Patent ID: 8121593

Claim:
An aircraft communication system, comprising: a first wireless base station deployed in a first aircraft and configured to establish multiple wireless links; a second wireless base station deployed in a second aircraft and configured to establish multiple wireless links; and at least one ground-based wireless base station configured to operatively communicate with the first wireless base station or the second wireless base station while the first aircraft and the second aircraft are in flight; wherein when the first aircraft and the second aircraft are in flight, the first wireless base station and the second wireless base station establish one or more wireless links with each other to create a wireless network for air-to-air communication, such that when one of the first aircraft or second aircraft is out of range with the ground-based wireless base station and the other aircraft is in range with the ground-based wireless base station, the aircraft that is out of range can send a message to the ground-based wireless base station through the aircraft that is in range using a time-based data management protocol comprising: (a) receiving a new message or retrieving a stored message transmitted by one of the aircraft; (b) determining whether the message is ready to be sent; (c) if the message is ready to be sent, determining whether a message delivery time is immediate; (d) if the message delivery time is immediate, delivering the message to the ground-based wireless base station over an available subnetwork and returning to step (a); (e) if the message delivery time is not immediate, determining whether the message delivery time is infinite; (f) if the message delivery time is not infinite, determining whether a message delivery timer has timed out; (g) if the message delivery timer has timed out, delivering the message to the ground-based wireless base station over an available subnetwork and returning to step (a); (h) if the message delivery timer has not timed out, determining whether a Worldwide Interoperability for Microwave Access (WiMax) network is available; (i) if the WiMax network is available, delivering the message over the WiMax network and returning to step (a); (j) if the WiMax network is not available, determining whether the message is a retrieved message; (k) if the message is not a retrieved message, storing the message and returning to step (a); (l) if the message is a retrieved message, updating a message header of the retrieved message, storing the updated retrieved message, and returning to step (a); and (m) if the message delivery time is infinite at step (e), determining whether the WiMax network is available and repeating steps (i) to (l).