Design and Analysis of AFDX Network Based High-Speed Avionics System of Civil Aircraft

Abstract

Avionics Full Duplex Switched Ethernet (AFDX) standardized as ARINC 664 is a major upgrade for integrated avionics systems of civil aircraft. It becomes the current communication technology in the context of avionics and provides a backbone network for the civil avionics system. This paper focuses on features of AFDX network protocol. Architecture of AFDX switch based on shared memory is proposed to meet the requirements of avionics real-time system. In addition, frame filtering, traffic policing and frame schedule function are used to eliminate uncertainties in huge traffic flows. End System (ES) host-target architecture is also researched in this paper. Virtual link scheduler, redundancy management, and protocol stack in ES are designed to ensure determinism and reliability of data communication. AFDX switch and ES have been successfully developed, and configuration tool, ARINC 615A loader and simulation tool related to AFDX network are also provided as package solution to support avionics system construction. Finally, AFDX switch and ESes have passed ARINC 664 protocol conformance test and certification, the test results show that our AFDX products meet the requirements of real-time communication, determinism and reliability defined in ARINC 664