to the comparative performance.

[0217] Clause 80. The apparatus of at least one of the clauses 70-79, wherein the instructions stored in the memory and executable by the processorfurther cause the processor to perform: measuring the status of one or more onboard services provided during the trip of the vehicle.

[0218] Clause 81 . The apparatus of at least one of the clauses 70-80, wherein the measuring occurs during the trip of the vehicle and the first graphical interface comprises a real-time display of the status of the one or more onboard services and the comparative performance.

[0219] Clause 82. One or more non-transitory computer-readable storage media storing computer code for visualizing a comparative performance indicator of onboard services provided in a trip of a vehicle relative to other trips, the computer code comprising instructions which, when executed by a processor, cause the processor to perform: obtaining a status of one or more onboard services provided during a trip of a vehicle; identifying one or more other trips for which onboard services are provided; obtaining a second status of one or more corresponding onboard services provided to the one or more other trips; determining a comparative performance between the status and the second status of corresponding ones of the one or more onboard services; generating first graphical interface data representing: an indicium of the status of the one or more onboard services provided duringthe target trip, and a comparative indicium correspondingto the comparative performance; and transmitting to a display device, the first graphical interfacedata to cause the display device to generate and display a comparative performance viewer that includes the indicium and the comparative indicium.

[0220] It is understood that the present subject matter may be embodied in many different forms and should not be construed as being limited to the embodiments set forth herein. Rather, these embodiments are provided so that this subject matter will be thorough and complete and will convey the disclosure to those skilled in the art. Indeed, the subject matter is intended to cover alternatives, modifications, and equivalents of these embodiments, which are included within the scope and spirit of the subject matter as defined by the appended claims and their equivalents. Furthermore, in the detailed description of the present subject matter, numerous specific details are set forth in order to provide a thorough understanding of the present subject matter. However, it will be clear to those of ordinary skill in the art that the present subject matter may be practiced without such specific details.

[0221] Aspects of the present disclosure are described herein with reference to flowchart illustrations and / or block diagrams of methods, apparatuses (systems), and computer program products according to embodiments of the disclosure. It will be understood that each block of the flowchart illustrations and / or block diagrams, and combinations of blocks in the flowchart illustrations and / or block diagrams, can be implemented by computer program instructions. These computer program instructions may be provided to a processor of a general purpose computer, special purpose computer, or other programmable data processing apparatus to produce a machine, such that the instructions, which execute via the processor of the computer or other programmable instruction execution apparatus, create a mechanism for implementing the functions / acts specified in the flowchart and / or block diagram block or blocks. The computer program instructions may be stored in a non-transitory computer-readable media.

[0222] The non-transitory computer-readable media includes all types of computer- readable media, including magnetic storage media, optical storage media, and solid-state storage media and specifically excludes signals. It should be understood that the software can be installed in and sold with the device. Alternatively, the software can be obtained andloaded into the device, including obtainingthe software via a disc medium orfrom any manner of network or distribution system, including, for example, from a server owned by the software creator or from a server not owned but used by the software creator. The software can be stored on a server for distribution over the Internet, for example.

[0223] Computer-readable storage media (medium) exclude (excludes) propagated signals per se, can be accessed by a computer and / or processor(s), and include volatile and non-volatile internal and / or external media that is removable and / or non-removable. For the computer, the various types of storage media accommodate the storage of data in any suitable digital format. It should be appreciated by those skilled in the art that other types of computer readable medium can be employed such as zip drives, solid state drives, magnetic tape, flash memory cards, flash drives, cartridges, and the like, for storing computer executable instructions for performing the novel methods (acts) of the disclosed architecture.

[0224] The terminology used herein is forthe purpose of describing particular aspects only and is not intended to be limiting of the disclosure. As used herein, the singular forms "a," "an" and "the" are intended to include the plural forms as well, unless the context clearly indicates otherwise. It will be further understood that the terms "comprises" and / or "comprising," when used in this specification, specify the presence of stated features, integers, steps, operations, elements, and / or components, but do not preclude the presence or addition of one or more other features, integers, steps, operations, elements, components, and / or groups thereof.

[0225] The description of the present disclosure has been presented for purposes of illustration and description, but is not intended to be exhaustive or limited to the disclosure in the form disclosed. Many modifications and variations will be apparent to those of ordinary skill in the art without departing from the scope and spirit of the disclosure. The aspects of the disclosure herein were chosen and described in orderto best explain the principles of the disclosure and the practical application, and to enable others of ordinary skill in the art to understand the disclosure with various modifications as are suited to the particular use contemplated.

[0226] For purposes of this document, each process associated with the disclosed technology may be performed continuously and by one or more computing devices. Each step in a process may be performed by the same or different computing devices as those used in other steps, and each step need not necessarily be performed by a single computing device.

[0227] Although the subject matter has been described in language specific to structural features and / or methodological acts, it is to be understood that the subject matter defined in the appended claims is not necessarily limited to the specific features or acts described above. Rather, the specific features and acts described above are disclosed as example forms of implementingthe claims.

Claims

What is claimed is:1 . A method for generating a session performance data feed for performance of one or more onboard services provided during a trip of a vehicle, the method comprising: obtaining a performance status of an onboard service provided to a plurality of users of the onboard service; generating a relative performance metric of the onboard service relative to other onboard services; generating a record comprising the relative performance metric; and providing the record to a data repository.

2. The method of claim 1 , wherein the obtaining the performance status of the onboard service provided to the plurality of users of the onboard service is for a discrete time period, and the method further comprises: identifying, for a user of the plurality of users, the relative performance metric of the onboard service provided to the user during the discrete time period relative to others of the plurality of users of the onboard service during the discrete time period.

3. The method of claim 2, wherein the record is provided during the trip of the vehicle at a conclusion of the discrete time period.

4. The method of any one of claims 2-3, further comprising: repeating the method over a plurality of discrete time periods.

5. The method of any one of claims 2-4, further comprising: identifying, for each of the plurality of users, a respective performance metric of the onboard services provided to corresponding ones of the plurality of users during the discrete time period relative to the others of the plurality of users of the onboard services; andgenerating a respective record comprising the respective performance metric for each of the plurality of users during the discrete time period.

6. The method of any one of claims 2-5, wherein the plurality of users comprise users of the onboard services over a plurality of vehicles.

7. The method of any one of claims 2-6, wherein the relative performance metric comprises a percentile rank of the performance status of the onboard service provided to the user during the discrete time period relative to the others of the plurality of users of the onboard service.

8. The method of any one of claims 2-7, wherein the plurality of users all belong to a given session type for the onboard services, and wherein the given session type comprises one of a plurality of session types for which the method is performed.

9. The method of any one of claims 2-8, wherein each of the plurality of users is identified with a unique user identifier, and wherein the record comprises the unique user identifier and the relative performance metric.

10. The method of any one of claims 1-9, further comprising: identifying one or more other trips for which onboard services are provided; obtaining a second status of one or more corresponding onboard services provided to the one or more other trips, wherein the relative performance metric comprises a comparative performance between the status and the second status of corresponding ones of the one or more onboard services; generating first graphical interface data representing: an indicium of the status of the one or more onboard services provided during the trip, and a comparative indicium corresponding to the comparative performance; andtransmittingto a display device, the first graphical interface data to cause the display device to generate and display a comparative performance viewer that includes the indicium and the comparative indicium.

11. The method of claim 10, wherein the one or more other trips comprise an other trip characteristic similar to a particular trip characteristic of the trip.

12. The method of any one of claims 10-11 , wherein the one or more other trips comprise past trips.

13. The method of any one of claims 10-12, wherein one or more characteristics comprise one or more of an origin location, a departure time, a destination location, an arrival time, or a trip identifier.

14. The method of any one of claims 10-13, wherein the one or more other trips comprise a plurality of other trips, and wherein the second status comprises an aggregation of the one or more corresponding onboard services provided to the plurality of other trips.

15. The method of any one of claims 10-14, wherein the one or more onboard services comprises at least a first onboard service and a second onboard service, and the first graphical interface data further comprises a first indicium of a first status of the first onboard service and a second indicium of a second status of the second onboard service, the first indicium and the second indicium each having a corresponding comparative indicium correspondingto the second status of the respective first onboard service and the second onboard service of the one or more other trips.

16. The method of claim 10, wherein the comparative indicium comprises at least one of a directional indication of the comparative performance and a magnitude of the comparative performance.

17. An apparatus for generating a session performance feed for performance of one or more onboard services provided during a trip of a vehicle, the apparatus comprising: a processor; memory in electronic communication with the processor; and instructions stored in the memory and executable by the processor to cause the processor to perform: obtaining a performance status of an onboard service provided to a plurality of users of the onboard service; generating a relative performance metric of the onboard service relative to other onboard services; generating a record comprising the relative performance metric; and providing the record to a data repository.

18. The apparatus of claim 17, wherein the obtaining the performance status of the onboard service provided to the plurality of users of the onboard service is for a discrete time period, and the instructions further cause the processor to perform: identifying, for a user of the plurality of users, the relative performance metric of the onboard service provided to the user during the discrete time period relative to others of the plurality of users of the onboard service during the discrete time period.

19. The apparatus of claim 18, wherein the record is provided during the trip of the vehicle at a conclusion of the discrete time period.

20. The apparatus of any one of claims 18-19, wherein instructions further cause the processor to perform:repeating the instructions over a plurality of discrete time periods.

21. The apparatus of any one of claims 18-20, wherein instructions further cause the processor to perform: identifying, for each of the plurality of users, a respective performance metric of the onboard services provided to corresponding ones of the plurality of users during the discrete time period relative to the others of the plurality of users of the onboard services; and generating a respective record comprising the respective performance metric for each of the plurality of users during the discrete time period.

22. The apparatus of any one of claims 18-21 , wherein the plurality of users comprise users of the onboard services over a plurality of vehicles.

23. The apparatus of any one of claims 18-22, wherein the relative performance metric comprises a percentile rank of the performance status of the onboard service provided to the user during the discrete time period relative to the others of the plurality of users of the onboard service.

24. The apparatus of any one of claims 18-23, wherein the plurality of users all belong to a given session type for the onboard services, and wherein the given session type comprises one of a plurality of session types for which the instructions are performed.

25. The apparatus of any one of claims 18-24, wherein each of the plurality of users is identified with a unique user identifier, and wherein the record comprises the unique user identifier and the relative performance metric.

26. The apparatus of any one of claims 17-25, wherein instructions further cause the processor to perform:identifying one or more other trips for which onboard services are provided; obtaining a second status of one or more corresponding onboard services provided to the one or more other trips, wherein the relative performance metric comprises a comparative performance between the status and the second status of corresponding ones of the one or more onboard services; generating first graphical interface data representing: an indicium of the status of the one or more onboard services provided during the trip, and a comparative indicium corresponding to the comparative performance; and transmittingto a display device, the first graphical interface data to cause the display device to generate and display a comparative performance viewer that includes the indicium and the comparative indicium.

27. The apparatus of claim 26, wherein one or more other trips comprise another trip characteristic similar to a particular trip characteristic of the trip.

28. The apparatus of any one of claims 26-27, wherein one or more other trips comprise past trips.

29. The apparatus of any one of claims 26-28, wherein one or more characteristics comprise one or more of an origin location, a departure time, a destination location, an arrival time, or a trip identifier.

30. The apparatus of any one of claims 26-29, wherein the one or more other trips comprise a plurality of other trips, and wherein the second status comprises an aggregation of the one or more corresponding onboard services provided to the plurality of other trips.

31. The apparatus of any one of claims 26-30, wherein the one or more onboard services comprises at Least a first onboard service and a second onboard service, and the first graphical interface data further comprises a first indicium of a first status of the first onboard service and a second indicium of a second status of the second onboard service, the first indicium and the second indicium each having a corresponding comparative indicium correspondingto the second status of the respective first onboard service and the second onboard service of the one or more other trips.

32. The apparatus of any one of claims 26-31 , wherein the comparative indicium comprises at least one of a directional indication of the comparative performance and a magnitude of the comparative performance.

33. A method for generating a session performance data feed for performance of one or more onboard services provided during a trip of a vehicle, the method comprising: obtaining, for a discrete time period, a performance status of an onboard service provided to a plurality of users of the onboard service; identifying, for a user of the plurality of users, a relative performance metric of the onboard service provided to the user during the discrete time period relative to others of the plurality of users of the onboard service; generating a record comprising the relative performance metric for the user during the discrete time period; and providing the record to a data repository.

34. The method of claim 33, wherein the record is provided during the trip of the vehicle at a conclusion of the discrete time period.

35. The method of any one of claims 33-34, further comprising: repeating the method over a plurality of discrete time periods.

36. The method of any one of claims 33-35, wherein the plurality of discrete time periods comprise one-minute intervals, five-minute intervals, or ten-minute intervals.

37. The method of any one of claims 33-36, wherein the plurality of discrete time periods includes, for a given trip of a given vehicle, a time between a door close event and a door open event.

38. The method of any one of claims 33-37, further comprising: identifying, for each of the plurality of users, a respective performance metric of the onboard services provided to corresponding ones of the plurality of users during the discrete time period relative to the others of the plurality of users of the onboard services; and generating a respective record comprising the respective performance metric for each of the plurality of users during the discrete time period.

39. The method of any one of claims 33-38, wherein the plurality of users comprise users of the onboard services over a plurality of vehicles.

40. The method of any one of claims 33-39, wherein the relative performance metric comprises a percentile rank of the performance status of the onboard service provided to the user during the discrete time period relative to the others of the plurality of users of the onboard service.

41. The method of any one of claims 33-40, wherein the plurality of users all belong to a given session type for the onboard services.

42. The method of any one of claims 33-41 , wherein the given session type comprises one of a plurality of session types for which the method is performed.

43. The method of any one of claims 33-42, wherein each of the plurality of users is identified with a unique user identifier, and wherein the record comprises the unique user identifier and the relative performance metric.

44. The method of any one of claims 33-43, further comprising: providing access to the data repository for access to a plurality of records, each corresponding to a respective one of the plurality of users.

45. An apparatus for generating a session performance feed for performance of one or more onboard services provided during a trip of a vehicle, the apparatus comprising: a processor; memory in electronic communication with the processor; and instructions stored in the memory and executable by the processorto cause the processor to perform: obtaining, for a discrete time period, a performance status of an onboard service provided to a plurality of users of the onboard service; identifying, for a user of the plurality of users, a relative performance metric of the onboard service provided to the user during the discrete time period relative to others of the plurality of users of the onboard service; generating a record comprising the relative performance metric for the user during the discrete time period; and providing the record to a data repository.

46. The apparatus of claim 45, wherein the record is provided during the trip of the vehicle at a conclusion of the discrete time period.

47. The apparatus of any one of claims 45-46, wherein the instructions stored in the memory and executable by the processor further cause the processor to perform: repeating the instructions over a plurality of discrete time periods.

48. The apparatus of any one of claims 45-47, wherein the plurality of discrete time periods comprise one-minute intervals, five-minute intervals, or ten-minute intervals.

49. The apparatus of any one of claims 45-48, wherein the plurality of discrete time periods includes, for a given trip of a given vehicle, a time between a door close event and a door open event.

50. The apparatus of any one of claims 45-49, wherein the instructions stored in the memory and executable by the processor further cause the processor to perform: identifying, for each of the plurality of users, a respective performance metric of the onboard services provided to corresponding ones of the plurality of users during the discrete time period relative to the others of the plurality of users of the onboard services; and generating a respective record comprising the respective performance metric for each of the plurality of users during the discrete time period.

51. The apparatus of any one of claims 45-50, wherein the plurality of users comprise users of the onboard services over a plurality of vehicles.

52. The apparatus of any one of claims 45-51 , wherein the relative performance metric comprises a percentile rank of the performance status of the onboard service provided to the user during the discrete time period relative to the others of the plurality of users of the onboard service.

53. The apparatus of any one of claims 45-52, wherein the plurality of users all belong to a given session type for the onboard services.

54. The apparatus of any one of claims 45-53, wherein the given session type comprises one of a plurality of session types for which the instructions are performed.

55. The apparatus of any one of claims 45-54, wherein each of the plurality of users is identified with a unique user identifier, and wherein the record comprises the unique user identifier and the relative performance metric.

56. The apparatus of any one of claims 45-55, wherein the instructions stored in the memory and executable by the processor further cause the processor to perform: providing access to the data repository for access to a plurality of records, each corresponding to a respective one of the plurality of users.

57. One or more non-transitory computer-readable storage media storing computer code for generating a session performance feed for performance of one or more onboard services provided during a trip of a vehicle, the computer code comprising instructions, which when executed by a processor, cause the processor to perform: obtaining, for a discrete time period, a performance status of an onboard service provided to a plurality of users of the onboard service; identifying, for a user of the plurality of users, a relative performance metric of the onboard service provided to the user during the discrete time period relative to others of the plurality of users of the onboard service; generating a record comprising the relative performance metric for the user during the discrete time period; and providing the record to a data repository.

58. A method for visualizing a comparative performance indicator of onboard services provided in a trip of a vehicle relative to other trips, the method comprising: obtaining a status of one or more onboard services provided during a trip of a vehicle;identifying one or more other trips for which onboard services are provided; obtaining a second status of one or more corresponding onboard services provided to the one or more other trips; determining a comparative performance between the status and the second status of corresponding ones of the one or more onboard services; generating first graphical interface data representing: an indicium of the status of the one or more onboard services provided during the trip, and a comparative indicium corresponding to the comparative performance; and transmittingto a display device, the first graphical interface data to cause the display device to generate and display a comparative performance viewer that includes the indicium and the comparative indicium.

59. The method of claim 58, wherein the one or more other trips comprise an other trip characteristic similar to a particular trip characteristic of the trip.

60. The method of any one of claims 58-59, wherein the one or more other trips comprise past trips.

61. The method of any one of claims 58-60, wherein one or more characteristics comprise one or more of an origin location, a departure time, a destination location, an arrival time, or a trip identifier.

62. The method of any one of claims 58-61 , wherein the other trip characteristic is similarto the particular trip characteristic when the other trip characteristic is the same as the particular trip characteristic of the trip.

63. The method of any one of claims 58-62, wherein the other trip characteristic is similarto the particular trip characteristic when the other trip characteristic is within apredetermined time from the particular trip characteristic or within a predetermined distance from the particular trip characteristic.

64. The method of any one of claims 58-63, wherein the one or more other trips comprise a plurality of other trips, and wherein the second status comprises an aggregation of the one or more corresponding onboard services provided to the plurality of othertrips.

65. The method of any one of claims 58-64, wherein the one or more onboard services comprises at least a first onboard service and a second onboard service, and the first graphical interface data further comprises a first indicium of a first status of the first onboard service and a second indicium of a second status of the second onboard service, the first indicium and the second indicium each having a corresponding comparative indicium correspondingto the second status of the respective first onboard service and the second onboard service of the one or more other trips.

66. The method of any one of claims 58-65, wherein the comparative indicium comprises at least one of a directional indication of the comparative performance and a magnitude of the comparative performance.

67. The method of any one of claims 58-65, wherein the comparative indicium comprises an icon corresponding to the comparative performance.

68. The method of any one of claims 58-67, further comprising: measuring the status of one or more onboard services provided during the trip of the vehicle.

69. The method of any one of claims 58-68, wherein the measuring occurs during the trip of the vehicle and the first graphical interface comprises a real-time display of the status of the one or more onboard services and the comparative performance.

70. An apparatus for visualizing a comparative performance indicator of onboard services provided in a trip of a vehicle relative to other trips, the apparatus comprising: a processor; memory in electronic communication with the processor; and instructions stored in the memory and executable by the processor to cause the processor to perform: obtaining a status of one or more onboard services provided during a trip of a vehicle; identifying one or more othertrips forwhich onboard services are provided; obtaining a second status of one or more corresponding onboard services provided to the one or more other trips; determining a comparative performance between the status and the second status of corresponding ones of the one or more onboard services; generating first graphical interface data representing: an indicium of the status of the one or more onboard services provided during the trip, and a comparative indicium correspondingto the comparative performance; and transmitting to a display device, the first graphical interface data to cause the display device to generate and display a comparative performance viewer that includes the indicium and the comparative indicium.

71. The apparatus of claim 70, wherein the one or more othertrips comprise an other trip characteristic similar to a particular trip characteristic of the trip.

72. The apparatus of any one of claims 70-71 , wherein the one or more other trips comprise past trips.

73. The apparatus of any one of claims 70-72, wherein one or more characteristics comprise one or more of an origin location, a departure time, a destination location, an arrival time, or a trip identifier.

74. The apparatus of any one of claims 70-73, wherein the other trip characteristic is similarto the particular trip characteristic when the other trip characteristic is the same as the particular trip characteristic of the trip.

75. The apparatus of any one of claims 70-74, wherein the other trip characteristic is similarto the particular trip characteristic when the other trip characteristic is within a predetermined time from the particular trip characteristic orwithin a predetermined distance from the particular trip characteristic.

76. The apparatus of any one of claims 70-75, wherein the one or more other trips comprise a plurality of other trips, and wherein the second status comprises an aggregation of the one or more corresponding onboard services provided to the plurality of other trips.

77. The apparatus of any one of claims 70-76, wherein the one or more onboard services comprises at least a first onboard service and a second onboard service, and the first graphical interface data further comprises a first indicium of a first status of the first onboard service and a second indicium of a second status of the second onboard service, the first indicium and the second indicium each having a corresponding comparative indicium correspondingto the second status of the respective first onboard service and the second onboard service of the one or more other trips.

78. The apparatus of any one of claims 70-77, wherein the comparative indicium comprises at least one of a directional indication of the comparative performance and a magnitude of the comparative performance.

79. The apparatus of any one of claims 70-78, wherein the comparative indicium comprises an icon corresponding to the comparative performance.

80. The apparatus of any one of claims 70-79, wherein the instructions stored in the memory and executable by the processor further cause the processor to perform: measuring the status of one or more onboard services provided during the trip of the vehicle.

81. The apparatus of any one of claims 70-80, wherein the measuring occurs during the trip of the vehicle and the first graphical interface comprises a real-time display of the status of the one or more onboard services and the comparative performance.

82. One or more non-transitory computer-readable storage media storing computer code for visualizing a comparative performance indicator of onboard services provided in a trip of a vehicle relative to other trips, the computer code comprising instructions which, when executed by a processor, cause the processor to perform: obtaining a status of one or more onboard services provided during a trip of a vehicle; identifying one or more other trips for which onboard services are provided; obtaining a second status of one or more corresponding onboard services provided to the one or more other trips; determining a comparative performance between the status and the second status of corresponding ones of the one or more onboard services; generating first graphical interface data representing:an indicium of the status of the one or more onboard services provided during the trip, and a comparative indicium corresponding to the comparative performance; and transmittingto a display device, the first graphical interface data to cause the display device to generate and display a comparative performance viewer that includes the indicium and the comparative indicium.

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