Methods and systems for assisting radio frequency selection

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-11973570-B2
Application number	US-202117212879-A
Country	US
Kind code	B2
Filing date	Mar 25, 2021
Priority date	May 17, 2018
Publication date	Apr 30, 2024
Grant date	Apr 30, 2024

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 a vehicle, the method comprising:
monitoring a plurality of communications channels for a plurality of communications using a communications system;
maintaining, in a data storage element, associations between respective communications channels and respective operational contexts of a plurality of different operational contexts based on the plurality of communications; and
in response to detecting a change in an operational context of the vehicle, providing an 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 vehicle.

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 vehicle; 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 the one or more additional communications channels comprises monitoring the one or more additional communications channels using a software defined radio onboard the vehicle.

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

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

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

8. The method of claim 7 , wherein providing the indication of the recommended communications channel comprises automatically providing indication of the radio frequency extracted from a first communication of the plurality of communications when a current geographic location of the vehicle corresponds to the contemporaneous geographic location.

9. The method of claim 1 , wherein:
detecting the change comprises detecting a change to a flight phase of an 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.

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 when a current geographic location of the vehicle corresponds to a geographic location associated with the first communications channel.

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

12. The method of claim 1 , wherein providing the indication of the recommended communications channel comprises modifying automatic dependent surveillance—broadcast (ADS-B) data.

13. The method of claim 1 , wherein providing the indication of the recommended communications channel comprises modifying broadcast data for vehicles within a controlled area.

14. A non-transitory computer-readable medium having computer-executable instructions stored thereon that, when executed by a processing system, cause the processing system to:
monitor a plurality of communications channels for a plurality of communications using a communications system;
maintain associations between respective communications channels and respective operational contexts of a plurality of different operational contexts based on the plurality of communications; and
in response to detecting a change in an operational context of a vehicle, provide an 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 vehicle.

15. The non-transitory computer-readable medium of claim 14 , wherein the computer-executable instructions cause the processing system to concurrently monitor an active communications channel and one or more additional communications channels in the background for the plurality of communications.

16. The non-transitory computer-readable medium of claim 15 , wherein the computer-executable instructions cause the processing system to concurrently monitor the one or more additional communications channels using a software defined radio.

17. The non-transitory computer-readable medium of claim 14 , wherein the computer-executable instructions cause the processing system to:
extract, for each respective communication of the plurality of communications, an operational context parameter and a radio frequency from the respective communication; and
maintain, for each respective communication of the plurality of communications, an association between the operational context parameter extracted from the respective communication and the radio frequency extracted from the respective communication.

18. The non-transitory computer-readable medium of claim 14 , wherein for each respective communication of the plurality of communications, the computer-executable instructions cause the processing system to:
extract an intended recipient identifier and a radio frequency from the respective communication;
obtain a contemporaneous geographic location associated with an intended recipient using the intended recipient identifier; and
maintain an association between the contemporaneous geographic location and the radio frequency extracted from the respective communicat

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

• H04B1/205

  with control bus for exchanging commands between units · CPC title

• H04B7/0456

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