Secured Datalink Terrain Alerting With Ground-Based Map Processing
Find Innovative SolutionsGenerate Solutions
Solution Overview
Problem
The distribution and processing of high-resolution terrain databases for mobile platforms face challenges due to bandwidth limitations, high storage costs, and computational demands, which hinder timely updates and effective terrain and runway alerting systems.
Innovation Solution
A system that offloads terrain database storage and processing to a ground-based external compute unit, utilizing a secured data link for continuous data transfer and leveraging on-board data sources, reducing the computational burden on the mobile platform.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Reliability
If high-resolution terrain database is distributed to all aircraft worldwide, then terrain and runway alerting capability is improved, but bandwidth consumption increases massively
Solution Approach 1:
The patent extracts the high-resolution terrain database from the aircraft and relocates it to ground-based servers. Only essential alerting information and minimal database updates are transmitted to the aircraft, dramatically reducing bandwidth consumption while maintaining alerting capability.
Solution Approach 2:
The ground-based server system serves multiple aircraft simultaneously, providing terrain database storage, processing, and update distribution. This multi-functional ground infrastructure replaces individual on-aircraft databases, reducing total system bandwidth requirements.
2Reliability
If high-resolution terrain database is stored on-board every mobile platform, then terrain and runway alerting capability is improved, but memory capacity cost increases
Solution Approach 1:
The terrain database is extracted from on-aircraft storage and relocated to ground-based servers. The aircraft retains only minimal local storage for essential alerting data, dramatically reducing memory capacity requirements while preserving alerting functionality.
3Reliability
If processing capability sufficient to sort through 4.3+ GB of memory is installed on mobile platform, then terrain and runway alerting capability is improved, but processing cost increases
Solution Approach 1:
The heavy processing capability is extracted from the aircraft and relocated to ground-based servers. The aircraft performs only lightweight processing for receiving and displaying alerting information, while complex database processing occurs on the ground where powerful servers are available.
4Reliability
If computational demand for processing very-high-resolution map data is handled on mobile platform, then terrain and runway alerting capability is improved, but thermal-management difficulties increase
Solution Approach 1:
The computationally intensive processing of very-high-resolution map data is extracted from the aircraft and performed on ground-based servers with adequate cooling infrastructure. This eliminates thermal management challenges on mobile platforms while maintaining full processing capability.
5Reliability
If high-resolution terrain database is distributed frequently with 28- or 56-day cycle, then terrain database currency is improved, but bandwidth consumption increases
Solution Approach 1:
The system implements periodic updates of the terrain database through ground-based servers, distributing updates to multiple aircraft on scheduled cycles. This approach maintains database currency while optimizing bandwidth usage through efficient update distribution.
Solution Approach 2:
Instead of distributing complete database updates to every aircraft, the system transmits only essential update information and allows aircraft to access full updated data through ground-based servers, reducing bandwidth consumption while maintaining data currency.
Data Source
Figure 1
Figure 2
Figure 3
AI summary
Provided are technologically improved systems and methods for providing terrain and runway feedback for an aircraft over a secured datalink. The method utilizes a controller onboard the aircraft and one on the ground. The controller onboard the aircraft performs the operations of: formatting a data package of mobile platform data; confirming the aircraft has a valid subscription service; securing the data package using a security protocol; and transmitting the data package via a secured datalink. The ground controller performs the operations of: confirming the subscription service of the aircraft; validating the security protocol used on the data package; decoding and processing the data with map extraction, threat detection, and image generation to generate raw terrain and runway feedback data; and transmitting the raw data using the secured datalink. An alert controller is used to generate alert commands for various alert devices based on the raw terrain and runway feedback data.