Method and system for verifying data communication integrity in an aircraft

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-12464345-B2
Application number	US-202318228939-A
Country	US
Kind code	B2
Filing date	Aug 1, 2023
Priority date	Aug 5, 2022
Publication date	Nov 4, 2025
Grant date	Nov 4, 2025

Abstract

Method of verifying data communication integrity in an aircraft which has first and second data generating and sending entities. Data generated at the first entity is sent to the second entity as messages via a number of intermediate entities. The data communication is a blockchain with blocks, each being added to the blockchain by one of the entities and including a cryptographic hash representative of the prior block, thus linking the blocks. The method includes: a) logging a message subgroup and cryptographic hash at one or more of the first, second and intermediate entities; b) collecting message logs from each entity for verification; c) comparing messages sent by the first entity and messages received by the second entity; and d) if not all messages have arrived at said second entity, comparing message logs of intermediate entity(ies) with the message log of the first entity to identify where loss occurred.

First claim

The invention claimed is:

1 . A method of verifying data communication integrity in an aircraft, said aircraft comprising at least a first data generating and sending entity and at least a second data receiving entity, data generated at said first entity is sent from said first entity to said second entity as messages via a number of intermediate entities, said data communication is devised as a blockchain that comprises a number of blocks, each one of said blocks being added to the blockchain by a respective one of said entities and including a cryptographic hash representative of a prior one of the blocks in the blockchain, thus linking said two blocks, the method comprising:
a) logging at least a subgroup of the messages together with a cryptographic hash at at least some of said first, second and intermediate entities; b) collecting message logs from each said entity to be verified; c) comparing at least the messages generated and sent by said first entity and the messages received by said second entity; and d) in case that not all of the messages generated and sent by said first entity have arrived at said second entity, comparing the message logs of each said intermediate entity with the message log of said first entity in order to identify a one of the intermediate entities in which message loss occurred.

2 . The method of claim 1 , further comprising performing steps b) to d) at an end of a given flight mission of the aircraft.

3 . The method of claim 1 , further comprising performing steps b) to d) by a ground-based computer system.

4 . The method of claim 1 , further comprising performing steps b) to d) on-board during flight of the aircraft.

5 . The method of claim 1 , further comprising performing steps b) to d) by a central communication computer system or aircraft health monitoring computer system on-board the aircraft.

6 . The method of claim 5 , wherein said on-board computer system receives said messages from at least the entities to be verified.

7 . The method of claim 1 , further comprising performing steps c) and d) so as to allow a specific amount of message losses.

8 . The method of claim 7 , further comprising controlling said amount with a counter that has a hysteresis, said counter increasing by a first number, N, of increments when one of the messages is lost or otherwise corrupted, and decreasing by a second number, n, when no message loss or corruption occurs.

9 . The method of claim 8 , wherein N>n.

10 . The method of claim 8 , wherein said counter has a predefined threshold for detection of message loss and the method further comprises generating an alert when said counter reaches a predefined threshold value.

11 . The method of claim 10 , further comprising, when said counter is above said threshold, logging a detected event of message loss, and generating an alert for alerting any one of crew or control station or autopilot.

12 . The method of claim 1 , further comprising performing at least step d) sequentially over a number of time frames, each one of said time frames comprising a comparison of the message logs of a respective subgroup of said entities.

13 . The method of claim 12 , wherein said subgroup also includes at least one of said first entity or said second entity.

14 . The method of claim 12 , wherein said subgroup comprises different ones of the entities for every one of the time frames.

15 . The method of claim 1 , wherein the method is used for predictive maintenance and dormant failure detection.

16 . The method of claim 1 , wherein the method does not require any proof-of-work for validating or adding new blocks into said blockchain.

17 . A system for verifying data communication integrity in an aircraft, said system comprising a processing device and a non-transitory computer readable storage medium to store instructions that, when executed by the processing device, perform operations that configure the system to implement:
at least a first data generating and sending entity; at least a second data receiving entity; said first entity and said second entity are operatively connected for sending data generated at said first entity from said first entity to said second entity as messages via a number of intermediate entities, wherein said data communication comprises a blockchain that includes a number of blocks, each one of said blocks including a cryptographic hash representative of a prior one of the blocks in the blockchain, thus linking said two blocks, said system being configured to: a) log at least a subgroup of the messages together with a cryptographic hash at at least some of said first, second and intermediate entities; b) collect message logs from each said entity to be verified; c) compare at least the messages generated and sent by said first entity and the messages received by said second entity; and d) in case that not all of the messages generated and sent by said first entity have arrived at said second entity, compare the message logs of each said intermediate entity with the message log of said first entity in order to identify one of the intermediate entities in which message loss occurred.

Assignees

• Volocopter Gmbh

Inventors

• Yüksel Burak

Classifications

• H04L9/3239

  involving non-keyed hash functions, e.g. modification detection codes [MDCs], MD5, SHA or RIPEMD · CPC title

• B64D2045/0085

  Devices for aircraft health monitoring, e.g. monitoring flutter or vibration · CPC title

• B64D45/00

  Aircraft indicators or protectors not otherwise provided for · CPC title

• H04L2209/84

  Vehicles · CPC title

• H04W4/42

  for mass transport vehicles, e.g. buses, trains or aircraft · CPC title