Limiting Worst-Case End-to-End Latency When Traffic Increases in a Switched Avionics Network

• Published in: 2011 IEEE 17th International Conference on Embedded and Real-Time Computing Systems and Applications Vol. 1; pp. 285 - 294
• Main Authors: Min-Young Nam, Eunsoo Seo, Lui Sha, Kyung-Joon Park, Kyungtae Kang
• Format: Conference Proceeding
• Language: English
• Published: IEEE 01.08.2011
• Subjects: Aerospace electronics; Clocks; Delay; end-to-end latency; Monitoring; Real time systems; switched avionics networks; Switches; virtual integration; Worst-cae analysis
• ISBN: 9781457711183; 1457711184
• ISSN: 2325-1271
• DOI: 10.1109/RTCSA.2011.9

New features are often added incrementally to avionics systems. This avoids redesign and recertification but still requires verifying the timing constraints of both new and existing applications. We introduce a new switch that facilitates this verification by bounding the latency of end-to-end communication across a network. Our clock-driven real-time switching algorithm is throughput-optimal with a bounded worst-case delay for all feasible traffic. Associated heuristics can verify whether the timing constraints of an avionics network are met, after new features have caused traffic to increase, and then search for alternative network configurations if necessary. We show how these heuristics cope with changes to an example environmental monitoring architecture within an avionics system that incorporates our switch. Our approach to analysis can be used to determine, quickly but rigorously, which system architecture meet timing constraints, and it allows the system architect to manage the cascading effects of component changes in a comprehensive manner.