OMNeT++ Simulation Framework for Avionics Full-Duplex Switched Ethernet

Abstract

Avionics Full-Duplex Switched Ethernet (AFDX) is a popular network technology for integrated modular avionics (IMA). When designing an AFDX network, it is important to fulfill the real-time communication requirements of avionic systems. To this end, simulation tools offer a low-cost solution for the performance evaluation of a given AFDX network and message set configuration at the design stage. In this paper, we develop an improved AFDX model for the widely used OMNeT++ (extensible, modular, component-based C++ simulation library and framework) network simulator. Our model exhibits high fidelity to the standard, adds detailed parameter configuration and data logging capabilities, and is compatible with the most recent OMNeT++ version. Our model is accepted by the OMNeT++ community and published as the current AFDX simulation model. Moreover, we propose a complete AFDX simulation framework by augmenting our improved OMNeT++ models with a new network configuration and analysis software tool that we call ANCAT. ANCAT enables users who lack familiarity with the OMNeT++ interface and specific file formats to provide simulation parameters in generic file formats such as.xlsx. Subsequently, ANCAT runs the simulation and generates reports for the results. We first systematically verify the correctness of our AFDX simulation framework by custom-designed experiments. Then, we investigate the practicability of our proposed framework with the performance analysis of a realistic AFDX network topology and message set. In particular, we demonstrate that our proposed framework can be efficiently used to explore the real-time capabilities and relevant features of AFDX networks, as well as provide basic guidelines for network configuration.