Emulated Data Request for Aircraft Subsystem Access
Find Innovative SolutionsGenerate Solutions
Solution Overview
Problem
Current air traffic control systems face challenges in obtaining unpublished data from aircraft electronic subsystems, such as flight plans, without incurring significant costs, bandwidth consumption, or processing load, due to the need for modifications that are time-consuming, costly, and require certification.
Innovation Solution
A communication management unit (CMU) with an emulator circuit that generates emulated data requests in the format of a vehicle operations center, allowing it to obtain unpublished data from aircraft subsystems without modifying them, and a data-mining circuit that extracts and provides only the necessary information to a determining circuit, reducing the need for hardware modifications and bandwidth usage.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Loss of information
If the ground-based aircraft operations center requests unpublished data from electronic subsystems, then data accessibility is improved, but communication bandwidth consumption and processing load increase
Solution Approach 1:
The CMU extracts only the specific unpublished data elements needed (such as flight plan information) from the subsystem responses, rather than transmitting all available data. This selective extraction reduces bandwidth consumption while maintaining data accessibility for critical information.
Solution Approach 2:
The data request and response process is segmented into targeted queries for specific unpublished data elements, rather than broad data requests. This segmentation allows the system to obtain necessary information while minimizing overall communication bandwidth usage.
2Loss of information
If electronic subsystems are modified to publish unpublished data, then data accessibility is improved, but manufacturing complexity and certification requirements increase
Solution Approach 1:
The CMU acts as an intermediary between the ground-based operations center and the electronic subsystems. It intercepts and processes data requests, extracting unpublished data elements without requiring modifications to the subsystems themselves, thus maintaining data accessibility while avoiding manufacturing complexity.
Solution Approach 2:
The CMU creates a copy of the necessary unpublished data from the subsystem communications and makes it available to the ground-based operations center. This copying approach provides data accessibility without altering the original subsystems, avoiding certification requirements.
3Loss of information
If all data from subsystems is transmitted to the ground center, then information completeness is improved, but processing load and bandwidth consumption increase
Solution Approach 1:
The CMU extracts only the specific unpublished data elements that are necessary for operations (such as flight plan details) from the subsystem responses, rather than transmitting all available data. This selective extraction maintains information completeness for critical elements while improving processing efficiency by reducing data volume.
4Loss of information
If the system requests frequent data updates, then data freshness is improved, but communication bandwidth and processing load increase
Solution Approach 1:
The CMU extracts only changed or relevant unpublished data elements in each update cycle, rather than transmitting all data repeatedly. This approach maintains data freshness for critical information while reducing communication bandwidth consumption compared to full data transmissions.
Data Source
AI summary
An embodiment of a communication management unit (CMU) includes emulator and data-mining circuits. The emulator circuit is configured to generate a data request having a same format as a data request from a vehicle communications center, to send the data request to a subsystem disposed on a vehicle, and to receive data sent by the subsystem in response to the data request. The data-mining circuit is configured to provide at least some of the received data to a determining circuit configured to determine information in response to the provided data. For example, such a CMU can request flight-plan data from a flight management subsystem (FMS) by sending, to the FMS, an emulated data-request message having the same format as a data-request message from a ground-based aircraft operations center. That is, the CMU can “fool” the FMS into “thinking” that the data-request message originated from the ground-based aircraft operations center.