The Boeing Company

Rockwell Collins, Inc.

John L Meier

Arun Ayyagari

Ronald Ward Sackman

Tirumale K Ramesh

Brian J Smith

Guijun Wang

Christopher Kenneth Zuver

Carl Joseph Hanks

Kent L English

Ronald J Howard

Fernando Afonso Zamith

Michael R Gray

Scott Charles Sullivan

Ming-Yuh Huang

Jason Edward Amanatullah

Steven E Koenck

James B West

David W Jensen

Martin J Steffensmeier

Thomas Francis Overman

Scott Arthur Moody

Stephen J Wright

Nathan O Jensen

Micheal R Gray

A system for optical communications may include a multiplicity of optical communications relay platforms that each move above a surface of the earth. Each relay platform may include a relay link for communications between adjacent relay platforms. The system may also include a plurality of ground stations. Each ground station may be configured to communicate with another of the ground stations through at least one of the relay platforms. Each ground station may include an optical communications link for optical communications with successive relay platforms. The optical link of each ground station may be configured for handover connections between the successive relay platforms as the relay platforms move relative to the earth. The system may additionally include a network operations center having a link controller. The link controller may be configured to control switching of the communications links for hitless transmission between the ground stations.

Bandwidth optimization and hitless transport in dynamic free space optical communications networks

A method is described for communication in a tactical network. A gateway is communicatively COUPLABLE to one or more tactical nodes and to one or more other gateways. The gateway is programmed to transmit information to and/or receive information from other gateways. Information exchanged includes gateway attributes, link attributes, service availability, and/or data availability. The gateway optionally provides quality of service, distributed persistence, load balancing, and/or transformation services. Services are provided in a modular, service-oriented architecture (SOA) to accommodate the addition of services and/or applications.

Method for communication in a tactical network

A network node for a network having dynamic link states includes a processing unit and computer-readable memory for causing the processing unit to monitor a link state of the network; perform QoS provisioning and make appropriate updates to the QoS provisioning based on changes in the link state and QoS provisioning demands of QoS-aware applications; and provide notification to the QoS-aware applications to allow those applications to dynamically adapt to the link state changes.

QOS provisioning in a network having dynamic link states

A system is described for communication in a tactical network. A gateway is communicatively couplable to one or more tactical nodes and to one or more other gateways. The gateway is programmed to transmit information to and/or receive information from other gateways. Information exchanged includes gateway attributes, link attributes, service availability, and/or data availability. The gateway optionally provides quality of service, distributed persistence, load balancing, and/or transformation services. Services are provided in a modular, service-oriented architecture (SOA) to accommodate the addition of services and/or applications.

System for communication in a tactical network

A distributed security architecture may include: a mobile anti-tamper hardware policy enforcement point configured to control communication behaviors of a mobile or stationary client by enforcing communication policies within a policy decision point; an anti-tamper hardware policy decision point encapsulated within the anti-tamper hardware policy enforcement point; a policy exchange channel for policy distribution modes configured to distribute and/or update communication and routing security policies to the client; a context manager configured to handle system-wide status change update signaling; and an authentication manager configured to provide clients with registration and credential/role assignments based on access policies. The distributed security architecture may be configured to provide open system interconnection layer 3.5 policy-based secure routing, and open system interconnection layer 2 policy-based mandatory access control address filtering to provide secure communication and computing for layers 4, 5, 6, and 7.

Distributed security architecture

A system, apparatus, and method are described for communication in a tactical network. A gateway is communicatively couplable to one or more tactical nodes and to one or more other gateways. The gateway is programmed to transmit information to and/or receive information from other gateways. Information exchanged includes gateway attributes, link attributes, service availability, and/or data availability. The gateway optionally provides quality of service, distributed persistence, load balancing, and/or transformation services. Services are provided in a modular, service-oriented architecture (SOA) to accommodate the addition of services and/or applications.

System, apparatus, and method for communication in a tactical network

A method and apparatus for controlling circuits in an electrical power grid. Parameters in the circuits are monitored. Each circuit comprises nodes in the electrical power grid and a number of lines connected to the nodes in the electrical power grid. The number of lines is configured to carry electrical power. The nodes control the electrical power in the number of lines. A number of agent processes associated with the nodes communicate with each other using a communications network, configure the nodes in the electrical power grid into a number of circuits, and control a delivery of the electrical power through the number of circuits to loads. A determination is made as to whether to make a change to the number of circuits based on the number of parameters and a policy. The circuits are changed using the policy in response to a determination to make the change.

Controlling virtual power circuits

A distributed security architecture may include: a mobile anti-tamper hardware policy enforcement point configured to control communication behaviors of a mobile client by enforcing communication policies within a policy decision point; a mobile anti-tamper hardware policy decision point encapsulated within the mobile anti-tamper hardware policy enforcement point; a policy exchange channel for policy distribution modes configured to distribute and/or update communication and routing security policies to the mobile client; a contextual manager configured to handle system-wide status change update signaling; and a mobility authentication manager configured to provide mobile clients with registration and credential/role assignments based on mobile access policies. The distributed security architecture may be configured to provide open system interconnection layer 3.5 policy-based secure routing, and open system interconnection layer 2 policy-based mandatory access control address filtering to provide secure communication and computing for layers 4, 5, 6, and 7.

A method and apparatus are present for sending power to a number of loads. A plurality of nodes and a number of lines connected to the plurality of nodes are selected to send electrical power from a number of sources to a number of loads based on a capacity to send the electrical power through the plurality of nodes and the number of lines. The plurality of nodes is configured into a circuit to carry the electrical power from the number of sources to the number of loads using the plurality nodes. The plurality of nodes are controlled to send the electrical power through the circuit to the number of loads using a number of agent processes associated with the plurality of nodes.

Network centric power flow control

A chip having an intelligent fabric may include a soft application processor, a reconfigurable hardware intelligent processor, a partitioned memory storage, and an interface to an external reconfigurable communication processor. The reconfigurable hardware intelligent processor may be configured to implement a distributed reconfigurable processor, and to provide cognitive control for at least one of allocation, reallocation, and performance monitoring.

Intelligent fabric system on a chip

An intelligent distributed computing fabric system may comprise a cognitive element, a computing element, a security element, and a network element. The cognitive element may receive inputs from the computing element, the security element, and the network element, and may further receive external information from a sensor interface. The cognitive element may process the inputs from the computing element, the security element, and the network element, and may additionally process the external information from the sensor interface. The cognitive element may make decisions based on the inputs from the computing element, the security element, and the network element, and based on the external information from the sensor interface, to adapt for dynamically varying situations in a fabric infrastructure. The cognitive element may outputs instructions for actions, based on the dynamic decisions, to the computing element, the security element, and the network element in order to virtually interconnect the computing element, the security element, and the network element. The computing element may transmit inputs to the cognitive element. The computing element may receive the dynamic output instructions from the cognitive element. The computing element may follow the dynamic output instructions as commands from the cognitive element. The security element may receive inputs from the computing element and the network element. The security element may transmit current security policy inputs to the cognitive element. The network element may transmit inputs to the security element and to the cognitive element.

Virtual intelligent fabric

Systems and methods for improving network centric quality of service using active network technology are disclosed. In one embodiment, a method includes controlling how a packet is passed over at least one of the interfaces using a differentiated services portion of a network management architecture, monitoring a request for a Quality of Service (QoS) level from at least one QoS-aware application, and adjusting at least one service rate of packet travel controlled by the differentiated services portion based on at least one of the requested QoS level and an available bandwidth. In an alternate embodiment, the controlling of how a packet is passed over at least one of the interfaces includes using at least one of a queuing discipline, a class, and a filter.

Network centric quality of service using active network technology

The present invention is a method and system for transmitting data between two objects via a free space optical data link. In an exemplary aspect of the present invention, the method may start with a step in which a laser beam modulated with data is transmitted to the vicinity of an optical collector. The laser beam may be transmitted by a modulated laser transmitter. The laser beam may cause atmospheric nitrogen in the vicinity of the optical collector to fluoresce and emit a set of characteristic line spectra. The set of characteristic line spectra may be received by the optical collector, and at least one characteristic spectral line may be obtained with an optical filter. Preferably, a wavelength of the at least one characteristic spectral line is selected from a group consisting of 3995.00 angstroms, 4630.54 angstroms, 5005.15 angstroms, and 5679.56 angstroms, which have high relative amplitude. The at least one characteristic spectral line may be detected and converted to electrical signal by a photodetector. The electrical signal may be amplified from a small signal to a large signal, and the amplified electrical signal may be processed with a communications receiver to obtain the data.

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Cedar Rapids, IA, United States of America

John L Meier