Determining optimal paths of virtual links in Avionics Full-Duplex Switched Ethernet networks using modified ant colony optimization algorithm

Abstract

The Aeronautical Radio Incorporated (ARINC) 664 Avionics Full Duplex Switched Ethernet (AFDX) data bus has been developed based on the Ethernet standard Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE) 802.3, including redundancy, guaranteed bandwidth, and deterministic timing of transmit interval time to meet the increasing amounts of data exchange needs among aircraft equipment while reducing the harness weight. Isolated data tunnels, called Virtual Links (VLs), are established to route Ethernet frames from a single source to one or more destinations using end systems and switches that contain a static routing mechanism specific to ARINC 664 AFDX. A limited number of algorithmic approaches are presented in the literature to route VLs; however, they are proven in uncomplicated topologies. Depending on the technological development, the node amount consisting of End Systems (ESs), Switches, and Remote Data Concentrators (RDCs) in the aircraft data bus structure will increase enormously. Bandwidth utilization (BWU), bandwidth flexibility limit for further extensions, port usage, total harness weight, latency, and redundancy should be considered in addition to number of nodes to determine VLs’ route paths in ARINC 664 AFDX networks. In such cases, determining optimal paths of VLs in ARINC 664 AFDX networks becomes a challenging problem to solve with the existing methods in the literature. This paper proposes an Ant Colony Optimization (ACO) based algorithm to determine optimal VL path routes in the complex topology of ARINC 664 AFDX networks considering multi-effective parameters. Experimental simulations are executed to confirm the validity of the presented algorithm in different case studies and show its applicability in the industry. The obtained results of the proposed algorithm outperform conventional algorithms existing in the literature in terms of bandwidth usage depending on predefined expansion capacity and solution time. The proposed algorithm also introduces novelty by considering the redundancy, total harness weight, and delay limit, which is deficient in the existing literature.