Granted Patent B2

US 12,438,599 · App. 18/122,546 · Granted Oct 7, 2025

Inventors: Rhishi Pratap Singh (Kanpur, IN); Subramanian Ramasamy (Bangalore, IN); Souparno Sengupta (Bangalore, IN); Santosh Multhalli (Hyderabad, IN)

Assignee: Rockwell Collins, Inc.

H04B7/18506H04B7/18513

Abstract

Claims (52)

1. A system for airborne radio frequency (RF) profile generation, comprising: at least one processor communicatively coupled to one or more avionics systems aboard an aircraft, the at least one processor configured to: receive at least one absolute position of the aircraft generated by a satellite-based navigational receiver of the aircraft, the absolute position including at least a timestamp, a latitude, and a longitude; receive, from an aircraft-based altimeter, at least one altitude of the aircraft: receive, from a navigational system of the aircraft, at least one VOR/DME position fix including at least one of:

a bearing angle of the aircraft corresponding to a VHF (Very High Frequency) omnidirectional range (VOR)/Distance Measuring Equipment (DME) ground station;

or

a distance between the aircraft and the VOR/DME ground station: receive, from a communications management unit (CMU) of the

aircraft, at least one avionics communication link identifier comprising:

a station identifier (SID) corresponding to a ground control station configured for establishing a communications link to the aircraft:

and

a link quality indicator indicative of a signal strength of the communications link; and generate at least one RF profile corresponding to each absolute

position by correlating the altitude, the VOR/DME position fix, and the

avionics communication link identifier associated with the timestamp of the absolute position; and at least one memory coupled to the processor, the memory configured for

storage of the generated RF profile.

2. The system of claim 1 , wherein the communications link includes at least one high-altitude communications link selected from a group including:

a satellite-based communications (satcom) link relayed between the aircraft and the ground control station by one or more communications satellites;

a very high frequency (VHF) communications link between the aircraft and a ground control station within visual line of sight (VLOS) of the aircraft via one or more channels associated with a frequency between 30 and 300 MHz;

and

a high frequency (HF) communications link between the aircraft and a ground control station beyond VLOS of the aircraft via one or more channels associated with a frequency between 2 and 30 MHz.

3. The system of claim 1 , wherein the communications link includes at least one cellular communications link between the aircraft and at least one ground-based cellular control station.

4. The system of claim 1 , wherein the at least one memory is configured for storage of at least one route profile comprising a sequence of two or more generated RF profiles corresponding to a flight path flown by the aircraft.

5. The system of claim 1 , wherein the at least one processor is further configured to:

retrieve from the memory at least one reference RF profile corresponding to the absolute position;

and

determine a validity of the absolute position by comparing the at least one RF profile to the at least one reference RF profile.

6. The system of claim 5 , wherein the at least one processor is configured to validate the absolute position based on a similarity of the at least one reference RF profile and the at least one RF profile.

7. The system of claim 5 , wherein the at least one processor is configured to invalidate the absolute position based on a deviation of the at least one RF profile from the at least one reference RF profile to at least a threshold level.

8. The system of claim 1 , wherein the altitude includes at least one of:

a barometric altitude;

or

a radio altitude.

9. A method for aircraft-based radio frequency (RF) profiling, the method comprising:

receiving, via a positioning system of an aircraft, a plurality of positioning signals from a plurality of navigational satellites;

determining, via the positioning system and based on the plurality of positioning signals, an absolute position of the aircraft, the absolute position comprising a latitude, a longitude, and a timestamp;

determining, via an aircraft-based altimeter, an altitude of the aircraft associated with the timestamp;

receiving, via the positioning system and from a VHF (Very High Frequency) omnidirectional range (VOR)/distance measuring equipment (DME) ground station, at least one VOR/DME position fix, each position fix including at least one of 1) a bearing angle of the aircraft relative to the VOR/DME ground station or 2) a distance between the aircraft and the VOR/DME ground station;

receiving, from a communications management unit (CMU) of the aircraft, at least one avionics communications link identifier including 1) a station identifier (SID) corresponding to a ground control station configured for establishing an avionics communications link to the aircraft and 2) a link quality indicator indicative of a signal strength of the avionics communications link;

generating an RF profile corresponding to the absolute position by correlating the altitude, the VOR/DME position fix, and the avionics communication link identifier associated with the timestamp of the absolute position;

retrieving, from a memory coupled to the positioning system, at least one reference RF profile generated prior to the timestamp and corresponding to the latitude and the longitude of the absolute position;

and

determining, via the positioning system, a validity of the absolute position by comparing the generated RF profile and the at least one reference RF profile.

10. The method of claim 9 , wherein determining, via the positioning system, a validity of the absolute position by comparing the generated RF profile and the at least one reference RF profile includes:

validating the absolute position based on a similarity of the generated RF profile and the at least one reference RF profile.

11. The method of claim 9 , wherein determining, via the positioning system, a validity of the absolute position by comparing the generated RF profile and the at least one reference RF profile includes:

invalidating the absolute position based on a deviation of the generated RF profile from the at least one reference RF profile to at least a threshold level.

12. The method of claim 9 , wherein determining, via the positioning system, an altitude of the aircraft associated with the timestamp includes:

determining, via at least one of a barometric altimeter or a radio altimeter, an altitude of the aircraft associated with the timestamp.

13. The method of claim 9 , wherein receiving, from a CMU of the aircraft, at least one avionics communications link identifier including 1) a station identifier (SID) corresponding to a ground control station configured for establishing an avionics communications link to the aircraft and 2) a link quality indicator indicative of a signal strength of the avionics communications link includes:

receiving at least one avionics communications link identifier associated with a high-altitude communications link selected from a group including:

a satellite-based communications (satcom) link relayed between the aircraft and the ground control station by one or more communications satellites;

a very high frequency (VHF) communications link between the aircraft and a ground control station within the aircraft's visual line of sight (VLOS) via one or more channels associated with a frequency between 30 and 300 MHz;

and

a high frequency (HF) communications link between the aircraft and a ground control station beyond the aircraft's VLOS via one or more channels associated with a frequency between 2 and 30 MHz.

14. The method of claim 9 , wherein receiving, from a CMU of the aircraft, at least one avionics communications link identifier including 1) a station identifier (SID) corresponding to a ground control station configured for establishing an avionics communications link to the aircraft and 2) a link quality indicator indicative of a signal strength of the avionics communications link includes:

receiving at least one avionics communications link identifier associated with a cellular communications link between the aircraft and at least one ground-based cellular control station.

Assignments (2)

Priority Claims (1)

Continuity (1)

References Cited (23)