EP3017367A1

EP3017367A1 - Communication device for airborne system

Info

Publication number: EP3017367A1
Application number: EP14736775.9A
Authority: EP
Inventors: Engin Oder; Florence ZAMBETTI
Original assignee: Thales SA
Current assignee: Thales SA
Priority date: 2013-07-05
Filing date: 2014-07-04
Publication date: 2016-05-11
Also published as: FR3008215A1; US20160373184A1; FR3008215B1; WO2015001112A1

Abstract

The present invention relates to a unitary communication device aboard an aircraft comprising on a single apparatus, avionics means for despatching and receiving data to/from avionics applications, and non-avionics means for despatching and receiving data to/from non-avionics applications. The device is characterized in that the avionics means are coupled across a secure firewall internal to the apparatus to the non-avionics means by serial or parallel communication links and in that the avionics means and non-avionics means comprise a plurality of communication interfaces able to communicate respectively with the avionics applications and non-avionics applications, and means able to manage the sharing of computing resources so as to undertake aboard the aircraft the avionics and non-avionics applications.

Description

COMMUNICATION DEVICE FOR ON-ROAD SYSTEM

AIRCRAFT

Field of the invention

The invention relates to the field of embedded systems on aircraft and particularly that of flight control and online maintenance.

State of the art

During flights, pilots are constantly in need of access to information to adapt their flight plan to situations. Some data is directly provided by the embedded system, such as information on waypoints, but other information is not available in real time directly aboard the aircraft in flight, because from the outside world or world open and available outside the aviation environment.

A concrete example is that during a cruising flight phase, where a pilot must divert to an airport different from that of its destination or even that of diverting the initial flight plan. This case of unforeseen diversion can be the consequence of meteorological situations for which the land of destination is no longer accessible or to be due to a failure encountered on the plane or even linked to a sick passenger who needs to shorten the flight.

In such cases of diversion, the pilots are faced with the choice of landing on an airport which is not that of intended destination but which must be adapted to the situation.

To support their choice, pilots must include related information on the airport diversion, namely:

- if it is accessible by regulation, ie if visibility is sufficient to land;

- whether the airport meets the needs of the situation, for example by being close to a hospital or if there is the necessary maintenance equipment; - if there is a hotel infrastructure on site that can accommodate all passengers;

- whether it will be possible to route passengers to their final destination knowing that there is a nearby station or well-connected road infrastructure;

- if the weather is favorable to arrive at this destination; or

- if the aircraft's performance and the conditions of the day make the landing compatible with the runway. This information and its accessibility greatly increase the awareness of the pilots' situation and are important elements in flight safety. Thus, various information is then needed in real time to allow the pilots to decide on the airport of diversion. However, current embedded systems do not have simple and effective means for accessing real-time information, which is essential information to obtain in time for modifying the flight plan in flight.

The current avionics world architecture, which is commonly based on terminals, is outdated compared to modern applications that use "man-machine dialogue" oriented resources.

Although the recent computer means, such as tablets or portable devices have seen their advent to end users, these pose problems for airlines who want to upgrade their embedded computing equipment.

Indeed, application providers for the avionics navigation and maintenance world have been led either to develop new applications that can operate on several platforms at once, such as those well known from IOS, Android, Windows 7 or 8, or Linux, to develop as many applications as platforms.

Thus, there is a need for a universal, versatile and unified that allows to support:

any type of application, regardless of the platform for which it is designed; and

any platform for any application in a unified ergonomics.

Furthermore, such an architecture must also allow a connection between portable devices present in the cockpit and existing avionics equipment and also allow a two-way communication with the ground. In addition, such an architecture must be sufficiently robust in terms of security not to be polluted or deviated because the transported data are sensitive data, specific to an airline and its operations.

Although the existing embedded systems meet some of the needs mentioned, they respectively have drawbacks that do not allow to propose a global multi-platform, multi-application architecture. The known systems are the flight management systems or "Flight Management System (FMS)" according to the appropriate anglicism or mission preparation systems commonly referred to as "Electronic Flight Bag (EFB)".

The disadvantages of the type of solutions (FMS) are that the information necessary for the pilots to carry out their missions can be found on paper forms developed on the ground by the services of the operations center of the airline (AOC) and entered at the hand in the FMS by the pilots, that is, by direct transmission of the AOC to the FMS by a means of communication VHF or ACARS or "data link" in English. In this solution, AOC pilot applications are not all automated and require a sustained effort and a waste of time for pilots. Today, only the "flight plan" application can be transmitted directly from the AOC to the FMS avionics, only on aircraft equipped with ACARS or having "gatelink" loading facilities in English. Diversion airports where pilots could land are provided for example in a book of possible diversion airports on which it is possible to ask according to the technical data of the aircraft and the route.

Thus the FMS solution does not allow on the one hand automation and other share a simplification of the tasks of the pilots. In addition, the FMS does not allow quick access to the right information at the right time, which is required for real-time information that can not be predicted in advance. Type solutions (EFB) are associated with a ground station integrated in the flight operations of the airline or a service provider. The applications developed for the systems (EFB) are on heterogeneous platforms on the one hand of the operating system and on the other hand on the hardware corresponding to the operating system. They are therefore specified and developed for a given platform and are therefore dependent on the platforms and only work on those for which they are intended. Thus, the current architectures of the EFB have the disadvantages that each architecture is based on a unique and non-versatile technology, either PC technology or that of tablets.

There is then the need for an architecture offering the ability to satisfy heterogeneous applications on heterogeneous platforms while allowing communication between portable equipment and avionics embedded systems.

The present invention meets this need.

Summary of the invention

An object of the present invention is to provide a device for managing heterogeneous and heterogeneous applications and allowing communication between portable equipment and the existing avionics avionics. The device of the invention has the advantage of communicating with any type of tablet (Android, IOS, Win8, etc.) and to interface with avionics avionics means.

Another object of the present invention is to propose an architecture capable of supporting heterogeneous and heterogeneous applications, both Flight Deck (EFB, pilots) as well as Flight Ops (Operations Center) and Maintenance (Maintenance Operations) which by their very nature need to be compatible across heterogeneous and disparate applications and platforms.

Advantageously, by its logical and physical architecture, the device of the invention is capable of supporting all applications and data relating to flight areas "Flight" and "maintenance" regardless of their operating environment, PC or Tablet.

Advantageously, the device of the invention provides the information and documents necessary for the work of pilots (PNT), aircraft maintenance agents and cabin crew (PNC) in their functions.

Advantageously, the device of the invention operates as an equipment embedded in an architecture having air / ground communication means and information providers. For this purpose, the subject of the invention is a unitary communication device on board an aircraft comprising on a single device, avionic means for sending and receiving data to / from avionic applications, and non-avionic means for sending and receive data to / from non-avionics applications. The device is characterized in that the avionic means are coupled through a secure firewall internal to said equipment to non-avionic means by serial or parallel communication links and in that the avionic and non-avionic means comprise a a plurality of communication interfaces capable of communicating respectively with the avionics and non-avionics applications, and means capable of managing the sharing of computing resources to operate onboard the aircraft the avionics and non-avionics applications.

Advantageously, the communication interfaces are wired or wireless interfaces. In particular, communication interfaces capable of communicating with the avionics applications are interfaces of the group (ARINC, AFDX) and the communication interfaces able to communicate with non-avionics applications are interfaces of the group (Wifi, Bluetooth, 3G, LTE, Ethernet). In addition, the device according to the invention comprises specific interfaces for satellite communications.

Advantageously, the IT resource management means comprise virtualization components, which use virtual machines and a hypervisor.

According to a preferred embodiment, the device of the invention comprises remote display means for displaying data on dialogue units on board the aircraft where the dialogue units are dialogue units. crew, digital tablets of an embedded system, or portable terminals for access to maintenance.

In an implementation variant, an embedded system on board an aircraft comprises at least two devices of the invention coupled by Ethernet communication links.

Description of figures

Various aspects and advantages of the invention will appear in support of the description of a preferred embodiment of the invention, but not limiting, with reference to the figures below:

Figure 1 shows schematically the system of the invention;

Figure 2 shows a preferred implementation of the system of the invention.

Detailed description of the invention To allow a good understanding of the description, a terminology of the main terms used is given below:

Term Definition

ACARS Aircraft Communication Addressing and Reporting

System - Digital Airplane / Ground Communication System

AFDX Avionics Full DupleX - Avionics Ethernet Network

AID Aircraft Interface Device - Avionics Interface Devices

A / L Airline / Airline

AOC Airline Operation Center / Operations Center of the airline

ARINC Aeronautical Radio, Inc / Aeronautical Standard

ARM RISC Architecture Microprocessor (Reduced

Set Computer Instruction)

ATI S Automatic Terminal Information Service - Automated Terminal Information Service (Airport)

CCDU Crew Cabin Dialog Unit - Cabin Crew Dialogue Unit

CMS Centralized Maintenance System - Centralized Maintenance System

CPIOM Core Processing I / O Modules - Core I / O Modules

EFB Electronic Flight Bag - Driver's Electronic Case

FMS Flight Management System - Management System

Flight

LRU Line replaceable unit - Online replaceable equipment

MCC Maintenance Control Center Control Center

Maintenance

MCU Micro Controller Unit - Microcontroller Unit

METAR Meteorological Aerodrome Report - Hourly Aerodrome routine Meteorological Report - Aerodrome Meteorological Report. NOTE M NOTice to Airmen - Note to the Aviator

OS Operating System - Operating System

PMAT Portable Maintenance Access Terminal - Portable Maintenance Terminal

PNC Personal Navigant Commercial

PNT Personnel Navigant Technique

PU Processing Unit - Processing Unit

SRU Shop replaceable unit - Unit (component) replaceable in workshop

TAF Terminal aerodrome forecast - Terminal weather forecast

TEMSI Significant weather (weather map)

WDU Wireless Dialog Unit - Wireless Dialogue Unit

WIFI Wireless Fidelity / wireless communication standard

WINTEM Wind and Temperatures (Weather Map) - Wind and Temperature

Figure 1 schematically illustrates the device of the present invention. The device (100) includes a first avionics module (102) for managing applications in the avionics world (104), and a second 'open world' module (106) for managing non-avionics applications of the open world (108).

The avionics module (102) includes different interfaces (110) to enable communication and data exchange to the avionics world. The interfaces allow wired communication to pilot dialogue terminals and may be depending on the environment of ARINC interfaces 429, AFDX to mention only these two examples without any limitation to the extension to other well known avionic interfaces of the skilled person. The avionics module further comprises a central processing unit (112) for managing all the input / output operations.

The open world module (106) includes various interfaces (114) for enabling communication and data exchange to the open world. Interfaces allow communication to tablet devices (IPad, Android, smart phones, etc.) or portable personal computers (PCs). The available interfaces may be Wi-Fi interfaces for communications to tablets operating as a remote Dialog Unit (UD) or support for native embedded applications, or Bluetooth interfaces to allow communication with maintenance applications, particularly applications. online maintenance. Other interfaces may be implemented to communicate with ground-based servers (118), such as a 3G interface, an LTE interface, or an Ethernet interface to name but a few. Advantageously, the WiFi and Bluetooth ports are sized in their frequency and amplitude ranges of their spectrums so that no on-board equipment is disturbed during the start of these functions.

The open world module further comprises a central processing unit (116) for managing all the input / output operations. The avionics and open world modules are coupled by serial or parallel communication links (120) to allow exchanges between the two modules. According to the implementation variants, the intra-module communication protocol comprises various hardware and software mechanisms that make the device safe and secure as a whole vis-à-vis the open world. Thus, a layer of firewall type is implemented on the avionics side module of the device to secure the exchanges with the open world.

On the other hand, an authentication mechanism and a message filtering mechanism according to the nature, the content, the destination, is implemented on the open world side of the equipment to secure the exchanges coming from the open world.

The device of the invention further comprises satellite communication interfaces of the iridium type for example.

In a preferred implementation of the device of the invention, the open world module is produced using an Intel® microprocessor-based industrial card and the avionics module is made based on an IMA avionics module such as a CPIOM module.

Advantageously, the system architecture associated with specific software modules using streaming and virtualization technologies enables the system to host any heterogeneous heterogeneous application in a unified environment.

The proposed architecture has the advantage of meeting many quality criteria and in particular the criteria of:

- Versatility with a single device for any application on different platforms, operating systems and environments such as:

- Applications for Windows, Linux, Android, IOS (IPad, Iphone);

- Operating systems: Windows (32, 64 bit), Linux, Android, IOS

- Scalability with a choice of hardware and software components according to the technology:

- Modular hardware architecture allowing scalability in reuse while minimizing overall cost (TSC);

- Software development using a 5th generation language able to adapt to different platforms (Windows, Android, IOS, Linux)

- Durability limiting technological obsolescence to a small number of modules:

- Modularity is chosen to optimize reuse;

- The components likely to evolve come together in one module - Reliability and security of the system architecture: The failure of an application can neither slow down nor disturb another application;

- The redundant hardware architecture is auto-reconfigurable

- Certificability: the development is done according to the norm DO 160 ensuring:

- the non-disturbance of avionics instruments;

- Electromagnetic interference (EMI), temperature and vibration tests according to OD 160 / cockpit.

Thus, the device includes virtualization modules (Hypervisor), software for remote display (streaming) and firewalls (firewall in English) specific for the functions of the EFB and Maintenance.

Advantageously, the hardware and software virtualization module (Hypervisor) allows the device to operate several separate virtual machines. The hypervisor distributes the resources of the device such as memory, I / O, etc. in an independent and secure manner between the virtual machines under its control.

With this architecture, applications run on virtual machines that are distinct from each other without any possible interference.

Advantageously, the remote display software module (streaming) allows the drivers to display any of these applications on their terminals which may be tablets communicating via WiFi with the device of the invention.

For example, an application developed for an Intel architecture system (Tablet PC - Windows) run on one of the virtual machines of the device operating as an application server and thanks to the streaming technique implemented in the device, to be deported on the communication interface (HMI) on any of the pilot terminals (tablets or PC) chosen by an airline.

The virtualization (Hypervisor) and streaming modules are adapted to avionics standards. In particular, they are developed according to avionics standards D0178, D0245, for example.

The firewall software is specifically configured for EFB and Maintenance applications.

Figure 2 shows a preferred implementation of the system of the invention. In this implementation, two devices are coupled in parallel thus increasing the reliability of the overall system.

A first device (202) comprises an avionics module (106) and an open world module (102) each comprising the various aforementioned interface and CPU components as described in connection with the figure.

A second device (204) comprises an avionics module (106) and an open module (102) each comprising the various aforementioned interface and CPU components as described in connection with the figure.

The two devices (202, 204) are operably coupled via interfaces for communication (206) according to the Ethernet protocol. Each device comprises at least two virtual machines (VM1_202, VM2_202) for the first device (202) and (VM1_204, VM2_204) for the second device (204). The virtual machines operate under the supervision of a hypervisor (HYP_202) for the first device and (HYP_204) for the second device. Advantageously, the parallel operation of the four virtual machines under the supervision of a virtual machine hypervisor, allows redundant operational security of the "hardware" as well as redundancy of the system environment by a double virtual machine.

Hypervisors operate in parallel and each runs multiple virtual machines. Hypervisors self-monitor each other by a "heartbeat" mechanism where each virtual machine executes applications that can be duplicated in separate virtual machines and synchronized between the separate devices (202), (204). Thus in case of failure of an application on a virtual machine, the twin machine remains in operation and continues to perform the current function.

Thus, a heartbeat protocol allows twinned applications to know if the binocular is working or not by self-monitoring.

In the implementation of Figure 2, any dialogue unit (UD) (208) can access via Wifi wireless connection to one of the four virtual machines. The dialogue units may be the Embedded System Environment (EFB) Tablets, Portable Maintenance Access Terminals (PMATs) or CCDUs. It will be appreciated by those skilled in the art that variations may be made on the implementation described preferentially while maintaining the principles of the invention. In particular, the present invention has been described on an example of the "dual-dual" type having two devices in parallel, but could be extended to an architecture comprising a plurality of devices in parallel. Moreover, the hardware and / or software elements indicated for each module of a unitary device are not limiting in the description, and those skilled in the art will understand that other hardware and / or software elements performing the required functionality. can be used. To summarize the main advantages of the invention by the architecture described are:

- The support of various software to help pilot whatever the target software (operating system) and hardware (processor architecture);

- Support for different hardware environments (Intel, ARM, etc.);

- The support of heterogeneous applications;

- The support of several operating systems;

- The support of various decision support software for pilots.

Claims

claims

1. Unit device (100) for communication on board an aircraft comprising on a single device:

avionics means (102) for sending and receiving data

to / from avionics applications (104), and

non-avionic means (106) for sending and receiving data to / from non-avionics applications (108, 118),

characterized in that the avionic means are coupled through a secure firewall internal to said non-avionic means by serial or parallel communication links (120) and that the avionic and non-avionic means comprise:

a plurality of communication interfaces (110, 114) capable of communicating respectively with the avionics and non-avionics applications; and means (112, 116) capable of managing the sharing of computing resources to operate the avionics and non-avionics applications on board the aircraft.

2. The device according to claim 1 wherein the interfaces of

communication are wired or wireless interfaces.

3. The device according to claim 1 or 2 wherein the communication interfaces capable of communicating with the avionic applications are interfaces of the group (ARINC, AFDX) and the communication interfaces able to communicate with the non-avionics applications are interfaces. Group (Wifi, Bluetooth, 3G, LTE, Ethernet).

4. The device according to any one of claims 1 to 3 further comprising satellite communication interfaces.

5. The device according to any one of claims 1 to 4 wherein the IT resource management means include virtualization components.

6. The device according to claim 5 wherein the components of

virtualization include virtual machines and a hypervisor.

The device of any one of claims 1 to 6 further comprising remote display means for displaying data on dialogue units on board the aircraft.

8. The device of claim 7 wherein the dialogue units are crew dialogue units, digital tablets of an embedded system, or portable terminals for access to maintenance.

9. An embedded system on board an aircraft comprising at least two devices according to any one of claims 1 to 8, said at least two devices being coupled by Ethernet communication links.