The AFDX standard brings

telecom Ethernet-based
technology to the Airbus A380

© IMAGESTATE

AFDX-Based Flight
Test Computer Concept

ith the introduction of the Airbus A380, the commercial aircraft

Frederic Brajou
W industry was in the process of defining new standards that incorpo-
rate the latest digital information techniques, such as the Avionics
Full-Duplex Switched Ethernet (AFDX) on-board, real-time network.
The AFDX standard, a major innovation in aircraft technology first deployed on the
Airbus A380 (see Figure 1), introduces telecom Ethernet-based technology as well as a
and Philippe Ricco switch connection topology, rather than part-to-part links or buses.
Airbus and Creative Electronic Systems (CES) partnered to develop a general-purpose
building block that allows the simulation, test, or connection of any AFDX-connected
equipment. The system is integrated into different packages, ranging from the small equip-
ment tester or the complete aircraft integration test bench up to the full flight test computer.
Appropriately, the system’s complete name is the AFDX General-Purpose Test Platform.
In the flight test applications, the system provides the interface between the AFDX
avionic world and the commercial Ethernet switches through multiple AFDX inputs to a
twin Ethernet output router. Redundancy and precise time control of the data transmis-
sion are key elements of the specification.
Also of special interest is a very advanced source-synchronized datation system able
to guarantee a perfect time alignment of all data directly at the point of entry in the flight
test computer.
This article describes the different modular elements of the ground and flight
test computers, as well as the hardware and software tuning and performance anal-
ysis tools that have been developed around these computers. All of these elements
are now in operation and have demonstrated the utility of the AFDX tools as real con-
cepts that can be reused for other programs.
The rapid evolution of the computer and technological fields continuously creates oppor-
tunities to develop new services in commercial aviation and to enable lower weight and cost
in aircraft design. The critical safety level, life duration requirements, and certification cycle

This article first appeared in its original form at AUTOTESTCON 2004.

August 2005 IEEE Instrumentation & Measurement Magazine 55

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 slow down this technological progress, meaning that it takes
years for a new technology to be introduced on a commercial
aircraft. For example, the enhancement of processing capabili-
ties and the now well-known network principles are just being
introduced in the latest generation of aircraft, such as the
Airbus A380, through the use of the new integrated modular
avionics (IMA) and AFDX standards.
AFDX
With the impressive processor evolution, on-board aircraft
computers can now be safely used for multiple applications
with the same device. To guarantee the same security level
while conducting multiple activities, rather than using sepa-
rate devices for each function, the IMA principle was intro-
duced in the aviation world. With the same spirit, the data
transmission process for network technology is now mature
enough to replace, in most cases, the old specialized avionic
buses. This is the goal, in particular, of the new ARINC 664
standard, with the development of the AFDX avionic-specif-
ic adaptation of the numeric network principles (ARINC
664–Part 7). The use of these new technologies can improve
service capabilities, improve scalability and save weight by
using common resources (multifunction computers and wire
concentration), and save costs by using well-developed and
improved components.
Fig. 1. The Airbus A380.
Fig. 2. CES modular function units.
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Of course, the very high-level security requirement of air-
craft development necessitates adaptations of the commer-
cial components and principles to insure the complete
independence of functions and avoid service failure while at
the same time guaranteeing service. These principles were
developed in the ARINC 653 standard, which defines strong
partitioning rules with protections and independence verifi-
cations and defines communication interfaces between these
partitions [application executive (APEX)]. Also, the AFDX is
not just a standard Ethernet network; it includes switching
technology, deterministic properties, and a specific band-
width allocation strategy, with strong separation between
data flows. It also ensures a hardware redundancy, with spe-
cific address management and a protocol stack. The ARINC
653 rules found direct application in the AFDX specification.
CES Modular Test Elements
For years, CES developed modular processing units and,
with the Airbus flight test equipment team, built ground
and flight test systems based on this modular technology
(see Figure 2). CES was also selected by Airbus as a partner
in developing a specific, highly versatile AFDX test board
suitable for all types of test benches. This board, built on the
CES modular devices, provides a wide range of test applica-
tions including: raw network traffic analysis, cables and
hardware test benches, traffic generation, both 10- and 100-
Mb/s link speeds, error injection, mono or multiple end-sys-
tem emulation, various data management strategies,
simulation, complete AFDX stack, all addressing modes,
IEEE 802.3 compliance analysis, redundancy management
and separate flow capabilities, switch scheduling emulation,
event generation, triggering, filtering, and detailed statistics.
The AFDX general-purpose test board is based on the
CES PCI mezzanine card (PMC) form-factor multifunction
processor board, called the multifunction computing core
(MFCC). This CES standard PMC is part of the complete
PowerPC-based board family, which includes the VME,
CompactPCI, and PMC form-factor boards. The MFCC pro-
vides an on-board PowerPC CPU and an application-free
field-programmable gate array (FPGA), with both front-end
and PCI line control capabilities. A front-end electrical adap-
tor module completes the MFCC CPU module, with a stan-
dard connector to achieve the PMC format. For the AFDX
test board, an AFDX front-end adaptor (typically called the
“nose;” see Figure 3) was developed with Airbus to provide
the AFDX twin-Ethernet connector on the front-end, com-
plete with various I/Os such as signal dating, external syn-
chronization and triggers, and serial link.
The CES AFDX PMC also provides a 1-µs dating capabili-
ty, with better than 1-ppm precision for all internal events,
such as frame acquisition or trigger detection. The nose
includes a variable oscillator for local time reference source
and a temperature sensor for base timing compensation. The
FPGA also includes a synchronization algorithm to drive its
internal dating source and continuously adapt it to an
external timing source (1-Hz signal for synchronization and
August 2005
 a serial-coded date) from the front-end connector or by the
backplane PCI line.
Based on the same MFCC board, CES has developed
another front-end adaptor (with its associated FPGA pro-
gramming) to create a global synchronization PMC. This
PMC can receive external dating sources with various for-
mats, including IRIG-B and 1-Hz top from a global position-
ing system (GPS) station. This PMC distributes the
synchronization signals (1 Hz and serial date) through both
front-end and back-end connectors.
CES has developed a complete family of functional units
that provides a large compatibility and homogeneous soft-
ware communication layer, based on the same modular
architecture, for a large family of avionic-oriented links
(MIL-STD 1553, STANAG 3838, ARINC 429, and CANBUS).
The MFCC (with its FPGA programmable logic), coupled
with the electrical front-end adaptor using the same logical
modules (such as synchronization) and embedded software
that may include an OS-independent communication layer
(the CES BP-Net technology), provides a very useful modu-
lar construction. It constitutes a very easy bridging function-
ality between the main standard avionic links for various
flight and ground applications.
The controller functional unit manages the entire IENA
system. This RIO3 controls the system configuration and
the current state of each functional unit in the system,
manages the hardware chassis controls (power supply,
fans, etc.), and concentrates the IENA formatted data com-
ing from the data acquisition units, including statistics
information. The IENA formatted frames are transmitted
to the N4 storage and analysis levels by two parallel 100-
Mb/s, full-speed redundant links.
CES has developed two chassis versions: a ground ver-
sion with commercial boards and a flight version using
extended versions of the boards without any software modi-
fication (see Figure 5). The flight chassis is able to embed two
complete IENA systems to provide two independent sys-
tems in one computer for acquisition of AFDX data, with up
to 12 redundant or 24 nonredundant AFDX links. The flight
chassis also includes a display board for healthy information
presentation, available from the chassis itself.
Thanks to the modularity of the CES functional units, a
complete IENA chassis is composed of one display, one
control unit, and two data acquisition units (one RIO3 gateway

The IENA System

The Instrumentation d'Essais des Nouveaux Avions (IENA)
concept, translated as test instrumentation for new airplanes,
is an Airbus in-flight data acquisition and analysis system.
The latest generation designed for the Airbus A380 includes
the brand-new AFDX acquisition system based on the AFDX
multipurpose system.
CES has built a complete data acquisition system for the
A380 “level 2” IENA equipment, based on the company’s
modular processing units and chassis experience (see Figure Fig. 3. AFDX PMC: MFCC with “nose.”
4). This system is based on the VME 6U form-factor chassis,
with functional units for data acquisition, frame formatting,
concentration, and transmission to the next level of the IENA
system. Each functional unit is based on a RIO3 VME 64X 6U
(CES processor board) gateway, with up to six PMCs, using
PMC extension boards (PEBs). The IENA architecture
includes four clusters composed of RIO3s, MFCCs, and PEBs.
In the case of the first A380 implementation, the PMCs used
in the data acquisition functional units are AFDX acquisition
boards (i.e., the AFDX multipurpose test PMCs) with a spe-
cific IENA data formatting application on board. This is pos-
Fig. 4. IENA chassis with monitoring applications.
sible due to the modularity of the CES building blocks along
with the CES BP-Net communication layer within homoge-
neous or heterogeneous software environments.
The IENA N2 system developed by CES also includes a
controller functional unit, along with an RIO3 board and a
dating PMC with a backplane distribution of the synchroniza-
tion signals. All of the acquisition boards are synchronized to
the same time base (an IRIG-B and a 1-Hz separated sources),
with 1-µs resolution and better than 1-ppm precision. This
unit also transmits all of the acquired and formatted data of
the chassis on two 100-Mb/s Ethernet links for redundancy. Fig. 5. IENA ground and flight chassis.

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 Fig. 6. ATR and ARINC 600 form factors.
and up to six acquisition PMCs). Also, with the same software
object, the configuration can be changed easily. The IENA con-
figuration can be reduced to a minimum configuration with
just one control unit and one data acquisition unit (one gate-
way with one acquisition card).
The same principles are applicable with various exten-
sions and adaptations to other projects, sharing and re-
using both hardware and software modules. CES is
currently developing flight equipment with reduced form
factors, in particular ATR and ARINC 600 (see Figure 6).
The software adaptation for certifiability under DO 178B
(up to level A, applying ARINC 653 rules) is currently with-
in the scope of CES developments and projects.
Analysis Tools
The IENA system also permanently provides various run-
ning information, such as acquisition statistics and synchro-
nization status. This information can be displayed in real
time with a status viewer graphic tool, directly from a serial
link in the chassis. Alternatively, it can be recorded in the
IENA formatted data frames.
The same CES boards and software modules are used in
the complete AFDX analysis tool CAD-X (see Figure 7). This
analyzer uses the same AFDX test card in a gateway piloted
by a graphic display interactive tool to manage the configu-
ration, the AFDX activity, and the data. It can provide a
wide range of functionalities, from raw frame analysis to full
AFDX compliance tests, with full bandwidth acquisition and
traffic generation, filtering, trigger input and outputs, statis-
tics, periodic events, and error injection of all types (from
raw protocol violation to high-level addressing errors or
bandwidth allocation violation).
Conclusion
Airbus has introduced a new generation of technologies for
commercial aircraft. It is now possible to share powerful
resources for the critical safety requirement certification
rules of the aircraft. The modular construction and the
redundancy, with the friability progress of the component
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Fig. 7. CAD-X.
modules, ensure the same safety guaranty level as the previ-
ous generations of equipment.
These modular concepts ease the development of testing
tools for both ground and flight applications, with common
parts and reusable concepts. These extremely versatile mate-
rials are available for a very broad range of applications.
References
[1] P. Ricco, M. Weymann, F.-H. Worm, “Joint account,” Aerosp. Test.
Int., pp. 40–43, Oct. 2003.
[2] P. Ricco, M. Weymann, F.-H. Worm, “Merging military aircraft
and commercial aircraft flight test architecture and
technologies,” in Proc. European Test and Telemetry Conf. (ETTC
2003), Toulouse, France, June 2003, pp. 106–112.
Frederic Brajou (frb@ces.ch) earned an M.Sc. degree in aero-
nautics and holds a postgraduate specialization in aircraft
propulsion systems from ENSAE, France. As an engineer, he
worked for the French MOD in a test and evaluation system
center. He then worked in IT consultancy and services.
Moving to England, he diversified his career in business
development for companies in the United Kingdom and the
United States, working in a pan-European role during the
last decade. For the last few years, he has been working for
Creative Electronic Systems (CES). His responsibilities
encompass business development in the civil aerospace and
defense markets. He is a member of the Royal Aeronautical
Society (MRAeS) and also a professional affiliate to the
Chartered Institute of Marketing (CIM) in England.
Philippe Ricco studied in France and received a master of
applied mathematics degree. He worked ten years for the
French CEV (DGA Flight Test Center) on real-time comput-
ers for flight test simulators. He then worked for Airbus and
Eurocopter. For the past seven years, he has been with the
Swiss company Creative Electronic Systems (CES) working
on its aeronautic systems development, including the AFDX
products and DO-178B level A avionic applications.
August 2005