Data network, aircraft or spacecraft, and method

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-9503192-B2
Application number	US-201414535833-A
Country	US
Kind code	B2
Filing date	Nov 7, 2014
Priority date	Nov 11, 2013
Publication date	Nov 22, 2016
Grant date	Nov 22, 2016

Abstract

A data network, especially a data network for an aircraft or spacecraft, includes a primary data grid, and at least one secondary data grid, the primary data grid including primary data nodes, wherein the primary data nodes are directly or indirectly coupled in data communication with each other, and the at least one secondary data grid comprising secondary data nodes, wherein the at least one secondary data grid is configured to connect the secondary data nodes in a data communication chain and to connect the first secondary data node of the data communication chain to a first respective primary data node and/or the last secondary data node of the data communication chain to a second respective primary data node.

First claim

The invention claimed is:

1. A data network for an aircraft or spacecraft, the data network comprising:
a primary data grid comprising primary data nodes, wherein the primary data nodes are coupled in data communication with each other;
at least one secondary data grid each comprising secondary data nodes and connecting the secondary data nodes in a data communication chain and connecting the first secondary data node of the data communication chain directly to a first respective primary data node and the last secondary data node of the data communication chain directly to a second respective primary data node; and
a backup data grid, the backup data grid comprising a technology for data transmission that is different from technology of data transmission of the primary data grid.

2. The data network of claim 1 , wherein the primary data grid comprises optical data lines configured to provide optical data connections between the primary data nodes, especially configured to provide the optical data connections with a bandwidth of at least 10 gigabits per second; and/or
wherein the primary data grid is configured to provide a data connection between any two primary data nodes through a maximum of two other primary data nodes; and/or
wherein the primary data grid is configured to provide at least two data routes between any two primary data nodes.

3. The data network of claim 1 , wherein the primary data nodes and/or the secondary data nodes comprise network switches.

4. The data network of claim 1 , wherein the secondary data grid comprises at least one network access node configured to provide data access to the secondary data grid for at least one data end consumer.

5. The data network of claim 4 , wherein every secondary data node comprises at least one first data interface and wherein the at least one network access node comprises a second data interface configured to provide a data connection between the at least one network access node and one of the at least one first data interface of at least one of the secondary data nodes.

6. The data network of claim 4 , wherein the at least one network access node comprises a third data interface configured to provide a data connection between the at least one network access node and the at least one data end consumer.

7. The data network of claim 6 , wherein the third data interface comprises at least one of:
a wired data interface;
a wireless data interface;
a free space optical data interface; and
a data over power data interface.

8. The data network of claim 4 , wherein every secondary data node is configured to route incoming data packets to all directly connected secondary data nodes, especially secondary data nodes which have not received the respective incoming data packet before, and/or only to network access nodes which have data end consumers connected to them.

9. The data network of claim 1 , wherein every primary data node is configured to route incoming data packets to all directly connected other primary data nodes, especially primary data nodes which have not received the respective incoming data packet before, and/or to all directly connected secondary data nodes.

10. The data network of claim 1 , wherein the backup data grid comprises a passive optical data network; and/or the backup data grid comprises a redundant data network.

11. The data network of claim 1 , wherein the backup data grid is electronically connected to at least one of the primary data nodes.

12. An aircraft or spacecraft, comprising:
a data network according to claim 1 ;
at least one data end consumer coupled to the secondary data grid of the data network.

13. An aircraft or spacecraft, comprising:
a data network comprising:
a primary data grid comprising primary data nodes, wherein the primary data nodes are coupled in data communication with each other; and
at least one secondary data grid each comprising secondary data nodes and connecting the secondary data nodes in a data communication chain and connecting the first secondary data node of the data communication chain directly to a first respective primary data node and the last secondary data node of the data communication chain directly to a second respective primary data node; and

at least one data end consumer coupled to the secondary data grid of the data network;
wherein the data lines of a primary data network are distributed in an airframe of the aircraft or spacecraft such that only one data line at a time can be cut by a local damage to the airframe.

14. A method for transmitting data in an aircraft or spacecraft, the method comprising:
providing a primary data grid comprising primary data nodes;
providing at least one secondary data grid comprising secondary data nodes, the secondary data nodes being connected in a data communication chain;
providing a backup data grid, the backup data grid comprising a technology for data transmission that is different from the technology of data transmission of the primary data grid;
connecting the first secondary data node of the data communication chain directly to a first respective primary data node and the last secondary data node of the data communication chain directly to a second respective primary data node;
connecting at least two data end consumers to the secondary data nodes; and
transmitting data between the at least two data end consumers via the primary data grid and/or the secondary data grid.

Assignees

• Airbus Operations Gmbh
• Airbus Operations (S A S)
• Airbus Operations Sas

Inventors

• Brownjohn Nicholas
• Osternack Stefan
• Poulain Stéphane
• Valancogne Xavier
• Fischer Nils

Classifications

• H04L67/12

  specially adapted for proprietary or special-purpose networking environments, e.g. medical networks, sensor networks, networks in vehicles or remote metering networks · CPC title

• H04B10/27 Primary

  Arrangements for networking · CPC title

• H04L2012/4028

  the transportation system being an aircraft · CPC title

• H04L45/28

  using route fault recovery · CPC title

• H04L12/40176 Primary

  involving redundancy (error detection or correction of the data by redundancy in hardware using active fault-masking in interconnections G06F11/2002; error detection or correction of the data by redundancy in hardware using active fault-masking in storage systems using spares or by reconfiguring G06F11/2053) · CPC title