Patent Publication Number: US-2016225266-A1

Title: System for monitoring a-smgcs in real-time

Description:
CROSS REFERENCE TO RELATED APPLICATION 
     This application claims the benefit of Korean Patent Application No. 10-2015-0017016, filed on Feb. 3, 2015, which is hereby incorporated by reference in its entirety into this application. 
     BACKGROUND 
     1. Technical Field 
     The present disclosure relates to a monitoring technique for an Advanced-Surface Movement Guidance and Control System (A-SMGCS), and more particularly, to a system capable of monitoring the A-SMGCS in real time. 
     2. Description of the Related Art 
     According to a SMGCS (Doc 9476-AN/927) which is a manual of International Civil Aviation Organization (ICAO), an A-SMGCS is defined as a system having routing, guidance and surveillance functions for the control of aircrafts and vehicles in order to maintain the declared surface movement rate under all weather conditions within the airfield visibility operational level while maintaining the target level of safety. 
     That is, the A-SMGCS indicates a system related to equipment, procedures and supporting facilities designed to satisfy guidance and control requirements of ground traffics coincident to any specific operational conditions at any specific airfield, and is composed of a visual aided facility, a non-visual aided facility, a radio communication facility, a procedure-control-information associated facility or equipment, and the appropriated combination thereof. 
     The main reason of needing the A-SMGCS is to safely operate an airfield under a designated condition. The A-SMGCS may provide any specific weather condition, a sufficient capacity relevant to a traffic density and an airfield positioning, and a safety through an employment of up-to-date technique and a high level consolidation of various functions, and may increase a low visibility operation and an airfield capacity of a complex and high dense airfield through a usefulness and advancement of a new technology including an automatic performance. 
     The A-SMGCS consists of various modules according to respective functions. The respective modules include status information and action information acquired while performing their operations and integrate and store thereon such status information and action information from the respective modules. 
     When a request for the monitoring of the A-SMGCS is sent ab extra, the A-SMGCS provides the integrated and stored information. 
     Referring to  FIG. 1 , a conventional monitoring system  100  for monitoring the A-SMGCS is composed of an A-SMGCS server  110  and a high-level device  120 . 
     The A-SMGCS server  110  gathers and stores various information generated while operating according to the functions and sends the requested information to the high-level device  120 . When the high-level device  120  requests information, the high-level device receives the information sent from the A-SMGCS server  110  and then updates and displays the information. 
     At this time, the A-SMGCS server  110  includes a surveillance module  111 , control module  112 , a routing module  113 , a guidance module  114  and a monitoring module  115  classified by functions. 
     The surveillance module  111 , the control module  112 , the routing module  113  and the guidance module  114  respectively contain status information and action information. The status information is log data related to current status of the modules and the action information is log data generated while the modules perform any specific tasks. 
     The respective modules  111 ,  112 ,  113  and  114  send the information to the monitoring module  115  whenever status log and operation log occur. 
     The monitoring module  115  gathers the status information and the action information from the respective modules  111 ,  112 ,  113  and  114  and stores such information on a storage  115   a , and when the high-level device  120  requests information, sends the requested information to the high-level device  120 . 
     At this time, the high-level device  120  periodically requests information from the monitoring module  115  to update and display the information about the A-SMGCS. 
     According to such a conventional technique, because the high-level device  120  periodically requests information, it takes for information generated from the respective modules  111 ,  112 ,  113  and  114  to be stored on the storage  115   a  and a delay occurs by a period of the request. This delay causes a problem of degrading a Mission Critical system such as the A-SMGCS, which has to ensure the determinism. 
     Further, the high-level device  120  connects to the A-SMGCS server  110  to request information every period without respect to the presence or update of the information and hence unnecessarily uses a CPU of the high-level device  120 . Therefore, such a conventional technique results in a resource waste. 
     In addition, although the CPU of the high-level device  120  has to process a scheduled task, due to the request for information to the A-SMGCS server  110 , it may not process to delay the scheduled task in time, thereby resulting in ineffectiveness. 
     Moreover, in order to use the conventional technology in near-real time, the period of requesting information has to set to be very short, but such, a short period may result in a network bandwidth waste. 
     SUMMARY 
     Therefore, to address the above problems, an object of embodiments in the present disclosure is to provide a system capable of monitoring information on the A-SMGCS in real time. 
     In view of the above, an object of embodiments in the present disclosure is to provide a system for monitoring the A-SMGCS, which comprises the A-SMGCS and a high-level device for monitoring the A-SMGCS, wherein the server of the A-SMGCS includes a monitoring module and a plurality of information transmit modules, each of which has status information and action information, and the monitoring module receives the status information and action information sent from the plurality of information transmit modules and transmits them to the high-level device in real time. 
     In some embodiments, the plurality of information transmit modules may include a surveillance module, a control module, a routing module and a guidance module. 
     In some embodiments, each of the plurality of information transmit modules transmits its own status information and action information to the monitoring module in real time when the own status information and action information are generated or changed. 
     In some embodiments, the log manager receives and stores thereon the status information sent from the plurality of information transmit modules, sends the status information and action information to the high-level device, and sends the status information to the status manager, and the status manager stores thereon the status information sent from the log manager. 
     In some embodiments, the high-level device sends a request for the status information to the status manager when it is determined that the status information is needed. 
     In some embodiments, the status manager, upon receiving the request for the status information from the high-level device, determines whether the status information stored thereon is normally stored status information, and if so, sends the status information to the high-level device. 
     In some embodiments, on the other hand, if it is determined that the status information stored on the status manager itself is not normally stored status information, the status manager sends a request for the status information to the plurality of information transmit modules, receives the status information sent from the plurality of information transmit modules, and sends the received status information to the high-level device. 
     In some embodiments, meanwhile the status information is sent in a form of a packet, and the packet is assigned a serial number field, a host name field, a program name field, a module name field, a status information count field, and status information fields in this order. 
     In some embodiments, further, the action information is sent in a form of a packet, wherein the packet is assigned a serial number field, a host name field, a program name field, a module name field, an action information count field, and action information fields in this order. 
     According to such a configuration of some embodiments of the present disclosure, the status information and action information are gathered from various modules in the server in real time and sent to the high-level device, and hence the high-level device may monitor the A-SMGCS in real time. 
     Further, the conventional technique achieves the sending of information by a polling scheme, whereas the present disclosure achieves the sending of information at the time point when an event occurs. Therefore, embodiments of the present disclosure perform the sending of information only in case of need and thus needs not to unnecessarily use a CPU of the high-level device, thereby enabling the CPU to efficiently be used. 
     In addition, the conventional technique employs a manner that the high-level device periodically requests information from the server in the A-SMGCS and thus exhibits a problem of excessively using a network resource. However, embodiments of the present disclosure achieve the sending of information at the time point when an event occurs and as a result may prevent the network resource from unnecessarily being used. 
    
    
     
       BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF DRAWINGS 
         FIG. 1  is a block diagram of a conventional monitoring system for monitoring a A-SMGCS; 
         FIG. 2  is a block diagram of a real time monitoring system for monitoring an A-SMGCS in real time according to an embodiment of the present disclosure; 
         FIG. 3  is a diagram illustrating a form of a packet for status information sent from an A-SMGCS server according to an embodiment of the present disclosure; 
         FIG. 4  is a diagram illustrating a form of a packet for action information sent from the A-SMGCS server according to an embodiment of the present disclosure; 
         FIG. 5  is a flowchart illustrating a process of a first operation in a real time monitoring system for monitoring an A-SMGCS in real time according to an embodiment of the present disclosure; and 
         FIG. 6  is a flowchart illustrating a process in a second operation in a real time monitoring system for monitoring the A-SMGCS in real time according to an embodiment of the present disclosure. 
     
    
    
     DETAILED DESCRIPTION 
     Advantages and features of the present disclosure and methods to achieve them will become apparent from the descriptions of exemplary embodiments herein below with reference to the accompanying drawings. However, the present disclosure is not limited to exemplary embodiments disclosed herein but may be implemented in various different ways. The exemplary embodiments are provided for making the disclosure of the present disclosure thorough and for fully conveying the scope of the present disclosure to those skilled in the art. It is to be noted that the scope of the present disclosure is defined solely by the claims. Like reference numerals denote like elements throughout the descriptions. 
     Detailed descriptions of well-known functions and structures incorporated herein will be omitted to avoid obscuring the subject matter of the present disclosure. Terms described below are defined in the light of functions in embodiments of the present disclosure and may vary depending on a user, an operator&#39;s intent, a practice or the like. Therefore, the terms should be defined based on the content of the disclosure throughout the specification. 
     Hereinafter, a system and method for monitoring an A-SMGCS in real time according to the embodiments of the present disclosure will be described with reference to the accompanying drawings. 
       FIG. 2  is a block diagram of a real time monitoring system for monitoring an A-SMGCS in real time according to an embodiment of the present disclosure. 
     Referring to  FIG. 2 , the real time monitoring system for monitoring the A-SMGCS in real time (hereinafter, ‘monitoring system’) is composed of a A-SMGCS server  210  and a high-level device  220 , wherein the high-level device  220  may include all devices provided information from the A-SMGCS server  210 . 
     The A-SMGCS server  210  includes a plurality of modules  211 ,  212 ,  213  and  214  classified by respective functions. The A-SMGCS server  210  gathers information generated from the respective modules  211 ,  212 ,  213  and  214  and sends such information to the high-level device  220  in real time. 
     Further, when the high-level device  220  requests information, the A-SMGCS server  210  sends the stored information to the high-level device  220  or gathers information from the plurality of modules  211 ,  212 ,  213  and  214  to send such information to the high-level device  220 . 
     The high-level device  220  receives information sent from the A-SMGCS server  210  to monitor the A-SMGCS, and requests the sending of information from the A-SMGCS server  210  if necessary. 
     In this case, the high-level device  220  requests the sending of information from the A-SMGCS server  210  when it connects to the A-SMGCS server  210  for the first time or when the requested information is not sequential (for example, a serial number of the information is not sequential, a time point when the information has been generated is not sequential). 
     At this time, the A-SMGCS server  210  and the high-level device  220  may transmit/receive information using various known and in-use various wire/wireless communication networks. 
     Referring to  FIG. 2 , a configuration and function of the A-SMGCS server  210  according to the embodiment of the present disclosure will be described in more detail. 
     The A-SMGCS server  210  includes a surveillance module  211 , control module  212 , a routing module  213 , a guidance module  214  and a monitoring module  215  classified by respective functions. 
     The surveillance module  211 , the control module  212 , the routing module  213  and the guidance module  214  respectively have status information and action information. The status information is log data related to current status of the modules and the action information is log data generated while the modules operate according to their respective functions. 
     Each of the modules  211 ,  212 ,  213  and  214  generates its own status information and action information, and provides the status information or action information to the monitoring module  215  in real time. 
     The ‘real time’ refers to every time point when the status information and action information of the modules  211 ,  212 ,  213  and  214  are generated, wherein ‘generation’ of information covers both a new creation of the information and a change of the information. 
     The monitoring module  215  is provided with and stored thereon the status information and action information from the modules  211 ,  212 ,  213  and  214 , while it sends the stored information to the high-level device  220 . 
     The monitoring module  215  may be implemented to be provided with the status information and action information from the modules  211 ,  212 ,  213  and  214  in real time. 
     Further, the monitoring module  215  may be implemented to request information from the modules  211 ,  212 ,  213  and  214  and then be provided with the status information from the modules  211 ,  212 ,  213  and  214 . 
     The monitoring module  215  may request information from the modules  211 ,  212 ,  213  and  214  in response to a request from the high-level device  220 . 
     The monitoring module  215  includes a status manager  215   a  and a log manager  215   b.    
     The status manager  215   a  includes a status storage  215   a - 1  to store thereon the status information from the modules  211 ,  212 ,  213  and  214 . 
     The status manager  215   a  sends the status information stored on the status storage  215   a - 1  to the high-level device  200  when a request for information is received from the high-level device  200 . 
     The status manager  215   a  may store status information sent from the log manager  215   b . Further, the status manager  215   a  may directly request status information from the modules  211 ,  212 ,  213  and  214  to store thereon the status information sent from the  211 ,  212 ,  213  and  214  in response. 
     The status manager  215   a  may be implemented to send status information stored thereon to the high-level device  220  when it is determined that the status information stored on the status manager  215   a  itself is normally stored status information, and when it is determined that the status information stored thereon is not the normally stored status information, request and receive status information from the modules  211 ,  212 ,  213  and  214  to send the received status information to the high-level device  220 . 
     In this case, the status manager  215   a  determines whether a serial number of the stored status information is sequential, and if so, determines that the status information has been normally stored. 
     On the contrary, the status manager  215   a  determines whether a serial number of the stored status information is not sequential, and if not so, determines that the status information has been abnormally stored. 
     The log manager  215   b  receives and stores thereon the status information and action information sent from the modules  211 ,  212 ,  213 ,  214 , sends the status information and action information to the high-level device  220 , and sends the status information to the status manager  215   a.    
     The log manager  215   b  includes a message queue  215   b - 1  and a log storage  215   b - 2 . The log message queue  215   b - 1  receives the status information and action information sent from the modules  211 ,  212 ,  213  and  214 , sends the status information and action information to the log storage  215   b - 2  and the high-level device  220 , and sends the status information to the status manager  215   a.    
     The log storage  215   b - 2  stores thereon the status information and action information sent from the message queue  215   b - 1 . 
     Now the modules  211 ,  212 ,  213  and  214  are described in detail. The surveillance module  211 , which is a module for surveilling a location of an aircraft in an airport, may check aircrafts, vehicles and unauthorized objects within a movement area, identify locations of them, use labels (colors) and symbols to distinguish a take-off aircraft and a landing aircraft, and identify moving directions of such aircrafts. 
     Examples of identification information from the surveillance module  211  may include, e.g., coordinate information updated every 1 second for moving objects within the movement area, and examples of action information from the surveillance module  211  may include a manual labeling of an aircraft by an air controller. 
     The control module  212 , which is a module for providing an alert and controlling a moving object (an aircraft, a vehicle, etc.) on the ground under a control of the air controller for preventing accidents when an abnormal situation occurs, may control an aircrafts/vehicles collision, a route deviation, a runway incursion, etc, and control a movement or stop/a spaced distance of an aircraft/vehicle by a control of STB lights (Stop Bar Lights). 
     Examples of the status information from the control module  212  may include an assigned status of a responsible control area at a taxiway/runway and examples of the action information from the control module  212  may include an aircrafts collision alarm, a route deviation alarm, etc. 
     The routing module  213 , which is a module for automatically setting a route along which an aircraft moves, may set the route for safe and quick movement of the aircraft within the movement area. 
     Examples of the status information from the routing module  213  may include route information of the take-off aircraft and the landing aircraft at this point in time and examples of the action information of the routing module  213  may include a calculation for an optimal route of any specific aircraft under a control of the air controller or the monitoring system. 
     The guidance module  214 , which is a module for controlling ground lights to guide an aircraft, may provide continuous and reliable information about a route assigned to an aircraft/vehicle and provide continuous information about an aircraft movement route on ground in conjunction with TCLLs (Taxiway Centerline Lights), TEDLs (Taxiway Edge Lights), TGSs (Taxiway Guidance Signs), ASMGLs (Aircraft Stand Manoeuvring Guidance Lights), VDGS (Visual Docking Guidance System). 
     Example of the status information from the guidance module  214  may include 
     lighting status of an apron, a taxiway and a runway at this point in time and examples of the action information from the guidance module  214  may include a turning-on of lights arranged in front of the moving aircraft and a turning-off of lights arranged at the rear of the moving aircraft. 
     Although main functions, status information and action information of the surveillance module  211 , the control module  212 , the routing module  213  and the guidance module  214  have been described above, they are merely illustrated by way of example for illustrating the A-SMGCS and the present disclosure is not limited thereto. 
       FIG. 3  is a block diagram illustrating a form of a packet for sending status information sent from the A-SMGCS server according to an embodiment of the present disclosure, and  FIG. 4  is a block diagram illustrating a form of a packet for action information sent from the A-SMGCS server according to an embodiment of the present disclosure. 
     Referring to  FIG. 3 , the status information packet is assigned a serial number field, a host name field, a program name field, a module name field, a status count field, and status information fields in this order. 
     Each of the status information fields consists of a pair of a status name field and a status value field, and the status information fields are provided as much as a status count indicated in the status count field. 
     Referring to  FIG. 4 , the action information packet is assigned a serial number field, a host name field, a program name field, a module name field, an action count field, and action information fields in this order. 
     Each of the action information fields consists of a pair of an action name field and an action value field, and the action information fields are provided as much as an action count indicated in the action count field. 
     Heretofore, the configuration and function of the monitoring system according to the embodiment of the present disclosure have been described. Hereinafter, detailed operations of the monitoring system having the configuration as shown in  FIG. 2  will be described in steps with reference to the accompanying drawings. 
       FIG. 5  is a flowchart illustrating a process in a first operation of a real time monitoring system for monitoring the A-SMGCS according to an embodiment of the present disclosure. 
     Referring to  FIG. 5 , for the plurality of modules  211 ,  212 ,  213  and  214  in the A-SMGCS server  210 , when their own status information and action information are generated or changed, they send the status information and action information to the log manager  215   h  of the monitoring module  215  in the A-SMGCS server  210  (S 510 ). 
     Next, the log manager  215   b  having received the status information and action information sent from the plurality of modules  211 ,  212 ,  213  and  214  in step S 510  stores thereon the received status information and action information (S 520 ), sends the status information to the status manager  215   a  of the monitoring module  215  (S 530 ), and sends the status information and action information to the high-level device  220  (S 540 ). 
     The steps that the log manager  215   b  stores thereon the received status information and action information (S 520 ), sends the status information to the status manager  215   a  (S 530 ), and sends the status information and action information to the high-level device  220  (S 540 ) may be sequentially executed as in the embodiment of the present disclosure but the order of the steps may be modified and be executed in parallel. 
     Then, the high-level device  220  having received the status information and action information sent from the log manager  215   b  in step S 540  monitors the A-SMGCS based on the received status information and action information (S 550 ). 
       FIG. 6  is a flowchart illustrating a process in a second operation of a real time monitoring system for monitoring the A-SMGCS according to an embodiment of the present disclosure. 
     Referring to  FIG. 6 , the high-level device  220  requests the status information from the status manager  215   a  of the monitoring module  215  in the A-SMGCS server  210  as necessary (S 610 ). 
     The high-level device  220  may request status information from the status manager  215   a  when it connects to the A-SMGCS server  210  for the first time or when the received information is not sequential (for example, a serial number of the received information is not sequential, a time point that the received information has been generated is not sequential). 
     The status manager  215   a  having received the request for the status information determines whether the status information stored on the status manager  215   a  itself is normally stored status information (S 620  and S 630 ). 
     If it is determined that status information stored on the status manager  215   a  is normally stored status information (S 630 —Yes), the status manager  215   a  sends the stored status information to the high-level device  220  (S 660 ). 
     On the other hand, if otherwise it is determined that the status information stored on the status manager  215   a  is not normally stored status information (S 630 —No), the status manager  215   a  requests status information from the other modules  211 ,  212 ,  213  and  214  in the A-SMGCS server  210  (S 640 ), and receives and stores thereon the status information sent from the other modules  211 ,  212 ,  213  and  214  (S 650 ). 
     Thereafter, the status manager  215   b  sends the status information received from the other modules  211 ,  212 ,  213  and  214  to the high-level device  220  (S 660 ), and the high-level device  220  monitors the A-SMGCS based on the received status information (S 670 ). 
     According to such a configuration of embodiments of the present disclosure, the status information and action information are gathered from various modules in the A-SMGCS server in real time and sent to the high-level device, and hence the high-level device may monitor the A-SMGCS in real time. 
     Further, the conventional technique employs a polling scheme to send information, whereas embodiments of the present disclosure achieve the sending of information at the time point when an event occurs to perform the sending of information only in case of need and thus needs not to unnecessarily use a CPU of the high-level device, thereby enabling the CPU to efficiently be used. 
     In addition, the conventional technique operates such that the high-level device periodically requests information from the A-SMGCS server and thus exhibits a problem of excessively using a network resource. However, embodiments of the present disclosure achieve the sending of information at the time point when an event occurs and as a result may prevent the network resource from unnecessarily being used. 
     While the real time monitoring system and method for monitoring the A-SMGCS in real time have been described with respect to the embodiments of the present disclosure, the present disclosure is not limited to any particular embodiments and the present disclosure described above may be variously substituted, altered, and modified by those skilled in the art without departing from the scope and spirit of the present disclosure. 
     Therefore, the embodiments described in the present disclosure and the accompanying drawings are presented for purposes of illustrating the technical spirit of the present disclosure, not in a sense of limitation, and the scope of the present disclosure is not limited to such embodiments and the accompanying drawings. The scope of the subject matter is defined only by the appended claims, appropriately interpreted, along with the full range of equivalents to which the appended claims are entitled.