Patent ID: 8862680

Claim:
A system for aircraft/ground systems communications, comprising: a processor based onboard the aircraft, a ground based processor, and a plurality of communication links between said onboard processor and said ground based processor, wherein at least one of said onboard processor and said ground based processor is configured to: assign an urgency and an importance to a plurality of data packets to be transmitted in a plurality of messages between said onboard processor and said ground based processor, wherein the urgency is assigned based on at least one of: a speed at which a usefulness of the data deteriorates, a speed at which a response to the data is required, a reason that the data should arrive prior to an event, and a time period within which an action needs to occur, and wherein the importance is assigned based on at least one of: a measurement of how the data will alter or enhance a decision, a measurement indicating a degree to which the data will cause an event, and an impact if the data is not delivered; determine at least one of said plurality of communication links to transmit the plurality of messages to the other of said onboard processor and said ground based processor based on the assigned urgency of the data packets, the assigned importance of the data packets, and a size of the data packets; interleave the various data packets within the plurality of messages based on the assigned urgency, the assigned importance of the data packets, and the size of the data packets prior to transmitting the messages to the other of said onboard processor and said ground based processor; and dynamically reprioritize at least one of the urgency and the importance of the data in the data packets over time from an initial urgency and an initial importance assigned by at least one of said processors to a reprioritized urgency and reprioritized importance.