AFDX Tutorial

Session One : AFDX background

Aerospace
 Introduction

This Session One is built around four main topics:

 General principle about "modern" communication
 The background of airborne data communication
 AFDX standard
 AFDX and A380
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Aerospace
 Part 1 : Communication principles

The key driver for the definition of the Network layering is the
implementation of independance between application and
communication means.

Application Application
Application Application

communication communication
serives serives Communication
services

Network driver Network driver

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Specialization
communication layers
Factorization
Object Oriented
Aerospace paradigm
 Usual communication layers

OSI
IETF Internet IEEE ITU
reference
std std std
Model

Application POP SMTP ...

SNMP FTP HTTP

Application services

Communication Presentation
services
Session
Transport TCP/UDP

Network IP
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ATM
DataLink/MAC
IEEE 802.3 IEEE 802.11 G992.1
Physical connection "Ethernet" "WI-FI" "ADSL"

Aerospace
 Part 2 : Aircraft communication

Internal Aircraft communication

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External Aircraft communication :

out of this tutorial scope
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 Historical survey

 Until recently, there was never a strong need for

networking inside an aircraft.
 When digital technologies were introduced, the
communication was limited to digital data link.
 The introduction of digital technologies was done in the
"control of platform"
platform area not in the "information"
information area.
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Aerospace
 Digital transmission

Two kind of digital usage on-board:

 Processus Control
 based on sampling system techniques and data transmission
 data : the digital value of an analogical parameter (e.g. speed;
heigth, attitude,....)
 transmission : no response is expected
 Information systems
 based of information exchanges
 information : a complex set of abtract values (e.g. digital map, flight
plan, list of passenger duty free purchase, failure log book....)
 exchange : a response is generaly expected, at least to indicated that
the information is received.
 This "complex set of abstract values" gives usually a huge amount of
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bytes.... This is one reason that calls for higher speed data link

Aerospace
 Processus control requirements

As the transmitted data are involved in processus control , the

transmission must be done with a minimum bounded delay.
The stability of the flight relies on this transmission
Time, integrity and availability are the key driver.

Some principles:
 no common shared resource (limited risk of common failure)
 one source, one ligne, several receivers
 the transmitter does not need to know who receives data
 no time synchronisation between transmitter and receiver
 common shared time is a kind of common resource
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Aeronautical response : ARINC 429 Digital Information Transfer

System

Aerospace
 ARINC 429 reminder

 Each line has only one source and is connected to every

equipment that need the data transmitted by the source
 Each data in individually identified (by a label) and sent
Application

label data

Application

Presentation

Session
Transport

Network
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DataLink/MAC

Physical connection A429

32 bit
label data parity
Aerospace
 Information System requirement
In Information system,
system the major requirement is to insure that the
information is transmitted without any error.
Some principles:
 the information should be acknowledged
 delay is not critical and messages can be sent again in case of
error
The former aircraft generation still used A429 but added acknowledged
data block

Application

Transport A429 williamsburg

Network
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DataLink/MAC

Physical connection A429

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 Avionics market evolution

The evolution of the avionics market is exposed to a great

pressure for reducing cost.
In the same time, mature concepts arised:
 Electronics Modularity
 Operating System
 Decision to re-use and share common resource
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Aerospace
 AFDX : a real challenge

The key driver for AFDX design choices must answer to

lot of contradictory objectives:
 To transmit data under strong time constraint
 To guarantee information exchange according to
client/server model
 To reduce cost by using/reusing commercial
component (COTS: commercial off-the-shelf) under
certification constraint
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 Technological choices

Communication technologies from desktop computing market

->Best candidate :
 Ethernet for Physical layer
 Internet for upper protocol layer

Communication technologies from multimedia telecom market

->Best candidate :
 ATM (backbone telecom and ADSL) and cell switching
ITU
std IETF Internet
std
IEEE
std

POP SMTP ...

SNMP FTP HTTP
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TCP/UDP
IP
ATM
G992.1 IEEE 802.3 IEEE 802.11
"ADSL" "Ethernet" "WI-FI"

Aerospace
 Final choice
Key drivers:
 Heavy aeronautical background:
 time constraint
 safety
 Arrival of Switched Ethernet (from ATM concept)
 Low cost, market size of desktop computing versus small
telco market

.... and the winner is...

Switched full duplex Ethernet with some specific deviations to

cope with real time/certification constraints
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AFDX : Avionics Full DupleX switched Ethernet

Aerospace
 Part 3 : AFDX standard
The standardisation body
 AFDX is undertaken by the civil aviation usual
standardisation body: ARINC/AEEC ADN working
group
 ARINC : Aeronautical Radio Inc. funded by airlines, in charge
of the definiton of Aeronautical standards that ensure
interchangeability and interoperability.
 AEEC : Airlines Electronic Engineering Committee
 ADN : Aircraft Data Network working group
The standard
 AFDX is described as ARINC specification 664 part 7
 The ARINC 664 covers in general, the usage of
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Ethernet as an airborne communication system,

extended to the confidentiality issues and future IPv6
extensions.

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 Key features of AFDX
AFDX is the common communication system used for modular
avionics architecture.
It is compliant with the following design key features:
 It is based on Open Standard
 as required by cost and commercial standard reuse objective
 It provides "Resource Sharing"
 as required by modularity, reuse, and cost objective
 It provides "Robust Partitioning"
 as required by resource sharing and safety, certification constraints
 It provides "Determinism" and "Availability"
 as required by safety, certification constraints
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The AFDX key features are mainly concentrated on the Data Link
layer.
Aerospace
 AFDX : an Open Standard

OSI
IETF Internet IEEE
reference ARINC 664 Part 7 : AFDX
std std
Model

SNMP TFTP SNMP TFTP ARINC 653

Application

Presentation
Session
TCP
Transport TCP/UDP UDP optional

Network IP IP
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AFDX special features

DataLink/MAC
IEEE 802.3
"Ethernet" IEEE 802.3 Ethernet MAC + PHY
Physical connection

ARINC 600

Aerospace
 AFDX : basic network architecture

AFDX is based on the modular avionocs

modular LRU RDC
Ethernet switched network. avionocs

It is built with: ES ES ES ES
 Switches, network devices in
SW charge of data forwarding
 End System, network devices in SW SW

ES charge of data
SW
transmission/reception

SW SW

ES ES ES ES
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modular
LRU avionocs modular RDC
avionocs

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 AFDX key feature : Resource Sharing
The main resources shared by AFDX are
 the wiring and
 the attached network devices
IMA/IME
module
IMA/IME LRU RDC
module

ES ES ES ES

SW
SW
SW
SW
SW
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ES ES ES ES
IMA/IME
LRU module RDC

IMA/IME
module
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 AFDX key feature : Virtual Link
The robust partitioning for networking is applied on bandwidth allocated to
"communication channel".
The VL model is ARINC429 "single wire" and the ATM "Virtual Channel"
one wire/channel for one data source, distributed to all who needed
The AFDX response is:
one channel (named VL "Virtual Link") for one data source, distributed with
multicast Ethernet address
channels are merged together on one Ethernet data link

ES
ES

ES
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SW
AFDX ARINC 429 ES
Ethernet data link N/A

Virtual Link twisted pair copper wire

Aerospace
 AFDX key feature : "Firewalling"
Another feature related to robust partition and safety is
the integrated "firewall" provided by the AFDX.
This firewall is implemented by Access Control List
(ACL) mechanism.

Traffic filtering : Traffic filtering :

Restricted access for Restricted access for
only configured VL only configured VL

ES
ES

Traffic filtering
+ forwarding
ES
SW
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Traffic filtering
Ethernet data link ES
Virtual Link

Aerospace
 AFDX key feature : Redundancy
In response to the "Availability" requirement AFDX network is basicaly
redundant.
Each End-System has the capability to send twice each message toward to
independant set of switches.
network A

ES
SW SW

ES

SW ES
SW
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network B

Key Feature : Redundancy Management Key Feature : Redundancy Management

=> each frames are numbered when => each frames are sorted when received.
transmitted.
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 AFDX key feature : Latency management(1/3)
The VL receive a "Bandwidth contract".
This contract is expressed in terms of:
 Maximum Frame Size (MFS)
 Minimum time between two frames
 named Bandwidth Allocation Gap (BAG)
Max contractual bandwidth[kbit/s] = MFS[bit]/BAG[ms]
Single VL max bandwidth = c.a. 12Mb/s
determinism
reason

Source Application
sent delayed delayed
fralme frame frame

End System traffic shaping

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BAG BAG

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 AFDX key feature : Latency management(2/3)
The robust partitioning relies on "Bandwidth contract" granted to each
Virtual Link.
The ES has Bandwidth Contract for each Virtual Link and must
comply with this contract
The Switches know the term of the contract for each Virtual Link and
monitor the traffic to check if contract is respected.

Key feature : Traffic shaping Key Feature : Traffic policing

the traffic is generated according to bandwidth contract the traffic is monitored according to bandwidth contract

ES
ES
SW ES
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ES

Aerospace
 AFDX key feature : Latency management (3/3)
In AFDX context the determinism is defined as the control of
maximum transmission delay through the network.
The enabler of such control is precisely the bandwidth contract.
Ethernet Switch provides better capability for determinism than
usual Ethernet Hub because there is no collision and no
transmission random retry.
Key feature : Bounded latency
The knowledge of bandwidth contract allows to evaluated the worst
case filling level of shared output queue and, hence to estimate the
message delay

ES
ES

SW ES
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ES
Ethernet data link

shared output message queue

Virtual Link
Aerospace
 AFDX "counterpart" : Virtual Link

 Fit perfectly usual "non shared" aeronautical

communication (ARINC429) like in "process control"
where the bandwidth is continuously used.

 Difficult to manage bi-directional communication like

in modern "information system"
system
 Leads to create large number of VL even if the VL is
not used continuously
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 AFDX "counterpart" : Latency management

 The latency computation is based on the worst case

that can happens.
This is a certification concern not a performance
concern!!

 As far as we can not state on the actual source traffic,

the latency is systematically majored....
 This gives a certifiable network configuration that
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under-uses the true Ethernet capability

Aerospace
 Part 4 : The AFDX and the A380

Requested performance
Airbus requirements impose a strong constraint on time and "proof of
determinism"
 Computation of UDP message, IP fragmentation, traffic shaping,
redundancy generation, Ethernet frame building < 150µs
 Reception of continuous "back to back" Ethernet, traffic filtering,
redundancy management, IP reassembly < 150µs
 Frame forwarding, traffic policing, multicast management < 100µs
AFDX suppliers
 Two AFDX suppliers:
 Rockwell-Collins : Switches and End System
 Thales : End System
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 Open Standard benefits

The use of "Open standard" such as Ethernet reduces

the development cost in the following areas:
 Laboratory Instrumentation.... Ethernet standard tools are
used, no need to develop specific tools
 Design and development.... the definition of the standard
relies on existing data and expertise
However, this benefit should be mitigated because the
use of equipment in an aircraft need to have trusted
development that commercial components can not
provide
 The result is that the material itself is still developped
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specifically for aeronautical market

(...with the cost associated to certification compliance...)

Aerospace