The patent badge is an abbreviated version of the USPTO patent document. The patent badge does contain a link to the full patent document.
The patent badge is an abbreviated version of the USPTO patent document. The patent badge covers the following: Patent number, Date patent was issued, Date patent was filed, Title of the patent, Applicant, Inventor, Assignee, Attorney firm, Primary examiner, Assistant examiner, CPCs, and Abstract. The patent badge does contain a link to the full patent document (in Adobe Acrobat format, aka pdf). To download or print any patent click here.
Patent No.:
Date of Patent:
Jan. 10, 2012
Filed:
Dec. 08, 2008
David Erdos, Rogersville, MO (US);
Timothy M. Mitchell, Seattle, WA (US);
Tri Minh Phan, Renton, WA (US);
David Erdos, Rogersville, MO (US);
Timothy M. Mitchell, Seattle, WA (US);
Tri Minh Phan, Renton, WA (US);
The Boeing Company, Chicago, IL (US);
Abstract
A free space optical communications link is established, for example, between a commercial aircraft and an airport ground terminal unit, the link being asymmetric in the sense that a downlink to the aircraft has a much higher bandwidth than the reverse link from the aircraft so that the system is adapted for quickly loading large amounts of data (e.g., in-flight entertainment) onto the aircraft while still providing enough bandwidth for the lesser amounts of data (e.g., maintenance data) required to be transmitted from the aircraft to ground. Such adaptation provides significant benefits over standard, commercially available, free space optical communications systems. For example, equipment on the aircraft can be much smaller and lighter than ground unit equipment; and the communications link can allow for greater uncertainty in the alignment of the optical transceivers than do current free space optical communication systems and can allow for operation in harsher environmental conditions.