Airfield lighting control and monitoring system utilizing fiber optic double loop self healing communications

摘要

Control and monitoring of airfield lighting from a control tower and other maintenance/supervisory locations uses double loop self healing fiber optic communications circuits to enhances speed of operation even with large and complex airfield lighting system requirements, and significantly increased reliability and operating lifetime thereof. A plurality of local light control and monitoring groups are used, wherein each group has at least one fiber optic communications concentrator that independently communicates with light controllers within the group and the remote supervisory control and monitoring systems in the control tower and other locations. This allows faster control response of the lamps in each of the airfield light fixtures, and monitoring concentration of operational data within each group. Each of the at least one fiber optic concentrators is optically coupled to double loop self healing fiber optic communications backbone circuits coupled to main and backup computer supervisory control systems for redundancy purposes.

主权项

1. An airfield lighting control and monitoring system, said system comprising:
a main computer; a backup computer; a first fiber optic router having a plurality of fiber optic transmit and receive port pairs; a backbone double loop self healing fiber optic communications circuit having a main backbone fiber optic portion and a backup backbone fiber optic portion, wherein
a first end of the main backbone fiber optic portion is in communication with the main computer,a second end of the main backbone fiber optic portion is in communication with the first fiber optic router,a first end of the backup backbone fiber optic portion is in communication with the backup computer, anda second end of the backup backbone fiber optic portion is in communication with a second fiber optic router; a plurality of local light control and monitoring groups, each of the plurality of local light control and monitoring groups comprises:
a main concentrator having first and second fiber optic transmit and receive port pairs,a backup concentrator having first and second fiber optic transmit and receive port pairs,a plurality of light controllers having first and second fiber optic transmit and receive port pairs, wherein the plurality of light controllers are fiber optically coupled together, the first one of the plurality of light controllers is fiber optically coupled to the main concentrator, and the last one of the plurality of light controllers is fiber optically coupled to the backup concentrator; anda local double loop self healing fiber optic communications circuit having a main local fiber optic portion and a backup local fiber optic portion, wherein
a first end of the main local fiber optic portion is coupled to a fiber optic transmit and receive port pair of the main concentrator,a second end of the main local fiber optic portion is coupled to a respective one of the plurality of fiber optic transmit and receive port pairs of the first fiber optic router,a first end of the backup local fiber optic portion is coupled to a fiber optic transmit and receive port pair of the backup concentrator, anda second end of the backup local fiber optic portion is coupled to another respective one of the plurality of fiber optic transmit and receive port pairs of the second fiber optic router; wherein the main and backup computers can communicate with any one or more of the plurality of light controllers.