A status reporting system for components used in a mobile platform
includes a fault manager within the mobile platform for assigning a state
indicator to each component. Each state indicator indicates the
operational current state of the component. A management system external
to the mobile platform, in one example being a ground based management
system, is in communication with the mobile platform via a wireless
communication link. A component summary including the state indicators of
all the components is periodically transmitted from the mobile platform
as an information packet, via the wireless link, to the management system
for review. The management system can thus remotely monitor the
operational status of various important components on a periodic basis,
for example every five minutes. This saves significant bandwidth over
that which would be required if a continuous wireless link was to be
employed to remotely monitor various components on the mobile platform.