A method and control system that implements a particular aircraft harnessing for an aircraft is provided. The control system includes an effector Line-Replaceable Unit (LRU) including a first connection port, a second connection port, and a first interconnect wire internally connecting the first connection port and the second connection port, a first control LRU connected using a first harnessing to the effector LRU, and a second control LRU connected using a second harnessing to the effector LRU, wherein the first control LRU and the second control LRU are configured to communicate using the first interconnect wire in the effector LRU.

An in-flight entertainment and communications (IFEC) system is configured to interconnect an avionics data bus to a local area network. An avionics interface is connectable to the avionics data bus, and receptive to avionics data transmitted on the avionics data bus by one or more avionics nodes over a predetermined protocol. A local network interface establishes the local area network, and portable electronic devices may be connectable to the local network interface over the local area network to establish a data communications link thereon. A data processor is connected to the avionics interface and the local network interface, and relays the avionics data from the avionics interface to the local network interface for transmission to the one or more portable electronics devices. This transmission is according to the predetermined protocol over the data communications link established on the local area network.

A device for secure transmission of vehicle data over vehicle datalinks that may be shared with passenger devices and are connected to a publicly shared network is provided. The device comprises a processor embedded within a portion of an Ethernet cable for a vehicle. A plurality of applications resides in the processor and comprises a VPN application, and a VPN address and certificate update application. A first Ethernet transceiver communicates with the processor through the VPN application and also communicates with onboard electronic equipment. A second Ethernet transceiver communicates with the processor through the VPN application and also communicates with an external datalink. The VPN application automatically establishes a VPN when the datalink is available, provides an authentication certificate to verify that the device is a correct and legitimate node, and verifies a VPN hosting certification to determine whether the device is communicating with a correct and legitimate external facility.

The invention relates to a method for communicating data between communication equipments, where the first communication equipment (EqptN) is put into the emission mode (Xmit) for the frame (TrN) containing its identification (D_PID), while each second communication equipment (Eqpt1, EqptN+1, EqptN+x) is put into the receiving mode (Rcv), then the equipment (EqptN) is put into the receiving mode (Rcv), each equipment (Eqpt1, EqptN+1, EqptN+x) prescribes its local emission window (Ftle1, FtleN+1, FtleN+x), which is associated with its identification, during which it is put into the emission mode (Xmit) for its frame, a time of beginning (IDF1, IDFN+1, IDFN+X) of the window being a determined function, increasing with respect to a difference equal to its identification from which the identification (D_PID) is subtracted, each equipment is put into the emission mode, during which it emits its frame containing its identification during its window starting at the beginning time.

A high availability aircraft network architecture incorporating smart points of presence (SPoP) is disclosed. In embodiments, the network architecture divides the aircraft into districts, or physical subdivisions. Each district includes one or more mission systems (MS) smart network access point (SNAP) devices for connecting MS components and devices located within its district to the MS network. Similarly, each district includes one or more air vehicle systems (AVS) SNAP devices for connecting AVS components and devices within the district to the AVS network. The AVS network may remain in a star or hub-and-spoke topology, while the MS network may be configured in a ring or mesh topology. Selected MS and AVS SNAP devices may be connected to each other via guarded network bridges to securely interconnect the MS and AVS networks.

Hybrid wire-fiber data networks that include wire-fiber transceivers protected against environmental interferences. In some embodiments, a hybrid-wire-fiber data network of this disclosure provides a fiber-optic link between portions of one or more wired networks. In some embodiments, a hybrid wire-fiber data network of this disclosure includes a fiber-optic link that relies only on message-priority arbitration performed on wired portions of one or more wired networks. In some embodiments, a wire-fiber transceiver of this disclosure includes electromagnetic environment (EME) protective circuitry for one or both of input power and input signals. In some embodiments, a wire-fiber transceiver of this disclosure is configured for use with a controlled area network media-access protocol (CAN) and/or a derivative of CAN. Various data communication and other methods are also disclosed in addition to hybrid wire-fiber data networks and components thereof.

A vehicle communication system including a communication management unit (CMU) and a data gateway is provided. The CMU is at least in part configured to route first type messages using a first type message communication. The data gateway is configured to communicate second type messages to a remote location. The CMU is configured to route at least some of the first type messages to the data gateway. The data gateway is configured to communicate a pseudo acknowledgment for each message block of each first type message routed to the data gateway back to the CMU indicating the message block was received by a designated remote location. The data gateway is further configured to interface each received first type message into the second type message and communicate each second type message to the designated remote location using a second type of message communication.

To locate an intermittent fault in a communication structure of an aircraft comprising pieces of equipment that are interconnected by cabling forming a plurality of communication media that are shared, an analyzer retrieves an error report relating to transmission errors observed on each of said communication media, performs a count of the transmission errors, per type of error and per communication chain, computes a median of the counts for communication chains comprising the same pair of wired pieces of equipment, and when, for a communication chain, the count exceeds a threshold equal to the median plus a predefined margin, generates an alarm indicating detection of an intermittent fault in association with the communication chain that led the threshold to be exceeded. Thus, intermittent faults are easily located and repaired.

A kit for manufacturing electronic aircraft control units having different specifications, the units including electronic modules of different types, including avionics platform modules comprising at least an electronic monitoring circuit and an electronic control circuit that are segregated from each other; first protection modules for protecting the avionics platform modules; first extended connection modules; and second protection modules for protecting the extended connection modules; the modules of each type being identical with one another.

Aspects relate to method and systems for wrapping simulated intra-aircraft communication to a physical controller area network. An exemplary method includes receiving simulator data from an aircraft simulator, disaggregating a simulated digital message from the simulator data, abstracting a simulated signal as a function of the simulated digital message, transmitting the simulated signal on at least a controller area network (CAN), receiving, using at least an aircraft component communicative with the at least a CAN, the simulated signal by way of the at least a CAN, transmitting a phenomenal signal by way of the at least a CAN, receiving the phenomenal signal by way of the at least a CAN, converting a phenomenal digital message as a function of the phenomenal signal, and inputting the phenomenal digital message to the aircraft simulator.