Method and device for managing communication channels for data exchange from an aircraft

(54) Title: COMMUNICATION PROCESS OF (57) Summary:

DATA, COMPUTER PROGRAM AND DATA COMMUNICATION DEVICE (30) Unionist Priority: 06/04/2007 fr 0754394 (73) Owner (s): airbus, airbus france (72) Inventor (s): christophe regouby, eric rabaute,

FABIEN GILIS, PIERRE CUQ, VICENT SOUMIER, YVAN MOTHES (74) Attorney (s): Antonio Maurício Pedras Arnaud (86) International Request: pct FR2008000477 of 04/04/2008 (87) International Publication: wo 2008 / i39062de 20/11 / 2008

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DATA COMMUNICATION PROCESS, COMPUTER PROGRAM AND DATA COMMUNICATION DEVICE.

The present invention relates to the field of aeronautical communications and more particularly to a process and a device for the management of data exchanges, especially to allow communication channels for an aircraft, adapted to asynchronous exchanges of digital messages between the system information of an airplane and that of the airline on the ground through various means of communication.

The need for information exchange between an airplane and the ground increases with the development of airplanes. These needs are in particular linked to the updates of the different components of the aircraft's information system, the transmission of flight information from ground stations, the transmission of aircraft maintenance information to optimize the costs and services offered to passengers.

A distinction should be made between the exchange of information between the plane and the ground and the exchange of information between various systems of the plane, connected to the plane or to passengers. The systems present on the plane can communicate with each other according to standard means of communication, such as wired networks or wireless networks, especially WiFi networks (Wireless Fidelity) type 802.11 a / b / g.

The connections between an airplane and the ground specific to aircraft. For example, ATN (Aeronautical Telecontmunication Network) communication ACARS (ARINC Communication Addressing and Reporting System) allows encrypted data to be exchanged between the plane and the ground via VDL (VHF Digital Link), Mode S or satellites.

The costs of specific connections between an airplane and the ground are generally higher than the so-called open world communication systems such as WiFi, WiMax (Worldwide interoperability for Microwave Access), GSM (Global System for Mobile Communications), GPRS (General as of are usually the system of

Racket Radio Service), UMTS (Universal Mobile Telecommunications System), MPDS (Mobile Packet Data Service) or SBB (Swift Broad Band). In addition, these open world communication systems often offer superior performance to those found in the aeronautical world and are experiencing rapid technological evolution. However, these can reach maturity and / or become obsolete in less than a decade, which can be an important disadvantage in the aeronautical field where the time for development and standardization is long.

A major drawback of the solutions used for communications between aircraft and ground is that they do not allow to meet the double need to provide a single system of communication between ground and ground to all the applications on board the plane, especially taking into account the management of priorities and costs, and to allow the addition of new technologies, such as HSDPA (High Speed ​​Downlink Packet Access), without impact on the existing communication system, to speed up the time of integration of these technologies.

The invention allows to solve at least one of the problems previously exposed.

The invention thus has as its object a process of data communication in an aircraft, comprising means adapted to establish at least one connection route between said aircraft and at least one entity on the ground, according to a variety of communication channels of at least two different types, a process characterized by the fact that it comprises the following steps:

- detection of an event,

- determination of a communication configuration according to said event to allow said aircraft to receive or transmit data to said at least one entity on the ground through at least one of said communication channels, and

- adaptation of said means adapted to establish at least one connection route to establish at least one connection route between said aircraft and said at least one entity on the ground communication.

according to said configuration of

The process of establishing an invention thus allows new applications without depending on new media or substantial modification of the communication system. It also allows you to easily adapt to future developments in communication media, especially to developments in media in terms of communication security.

According to a particular embodiment, the process further comprises a step of transmitting at least one piece of data, said step comprising the following steps:

- determination of a priority level of said at least one data,

- determining the type of communication channel of said at least one connection route, and

- if said type of determined communication channel is compatible with said priority level, transmit said at least one data to the mentioned at least one entity on the ground.

The process according to the invention thus allows adapted management of the messages to be transmitted. Advantageously, to simplify the execution of the process, a destination address of the mentioned at least one entity on the ground is associated with each priority level, said data being transmitted to the destination address associated with the priority level of said at least a given.

According to a particular embodiment, determination of said compatibility of said communication channel determined with said level by the

one of the least one parameter realization offers priority is configuration.

easy configuration of message modes.

Also according to a particular embodiment, the function of that transmission mode of that event is linked to the state of said communication channels or to the position of said aircraft.

Still according to a particular embodiment, the process also comprises a step of access to at least one data to be transmitted, the format of said being at least one data accessed regardless of the communication channel of said at least one connection route. The applications that use the communication process are thus independent of the media used.

The invention also has for its object. a computer program comprising instructions adapted to the execution of each of the steps of the process described previously.

The invention also has as its object a data communication device in an aircraft, comprising means adapted to establish at least one connection route between said aircraft and at least one entity on the ground, according to a variety of communication channels of at least two different types, a device characterized by the fact that it comprises the following means:

- means of detecting an event,

- means for determining a communication configuration according to said event allowing said aircraft to receive or transmit data to said at least one entity on the ground through at least one of said communication channels, and

- means for adapting said means adapted to establish at least one connection route in order to establish at least one connection route between said aircraft and said at least one entity on the ground according to said communication configuration.

The device according to the invention thus allows to establish new media or new applications without substantial modification of the communication system. It also allows you to easily adapt to future developments in communication media, especially to developments in media in terms of communication security.

According to a particular embodiment, the device further comprises means of transmitting at least one piece of data, said means of transmission comprising the following means:

- means to determine a priority level of said at least one piece of data,

- means for determining the type of communication channel of said at least one connection route, and

- means for determining whether said type of determined communication channel is compatible with said priority level, and for transmitting said at least one data to said at least one entity on the ground. Advantageously, the device further comprises means for storing the data to be transmitted, said data to be transmitted memorized according to the priority levels associated with said data to be transmitted, with a destination address of said at least one entity on the associated ground. at each priority level. Still according to a particular embodiment, the said means of detecting an event are adapted to detect a change in the state of said communication channels or the position of said aircraft to determine the preferred communication channel.

Other advantages, purposes and characteristics of the present invention will stand out from the detailed description below, made by way of non-limiting example, with reference to the accompanying drawings whose figures are described below.

Figure 1 illustrates an example of an environment in which the invention is performed to allow data exchange between an airplane and the ground.

Figure 2 represents an example of an apparatus adapted to carry out part of the invention.

Figure 3 illustrates the communication system according to the invention.

Figure 4 represents an example of communication channel management by a communication controller when a communication channel becomes available and when a flight parameter is modified.

Figure 5 illustrates a first example of implementation for the exchange of messages between the information system of an airplane and an information system on the ground.

Figure 6 shows a mechanism for managing priorities for messages transmitted by airplanes.

Figure 7 represents an example of an algorithm for processing messages received from an application of the

<td>system</td><td>in</td><td>information</td><td>of an airplane</td><td>by a module</td><td>OAMS</td><td>and</td>

<td>owing</td><td colspan="3">be transmitted to a</td><td>GAMS module</td><td>in</td><td>one</td>

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<td>The figure</td><td> 8</td><td>illustrates a</td><td>second mode</td><td>of achievement</td><td>for</td><td>The</td>

exchange of messages between an aircraft information system and a ground information system.

The invention aims at a communication process and device adapted to natively manage the asynchronous exchange of data, preferably in the form of digital messages, between a mobile entity such as an airplane and the ground according to various communication channels in accordance availability and the policy adopted by the airline. Such a policy can be specially established depending on the geographical area, the flight phase and the priority of the messages to be transmitted. Messages are, for example, transmitted in the form of IP (Internet Protocol) packets.

Figure 1 illustrates an example of environment 100 in which the invention is performed to allow data exchange between an airplane 105 and the ground, when the plane is on the ground or close to the ground, and when the plane is in the air.

The plane 105 preferably comprises an application server (not shown), a communication server 110 and a wireless communication interface 115 adapted to transmit and receive data according to various communication channels. The communication channels illustrated here are linked to satellite communications, WiMax communications, communications according to mobile telephone technologies such as GSM, GPRS and UMTS and WiFi communications.

On the ground, transmit associated. receiving data from the satellite, a communication server 120 connected to application servers 125 is connected to a network 135, such as the Internet, preferably by means of a protection device 130 {firewall}. The 135 network is connected to a variety of wireless communication networks, such as the 145-1 satellite network, the WiMax 145-2 network, the GSM, GPRS or UMTS 145-3 type network and the 145- WiFi network. 4, preferably through protective devices 140-1 to 140-4, respectively. Each of the wireless communication networks 145-1 to 145-4 comprises at least one reference wireless communication interface 150-1 to 150-4, respectively, allowing and receiving data according to the protocol

Thus, the satellite network 145-1 is capable of satellite 155, and of transmitting data 155, with satellite 155 itself being adapted to transmit or receive data to or from the wireless communication interface 115 of airplane 105. Likewise, the WiMax 145-2 network is capable of receiving or transmitting data from or to the wireless communication interface 115 of airplane 105. The same is true for networks 145-3 and 145-4. Although figure 1 represents only a general wireless communication interface, wireless communication interface 115 is preferably made up of several wireless communication interfaces, one per communication channel, that is, here, an interface for communications via satellite, a WiMax type interface, a GSM, GPRS or UMTS type interface and a WiFi type interface.

When the airplane is on the ground or close to the ground, the wireless communication interface 115 of the airplane is adapted to communicate with the wireless communication interfaces 150-1 and with the wireless communication interfaces 150-2 to 150- 4 (it is assumed here that the plane's environment on the ground has these wireless communication interfaces). When the airplane is in the air, at a distance from the wireless communication interfaces 150-2 to 150-3 greater than the communication range of these interfaces, only the 150-1 wireless satellite communication interface is used.

Figure 2 can be illustrates an example of an apparatus adapted to carry out a part of the invention. The apparatus 200 is, for example, a communication server or an application server.

Apparatus 200 comprises a communication bus 202 to which are connected:

a central processing unit or microprocessor 203 (CPU, Central Processing Unit);

- a persistent memory 204 (ROM, Read Only Memory) comprising the programs Prog, Progl and Prog2;

- a temporary memory or cache memory 206 (RAM, Random Access Memory) comprising records adapted to record variables and parameters created and modified during and execution of the required programs; and

- a communication interface 218 connected to a distributed communication network 220, for example, the Internet network, the interface being capable of transmitting and receiving data.

Optionally, apparatus 200 may also be provided with:

- a screen 208 allowing data visualization and / or serving as a graphical user interface that can interact with the programs according to the invention, through a keyboard

210 or any other means such as a pointing device, such as, for example, a 211 mouse or optical pen, a touchscreen or a remote control.

- a hard disk 212 that can contain the programs Prog, Progl and Prog2 required and data processed or to be processed according to the invention;

a floppy disk reader 214 adapted to receive a floppy disk 216 and read or write data processed or to be processed according to the invention; and

- a memory card reader adapted to read or write data processed or to be processed according to the invention.

The communication bus allows the communication and interoperability between included in the device 200 of the bus, not the central unit is any element through the different elements or connected to it. A is limiting and, capable of communicating from the apparatus 200 another element of the representation especially, instructions to directly or apparatus 200.

The executable code of each program allowing the programmable apparatus to execute the processes according to the invention can be stored, for example, on hard disk 212 or in persistent memory 204.

According to a variant, the floppy disk 216 may contain data as well as the executable code of the requested programs which, once read by the device 200, will be stored on the hard disk 212.

In a second variant, the executable code of the programs can be received through the communication network 220, through the interface 218, to be stored in the same way as described previously. Floppy disks can be replaced by any information medium such as, for example, a compact disc (CD-ROM) or a memory card. In general, the floppy disks can be replaced by information storage means, being able to be read by a computer or by a microprocessor, integrated or not to the device, possibly removable, and adapted to memorize one or more programs whose execution allows the execution of the process according to the invention.

More generally, the program or programs may be loaded into one of the storage media of the apparatus 200 before being executed.

The central unit 203 will command and direct the execution of the instructions or portions of executable code of the program or programs according to the invention, instructions which are stored in the hard disk 212 or in the persistent memory 204 or else in the other storage elements needed. When launched, the program or programs that are stored in a non-volatile memory, for example, hard disk 212 or persistent memory 204, are transferred to temporary memory 206 which then contains the executable code of the program or programs according to invention, as well as records to memorize the variables and parameters necessary for carrying out the invention.

It should be noted that the communication device comprising the device according to the invention can also be a programmed device. This device then contains the code of the computer program (s), for example, recorded on an application specific integrated circuit (ASIC).

Figure 3 illustrates the communication system 300 according to the invention, called OWAG-CS (Open World Aircraft Ground-Coiamunication System), which comprises a core 305, of which a component is implemented in the communication system 310 of the airplane and a another component is implemented in the communication system 315 on the ground. The OWAG-CS 300 communication system is preferably made up of two distinct parts. A first part 320 is connected to the exchange of data between the plane and the ground. A second part 325 called the Communication Controller is connected to the management of the communication channels. The first part comprises two modules: a first module 330 called OAMS (On-board Asynchronous Messaging Service) implemented on the plane, and a second module called GAMS (Ground Asynchronous Messaging Service) implemented on the ground. Each of the OAMS 330 and GAMS 335 modules is used as an interface for application elements 340 and 345, respectively.

The communication controller 325 and the OAMS module 330 are connected to a device 350 comprising avionics data, for example, a memory or a database whose information is the controller flight computers of the controller coming from sensors or from those avionics data they are especially used to determine the communication channels that can be used. The communication controller controls in particular the 355 network equipment of the aircraft. Network equipment allows you to establish a connection between the plane and the ground.

The data exchange between the OAMS and GAMS modules is carried out through the 360 ​​and 365 communication interfaces adapted to use various types of communication channels. The configuration of the communication channels of the 360 ​​communication interface is controlled by the 325 communication.

The information flow established between communication 325 and the 355 network equipment is a configuration flow that comprises the commands transmitted by the communication controller to the network equipment to update its configuration.

The information flow established between the communication interface 360 ​​and the device 350, between the device 350 and the communication controller 325 and between a configuration file linked to the airline policy and the communication controller 325 is a supervisory flow that comprises the avionics information via the communication controller interface 325.

Finally, the data flow established on the 360 ​​communication interface, the network equipment 355 and the OAMS 330 module comprises the data exchanged between the OAMS 330 module and the GAMS 335 module according to the different connection paths available.

This distribution of the communication system 300 allows in particular that the application elements in charge of the data transmission are not impacted by the addition, the elimination or the modification of types of update of the 360 ​​communication data and by the communication channels. All network configuration problems are thus dissociated from the message delivery application layer. This is also true for the airline's infrastructure for which the routes between the plane and the ground will be transparent. It is thus possible to develop functionalities without fear of having to modify those functionalities with each addition, deletion or modification of the channel type. The application interface between the 34 0 elements with the OAMS 330 module is advantageously standardized application communication to hide the problems of changing data. data for the creators of embedded applications and thus, unlink the versions of the applications implemented on the plane from the OAMS 330 module.

According to a first embodiment, the communication controller 325 is an application service installed on a server on board the aircraft comprising dedicated connectors interfaced with an avionic database indicating especially the flight phase of the airplane and with configuration files defining the airline's communication policy, for example, when a satellite can be used. These two types of information allow the communication controller 325 to calculate in real time the configuration of the network equipment necessary for the establishment of end-to-end connections between the OAMS 330 module implemented on the plane and the GAMS 335 module implemented on the ground. The communication controller 325 preferably works only at the height of the lower layers of the OSI model and establishes the connection routes in real time according to the availability of the communication channels, the flight phases and the airline policy. This adaptability in establishing the connection routes allows to optimize the aircraft's communications, in particular due to the priority of the messages and the cost of use of each communication channel.

It should be noted here that a GAMS 335 module centralizes the communications communications of an aircraft fleet, that is, those established with several OAMS 330 modules, for example, several hundred OAMS 330 modules (one per aircraft), thus allowing an airline manage the exchange of messages with your planes in a centralized and therefore simplified manner.

Although the OAMS 330 and GAMS 335 modules have some similarities, they are different in several ways. Firstly, according to a particular embodiment, data storage in the GAMS 335 module is performed in a database while in the OAMS module it is performed directly in the server's file manager. In addition, as the airplane always has the communications initiative, the servlets of the OAMS module are in charge of sending or receiving data from or to the plane while the servlets of the GAMS module must receive or make messages available to or from the plane. The exchange of messages is bidirectional despite the fact that the communication system implemented on the plane always has the initiative for this exchange. Thus, the OAMS module behaves as a client while the GAMS module behaves as a server.

The communication system according to the invention can then be analyzed according to three layers:

- a network layer controlled by the communication controller,

- a data layer used by the OAMS and GAMS modules and,

- an application layer based on the APIs of the OAMS and GAMS modules.

Each of the three layers is described here in more detail.

previously, the network layer is the controller to establish those necessary for the communication of the two OAMS and GAMS modules. The communication controller comprises

As mentioned controlled by the person in charge of communication routes and connecting a routing engine that uses avionic data coming, for example, from a database, to control routing of the

When network equipment possible modifications.

network equipment. The communication controller motor can thus be assimilated to a simple state automaton.

The transition between a waiting state and a forwarding state is advantageously activated by one or more avionic events resulting from the modification of one or more parameters that can represent the status of a communication channel or a simple flight information. The status of a channel includes, for example, its availability. Flight information is, for example, the plane's geographical position in relation to the ground, possibly compared to a threshold to determine a ground position and a position in the air.

of communication is in the state determines the configuration of the ones in order to take into account For example, if the WiFi communication channel is available, the flight phase allows it (if, for example, the plane on the ground) and the airline policy o order (defined priority route), the communication controller configures the network equipment to establish a WiFi connection route. The controller then indicates the establishment of this connection route in the avionics database. The configuration of the network equipment can be performed by creating and transmitting configuration Scripts, the Scripts being created by the communication controller and transmitted to the network equipment.

When the set of network equipment is configured and there is no change in the controller parameters, it 'routing' the network parameters and the flight parameters, the communication controller places itself in a waiting state in which it observes the modifications of the parameters of networks and flight parameters.

Figure 4 represents an example of communication channel management by the communication controller when a communication channel becomes available and when a flight parameter is modified.

When a communication channel is available, that is, the communication interface has detected the possibility of sending and receiving data from that communication channel, the communication interface transmits this information to the avionics database (step 400). The detection of the possibility of sending and receiving data from a communication channel is linked to the nature of the detection channel. This detection is carried out according to the standard protocol used for the communication channel in question. When the communication controller identifies the modification of the network parameter in the avionics database (step 405), the modification of the network parameter being linked to the availability of the communication channel, the communication controller determines a new configuration for the network equipment according to the flight parameters, the available communication channels and the airline policy and transmits this new configuration to the network equipment (step 410). The network equipment changes its configuration and preferably transmits a receive signal to the communication controller (step 415). The communication controller then transmits to the avionics database the information that the new communication channel is available (step 420). When the OAMS module detects the modification of the avionics database informing that a new communication channel is available (step 425), the OAMS module can use that communication channel.

In a preferred embodiment, modifications to the avionics database are detected by the OAMS module controller. However, if the supervision module can be avionic data to inform of communication and at this point consider that an associated to the base of any modification to the communication controller and / or to the OAMS module.

When the modification of a flight parameter, for example, the airplane's position, is identified by the communication controller (step 430), the communication controller determines a new configuration for the network equipment according to the flight parameters, the communication channels available communications and airline policy and transmits this new configuration to network equipment (step 435). The network equipment modifies its configuration and preferably transmits a receive signal to the communication controller (step 440). The communication controller then transmits to the avionics database the information that a new communication channel is available, that a communication channel is no longer available or that the parameters of a communication channel have been modified (step 445) . When the OAMS module detects this change in the avionics database (step 450), the OAMS module changes its parameters to take these changes into account

The data layer used for data exchange is triggered by the OAMS and GAMS modules in charge of controlling the data exchange between an airplane and the ground. The data layer, located between the network and application layers, uses the connection routes configured by the communication controller. The control of data transfer is therefore independent of the control of the communication channels.

The OAMS module and the GAMS module are, for example, implemented on J2EE (Java 2 Enterprise Edition) application servers in the form of Java servlet (Java is a brand). The OAMS module can be of the type with classic client-server architecture in which the API (Application Programming Interface) of the OAMS module is the client and the OAMS module is the server. In the same way, the GAMS module can consist of an API of the GAMS module, the GAMS module and a database. Applications, for example, encoded in Java and C ++, can interface with these two servers through two APIs, one for the OAMS module and one for the GAMS module. These can communicate with the servers in an http (HyperText Transfer Protocol) stream.

The exchange of B2B (Business-to-Business) messages between the OAMS module and the GAMS module can be encapsulated in an HTTPS flow, with the airplane's initiative, preferably using X509 certificates for authentication in order to meet the requirements security of communications between aircraft and ground.

Figure 5 illustrates such an example of implementation for the exchange of messages between the information system of the airplane 500 and the information system on the ground 502. The applications 504 of the information system of the airplane 500 use API OAMS 506 to transmit requests to the module OAMS 508 and more precisely to a front server http 510 of the OAMS 508 module. The results of the requests are transmitted to the 504 applications by the http server through the OAMS 506 API.

The requests for applications 504 received by the http server 510 are transmitted to the application server, here the application server 514 J2EE (Java 2 Enterprise Edition) of the Java 512 virtual machine (JVM, dava Virtual Machine). The results of the requests are transmitted to the http server 510 by the application server 514.

The application server 514 advantageously comprises a Java 516 servlet container for processing application requests and 529 for

The send service ensures the transmission of messages to the GAMS module while the fetch service is in charge of retrieving messages waiting on the same server in memory 522.

To ensure these tasks, these two services are interfaced with the avionics database 524 to check the availability of the communication channels, the fetch services, thanks to two types send and dedicated 518 respectively with the server http 510 to communicate with the applications and the implementation of an https 526 client to communicate securely with the soil information system. It should be noted that the OAMS module also comprises an interface with a server file manager for storage in memory 522 of messages waiting to be sent to the ground information system or retrieved by applications 504. In memory 522, messages they are preferably organized in dedicated message boxes per application.

Similarly, a front server http 528 of the GAMS 530 module receives requests from applications 532 of the information system on the ground 520 through API GAMS 534. The front server http 528 of the GAMS 530 module also receives requests for applications 504 of the OAMS modules 508 of the information systems of the airplane 500 through tunnels 536 of type TLS (Transport Layer Security). Responses to application requests are transmitted by the http server 528 to the application server 532 through the GAMS API 534 and to the applications 504 through the tunnels 536.

Application requests are transmitted by the http 528 server to the servlet container 542 services of the Java 538 virtual machine 540 J2EE application server. The results of the requests are transmitted to the http 528 server by the 540 application server. As well as the OAMS module , the GAMS module advantageously comprises two dedicated services 544 and 546, respectively called message provider and receive. The message provider 544 service makes messages available to interested OAMS modules while the receive 546 service receives messages from the http 528 server and distributes them in the message boxes of a memory or a 548 database. Thus, the two services interface with the 548 database to store messages in dedicated message boxes that are preferably organized in the same way as in OAMS modules, that is, dedicated by application, except that the GAMS module must manage several planes and therefore group the message boxes by plane and by priority.

APIs OAMS 506 and GAMS 534 serve to hide the communication problems of the applications of aircraft and ground information systems. These APIs thus form a facade allowing to use all the functionalities of the OWAG-CS information system. These APIs, which can be coded in Java and C ++ in order to integrate with existing applications, are based on the data layer formed by the OAMS and GAMS modules and communicate natively in http with the http front servers of the OAMS and GAMS modules .

The message layer provides aircraft information systems and ground information system applications with an advanced priority management mechanism for the exchange of messages between planes and the ground. Figure 6 illustrates this mechanism 600 for managing priorities for messages transmitted by airplanes.

Aircraft information system applications, from references 605-1 to 605-n, can transmit messages to the OAMS module through the OAMS APIs from references 610-1 to 610-n, respectively. The OAMS module preferably comprises a memory 615, consisting of memory elements of type FIFO (First In, first Out) 615-1, 6152 and 615-3, adapted to receive messages issued by applications 605-1 to 605-n. Messages stored in memory 615 are transmitted to a Transmission Control Protocol / Internet Protocol (TCP / IP) stack 620 which breaks the message down into IP packets in which the IP address is determined according to the priority of the message. A quality of service information linked to the priority level, of type DSCP (Differentiated Services Code Point), is then added to these IP packets which are then transmitted to the communication interface through the 625 network equipment controlled by the controller. communication 630. The communication interface consists of several elements, in particular a 635-1 satellite communication interface element, a WiMax 635-2 communication interface element, a 635-3 communication interface element according to at least some telephony technologies such as GSM, GPRS and UMTS and a WiFi communication interface element 635-4

Each memory element 615-1, 615-2 and 615-3 corresponds to a priority level. Here, three levels of priority are used: low, medium and high priority. When a 605-i application sends a message, it associates a priority level with the message. Upon receipt of the message, the OAMS module analyzes the priority level and stores the message in the FIFO type memory element corresponding to the priority level of the message. For example, if a low priority message is received, it is stored in memory element 615-3, if a medium priority message is received, it is stored in memory element 615-2 and if a high priority message is received. received, it is stored in memory element 615-1.

The priority level is used by the OAMS module to process incoming messages and to determine how they are transferred to the GAMS module.

The IP addresses used by the IP module to transform a message into IP packets are predetermined addresses. There is advantageously one IP address per priority level. Likewise, there is a DSCP value per priority level. This link between the priority level of a message and the destination IP address to the ground allows for a simple correlation between a decision made at the application level, that is, a choice of priority level, and the packet routing decisions generated by network equipment at a lower level, that is, at the IP level.

In the same way and to complete the previous mechanism, the DSCP field of IP packets is completed by a predefined value according to the priority of the message to allow a better processing of the packets by the network infrastructures. For example, an IP packet with a high DSCP field should be processed with priority by the routers traversed. It should be remembered here that a DSCP value corresponds to a field that is in an IP packet and that allows the assignment of different service levels to network traffic.

The type of transmission between the plane and the ground is managed by the communication controller which determines the connection routes for each of the three possible GAMS IP addresses, according to the availability of the different communication channels and according to the airline's policy . The following table, accessible by the communications controller, illustrates a possible example of an airline policy.

<td>Priority</td><td>DSCP</td><td>Address IP</td><td>Channel preferred</td><td>Channel alternative 1</td><td>Channel alternative 2</td>

<td>high</td><td> 48</td><td>IP1</td><td>WiFi</td><td>GSM</td><td>Satellite</td>

<td>average</td><td> 32</td><td>IP2</td><td>WiFi</td><td>WiMax</td><td>GSM</td>

<td>low</td><td> 16</td><td>IP3</td><td>WiFi</td><td> -</td><td> -</td>

In this example, the airline favors low-cost and well-performing media, but with restricted coverage areas. If a WiFi type connection cannot be established, a mobile phone type connection is authorized, if it is accessible, for high and medium priorities. If these means are not available, a satellite connection, offering a wide coverage area but presenting high usage costs and very low performance, is authorized only for high priorities. When the types of communication channels are not authorized for priority, the wait for one to certain corresponding levels should authorized communication channel messages be available to be one are sent.

Messages are here messages with any format to which a priority level, a source address and a destination address are associated. When the message to be transmitted and the associated information decomposed in IP packets, the associated information is no longer directly accessible, they will only be accessible after the reconstruction of the message that is carried out according to a standard mechanism, corresponding to the decomposition mechanism in IP packets. Alternatively, messages can comprise additional information such as the priority level and the source and destination addresses.

Figure 7 represents an example of an algorithm for processing messages received from an application of an aircraft information system by the OAMS module and should be transmitted to the GAMS module of an information system on the ground. When a message is received (step 705), the priority of that message is determined (step 710). The message is then stored in a FIFO memory 715, according to its priority level. Messages stored in memory 715 are processed according to their priority level (step 720). The OAMS module then queries the avionics database to determine whether a communication channel is available (step 725). If a communication channel is available, a test is performed to determine whether the transmission channel can be used (step 730). If the transmission channel can be used, the messages are broken down into IP packets in which the IP address is a function of the priority level (step 735) and a DSCP value is added to each IP packet (step 740). Then the messages are transmitted in the form of IP packets and a test is performed to determine whether the messages were transmitted (step 745). If the designated communication channel cannot be used, the system determines whether another communication channel can be used as indicated by the dotted arrow, communication can be used messages, these

If no channels for transmitting messages are temporarily stored in memory 750, preferably according to their priority, to be sent later when the designated communication channel is available. Memory 750 is similar here to memory 715. Likewise, if the transmission of all messages or some messages was not carried out correctly, these messages are temporarily stored in memory 750, preferably according to their priority, to be sent later when the designated communication channel is available. The lifetime of messages in memory 750 is preferably limited. For example, a message stored in memory 750 is automatically deleted after a period of thirty minutes. The useful life of the messages can be associated with the priority level of the message or its nature. Certain messages can also be deleted from memory 750 with the request of the application that originated the message, for example, if a pilot wants to cancel sending a report that has become obsolete since its issuance.

The memory 750 thus allows to memorize the messages that must be transmitted by an inaccessible communication channel and also to manage a resumption mechanism by error that allows to resume, after a temporary break in the used communication channel, a message transfer between the OAMS modules and GAMS at the exact point where the transfer was interrupted. After a loss of connectivity, the OAMS module alerts the GAMS module that it has resumed transferring a message.

understand GAMS module functionality supervision and

The OAMS supervision module and supervision features allows you to understand statistics. For an application to interrogate its communication server about the status of its shipments built as a Web implementation is to be able to messages, for example, 20% in the first message and 50% in the second, and about the time and date of the last connection. Information can be obtained by application requests. The statistical features of the GAMS module allow the airline's information system administrator to have a general state of the system, for example, the number of messages sent, the number of messages not sent or the volume exchanged.

Although the description of the transmission of a message has been described from an OAMS module, the transmission of a message from a GAMS module is similar. It should be noted that message transmissions can be unicast (from one system to another) or multicast (from one system to several others), that is, from an airplane information system application to a ground information system application and vice versa or from an airplane information system application to various ground information system applications or from an information system application ground information for various information systems applications on one plane or several planes.

For security reasons, it is preferable to prohibit the sending of messages from the ground to the ground or from an airplane to an airplane.

According to a second embodiment of the invention, the interfaces between the applications and the two servers of the OAMS and GAMS modules are different. These are not built on proprietary APIs, but Services. The advantage of directly integrating the servers that communicate within the system; information from the plane and / or the ground information system thanks to a complete SOA (Service Oriented Architecture) solution.

The modification consists mainly of making the SOAP (Simple Object Access Protocol) protocol natively supported by the OAMS and GAMS interfaces and spreading the specification of these same interfaces according to the WSDL (Web Service Description Language) format within the SOA infrastructure. .

Thus, in this second embodiment, the SSL (Secure Socket Layer) / TLS part of the GAMS module is replaced by equipment that natively manages this type of session, as shown in figure 8. Such modifications are motivated by the fact that the system can thus becoming interoperable with the EAI (Enterprise Application Integration) solutions on the market and that system performance improves especially.

Figure 8 illustrates a second embodiment for the exchange of messages between the aircraft information system 800 and the ground information system 802. Applications 804 of the airplane information system 800 use an http client 806 to transmit requests to the OAMS 808 module and more precisely for a front-facing server http 810 of the OAMS 808 module. The results of the requests are transmitted to the applications 804 by the server http 810 through the client http 806.

Application requests 804 received by the http 810 server are transmitted to the application server, here the application server 814 J2EE of the Java 812 virtual machine (JVM). The results of the requests are transmitted to the http 810 server by the application server 814.

The application server 814 advantageously comprises a Java 816 servlet container for processing application requests thanks to a web service 818 (WS) and two dedicated services 820 and 822, of type send and fetch, respectively. The send service ensures the transmission of messages to the GAMS module while the fetch service is in charge of retrieving messages waiting on the same server in memory 824. To ensure these tasks, these two services are interfaced with the 826 avionics database to check the availability of the communication channels, with the http 810 server to communicate with the applications and with the implementation of an https 828 client to communicate securely with the soil information system. It should be noted that the OAMS module also comprises an interface with a server file manager for storage in the 824 memory of messages waiting to be sent to the soil information system or retrieved by the 804 applications. In memory 824, the messages they are preferably organized in dedicated message boxes per application.

Similarly, a front-facing http 830 server for the GAMS 832 module receives requests for applications 834-1 and 834-2 (the number of applications is not limited) from the ground information system 802 via the EAI 836 interface. The EAI interface 836 here comprises JMS (Java Message Service) and Corba interfaces adapted to exchange data with JMS and Corba clients of applications 834-1 and 834-2. The front server http 830 of the GAMS 832 module also receives requests for applications 804 from OAMS modules 808 of the information systems of airplane 800 through an externalized TLS 838 module. Responses to application requests are transmitted by the http 830 server to servers application 834-1 and 834-2 through the EAI 836 interface and applications 804 through the externalized TLS 838 module.

Application requests are transmitted by the http 830 server to the services of the 844 J2EE application server 844 J2EE application of the Java 840 virtual machine. The results of the requests are transmitted to the http 830 server by the 842 application server. As well as the OAMS module , the GAMS module advantageously comprises a web service 846 (WS) and two dedicated services 848 and 850, respectively called message provider and receive. The message provider 848 service makes messages available to interested OAMS modules while the receive 850 service receives messages from the http 830 server and distributes them in the message boxes of a memory or an 852 database. Thus, the two services 848 and 850 interface with the database 852 to store messages in dedicated message boxes that are preferably organized in the same way as in OAMS modules, that is, dedicated by application, except that the GAMS module must manage multiple planes and therefore group the message boxes by plane and by priority.

The use of web service type interfaces allows not to use proprietary APIs needed by applications to communicate with the information system. However, it is possible to keep a dedicated connector for the interface with the EAI.

The web services 818 and 846 added within the servlet containers of the OAMS module and the GAMS module have the function of retrieving the SOAP requests issued by the client applications through an interface described in WSDL and transmitting them to the other services. Naturally, to satisfy specific needs, a person skilled in the field of the invention will be able to make modifications to the present description.