Methods and systems for assisting radio frequency selection

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-10992372-B2
Application number	US-201815982518-A
Country	US
Kind code	B2
Filing date	May 17, 2018
Priority date	May 17, 2018
Publication date	Apr 27, 2021
Grant date	Apr 27, 2021

Abstract

Systems and methods are provided for monitoring aircraft to mitigate potential loss of communication scenarios. One exemplary method involves monitoring a plurality of communications channels using an onboard communications system, maintaining associations between respective communications channel assignments and respective operational contexts based on the plurality of clearance communications, and in response to detecting a change in an operational context of the aircraft, providing indication of a recommended communications channel based on an association between the recommended communications channel and one of the plurality of different operational contexts corresponding to a current operational context of the aircraft.

First claim

What is claimed is:

1. A method of monitoring an aircraft, the method comprising:
monitoring a plurality of communications channels for a plurality of clearance communications using a communications system onboard the aircraft;
maintaining, in a data storage element onboard the aircraft, associations between respective communications channels and respective operational contexts of a plurality of different operational contexts based on the plurality of clearance communications; and
in response to detecting a change in an operational context of the aircraft, providing indication of a recommended communications channel based on an association between the recommended communications channel and one of the plurality of different operational contexts corresponding to a current operational context of the aircraft.

2. The method of claim 1 , wherein monitoring the plurality of communications channels comprises concurrently monitoring an active communications channel and one or more additional communications channels in the background.

3. The method of claim 2 , further comprising:
obtaining a listing of communications channels associated with an operating area encompassing a geographic location of the aircraft; and
identifying the one or more additional communications channels by excluding one or more communications channels from the listing based at least on the operational context.

4. The method of claim 2 , wherein concurrently monitoring the active communications channel and one or more additional communications channels comprises monitoring the one or more additional communications channels using a software defined radio onboard the aircraft.

5. The method of claim 1 , further comprising for each respective clearance communication of the plurality of clearance communications, extracting an operational context parameter and a radio frequency from the respective clearance communication, wherein maintaining the associations comprises, for each respective clearance communication of the plurality of clearance communications, maintaining an association between the operational context parameter extracted from the respective clearance communication and the radio frequency extracted from the respective clearance communication.

6. The method of claim 5 , wherein:
the operational context parameter comprises a flight phase associated with a first clearance communication; and
providing indication of the recommended communications channel comprises automatically providing indication of the radio frequency extracted from the first clearance communication when a current flight phase of the aircraft corresponds to the flight phase associated with the first clearance communication.

7. The method of claim 1 , further comprising:
for each respective clearance communication of the plurality of clearance communications:
extracting an intended recipient aircraft identifier and a radio frequency from the respective clearance communication; and
obtaining a contemporaneous geographic location associated with an intended recipient aircraft using the intended recipient aircraft identifier, wherein maintaining the associations comprises, for each respective clearance communication of the plurality of clearance communications, maintaining an association between the contemporaneous geographic location and the radio frequency extracted from the respective clearance communication.

8. The method of claim 7 , wherein:
providing indication of the recommended communications channel comprises automatically providing indication of the radio frequency extracted from a first clearance communication of the plurality of clearance communications when a current geographic location of the aircraft corresponds to the contemporaneous geographic location associated with the intended recipient aircraft for the first clearance communication.

9. The method of claim 1 , wherein:
detecting the change comprises detecting a change to a flight phase of the aircraft; and
providing the indication comprises:
identifying a communications channel associated with a current flight phase of the aircraft based on an association between the communications channel and the current flight phase in the data storage element; and
automatically providing indication of the communications channel on a display device onboard the aircraft.

10. The method of claim 1 , wherein:
providing the indication comprises automatically providing indication of a first communications channel of the plurality of communications channels on a display device onboard the aircraft when a current geographic location of the aircraft corresponds to a geographic location associated with the first communications channel.

11. The method of claim 1 , wherein providing indication of the recommended communications channel comprises proactively recommending one of the plurality of communications channels in real-time when the current operational context of the aircraft corresponds to a respective operational context of the plurality of different operational contexts associated with the one of the plurality of communications channels.

12. A method comprising:
concurrently monitoring a plurality of communications channels for a plurality of communications channel assignment communications using a communications system onboard a vehicle;
for each respective communications channel assignment communication of the plurality of communications channel assignment communications:
extracting an assigned communications channel from the respective communications channel assignment communication;
obtaining a contemporaneous operational context associated with an intended recipient of the respective communications channel assignment communication; and
maintaining, in a data storage element onboard the vehicle, an association between the assigned communications channel and the contemporaneous operational context;

monitoring a current operational context of the vehicle using one or more onboard systems; and
in response to detecting the current operational context corresponds to the respective contemporaneous operational context for a respective communications channel assignment communication of the plurality of communications channel assignment communications, automatically recommending, via an output device onboard the vehicle, the assigned communications channel extracted from the respective communications channel assignment communication and associated with the respective contemporaneous operational context.

13. The method of claim 12 , wherein:
the vehicle comprises an aircraft;
obtaining the contemporaneous operational context associated with the intended recipient of the respective communications channel assignment communication comprises extracting a flight phase from the respective communications channel assignment communication; and
automatically recommending the assigned communications channel comprises automatically recommending the assigned communications channel when a current flight phase of the aircraft corresponds to the extracted flight phase for the respective communications channel assignment.

14. The method of claim 12 , wherein:
the vehicle comprises an aircraft;
obtaining the contemporaneous operational context associated with the intended recipient of the respective communications channel assignment communication comprises obtaining broadcast location data associated with the intended recipient of the respective communications channel assignment communication; and
automatically recommending the assigned communications channel comprises automatically recommending the assigned communications channel when a

Assignees

• Honeywell Int Inc

Inventors

• Srinivasan Narayanan
• Baladhandapani Gobinathan
• Hakkim Syed
• Saptharishi Hariharan

Classifications

• G08G5/26

  Transmission of traffic-related information between aircraft and ground stations · CPC title

• G08G5/21

  located onboard the aircraft · CPC title

• H04B7/18506 Primary

  Communications with or from aircraft, i.e. aeronautical mobile service · CPC title

• H04B7/0456

  Selection of precoding matrices or codebooks, e.g. using matrices antenna weighting · CPC title

• H04B1/205

  with control bus for exchanging commands between units · CPC title