Once an AOC message has been viewed by the flight crew (and any required user action has been taken), it can be placed in one of 8 user defined review categories. ATC messages have a separate review category. The flight crew can access messages placed in the review categories at any time.
A useful analogy for ACARS message processing is an email system. When a new email arrives, the user is alerted ("you have mail") and the message goes into an inbox. Once the message is read, the user will typically file the message into one of several email folders. The review categories can be thought of as email folders.
Downlink Processing
The flight crew can create downlink messages to be transmitted to ground systems. As with uplink messages, the definition of the display format and the downlink message format is defined by the user in the AMI. The downlink message can include any aircraft parameters defined in the FIDB and specified in the AMI.
Once all required data is entered on the downlink screen, the SEND prompt becomes active. After selecting the SEND prompt, the message status transitions to SENDING. The flight crew will be notified of successful receipt by the ground when the message status transitions to SENT.
A downlink message is placed in a
A user is also able to define the preferred subnetwork (and even service provider) to be used for transmitting a message to the ground. This preference can vary depending upon the current aircraft position. The user can define regions of the world by specifying a series of latitude and longitude coordinates. For a given region, the user can then specify the preferred subnetwork and frequency (See Figure 8 for an example). The baseline subnetworks include VHF (mode 0/A), SATCOM, and HFDL.
Figure 8 World Regions
HONEYWELL Aerospace Electronic Systems | Page 20 |
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