An Event-Driven Link-Level Simulator for the Validation of AFDX and Ethernet Avionics Networks

Abstract

Aircraft are composed of many electronic systems: sensors, displays, navigation equipment, and communication elements. These elements require a reliable interconnection, which is a major challenge for communication networks since high reliability and predictability requirements must be verified for safe operation. In addition, their verification via hardware deployments is limited because these are costly and it is difficult to try different architectures and configurations, thus delaying design and development in this area. Therefore, verification at early stages in the design process is of great importance and must be supported with simulation. In this context, this work presents an event-driven link-level framework and simulator for the validation of avionics networks. The tool presented supports communication protocols commonly used in avionics, such as Avionics Full-Duplex Switched Ethernet (AFDX), as well as Ethernet, which is used with static routing. Also, the simulator provides accurate results by employing realistic models for various devices. The proposed platform was evaluated in the Clean Sky’s Disruptive Cockpit for Large Passenger Aircraft architecture scenario, showing the capabilities of the simulator. Verification speed is a key factor in its application, so the computational cost was analyzed, proving that the execution time is linearly dependent on the number of messages sent and that the increase in the number of nodes has few quadratic components.