Onboard Internet Microserver
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Network Centric Product Support
Network Centric Product Support, also know by its key component, Onboard Internet Microserver, is an emerging architecture that was developed to leverage new information technology and global networks to assist in managing maintenance, support and supply chain of any product made up of one or more systems, such as an individual aircraft or fleet. This is accomplished by embedding intelligence through tiny micro-web servers that also function as computer workstations on the product’s system controller level and enabling 2-way communications using existing internet technologies and communications networks. Considered to be the flip side of Network-centric operations in warfare, this approach goes beyond performance based and sense and respond logistics initiatives by taking a complex systems management approach and integrating maintenance and logistics in a unified factory and field environment. It evolved in part out of insights gained by CDR Dave Loda (USNR) from Network Centric Warfare-based fleet battle experimentation at the US Naval Warfare Development Command (NWDC) in the late 1990s, which he began applying to commercial aviation in his civilian job.
Simply put, this architecture extends the existing world wide web infrastructure of networked web servers down into the product at its system's controller level. Its core is an embedded dual function webserver/computer workstation connected to the controller's test ports, hence providing access to controller cycles and sensor information in a clustered, internet addressable node that allows for local or remote access, and the ability to host reconfigurable software that can collect and process data from its mated subsystem controller onboard. It can also communicate with other Microservers in its cluster (i.e. the aircraft), or to higher clusters (such as a Portal managed fleet and flight operations managers) throughout the world wide web. The system operates asynchronously, in that it does not have to be always connected to the world wide web to function; rather it simply synchronizes two-way information relevant to the subsystem through a ground-based data gateway on an as-needed basis, both on-board and off-board when communications become available. This can be accomplished through WLAN, satellite, cell or other communications capabilities.
The extension of the world wide web architecture into the product is important to understand, as all decisions for manufacturing of spare parts, scheduling for flights, and other OEM and Operator functions, are driven primarily by what happens to the product in the field (rate of wear and impending failure, primarily). This is an evolutionary step in aircraft support and maintenance management that began as individual processes prior to World War II and solidified into a manual tracking system to support aircraft fleets in the Korean War. Future evolution will likely see intelligent agent technology embedded onboard, providing security and handling routine transactions with other agents and humans.
The original Microserver component was developed and demonstrated in 2001 by David Loda, Enzo Macchia, Sam Quadri and Bjorn Stickling, and was initially tested onboard a Dornier 328 regional jet in January 2002. It was introduced to the public and demonstrated at the Farnborough air show in July 2002 and again in 2004 as a certified product, and is only just now beginning to see service in a number of aircraft and helicopters. Managing a complex system such as a fleet of aircraft or vehicles can be accomplished in this manner. For example, coupled with technologies such as RFID, the system could read the configuration of the subsystem’s replaceable parts, map their configuration to hours run and duty cycles, then process/communicate the projected wear rate through the world wide web back to the operator or factory. In this way mechanical wear rates and future failures can be predicted more accurately and the forecasting of spare parts manufacturing and shipment can be significantly improved. Support for the mechanic comes in local wireless access to technical information stored and remotely updated onboard the Microserver relevant to that product, such as fault code driven intelligent 3D computer game-like maintenance procedures.
A similar complex systems approach was successfully demonstrated in the Eisenhower Interstate Highway System, though in this case what is transported is information. Network Centric Product Support is an architectural concept, and merely connects the major avenues already existing in global communications and the Internet into the mobile product, extending maintenance and supply chain processes into a product centric system. (If you want to know anything about a particular engine, ask the engine directly and host all relevant information there and in a twin remote database for synchronization. Other examples where this can be applied include shipping containers, automobiles, spacecraft, appliances, human medical monitoring, or any other complex product with sensors and subsystems that require maintenance support and monitoring.
[edit] References
- American Institute for Aeronautics and Astronautics (AIAA) IMAPP Conference - June 2005
- Pratt & Whitney Delivers Condition Based Maintenance Solutions - Dec 2005
- AviationNow: Farnborough Air Show - July 2004: United Technologies P&W Launches Revolutionary 3-D Directed Maintenance
- Flight Daily News: Farnborough Air Show July 26 2002: Server is ‘like having an onboard engineer’
