Chapter no.

3 AVIONICS SYSTEM EVOLUTION

AVIONICS ARCHITECTURAL EVOLUTION:-

Increased Digitization of Functions

Increased sharing and modularization of functions

Integration/ sharing concepts increased to the skin of the aircraft

Functionality has increasingly obtained through software

Complex hardware architecture modules

Complex software modules

Increased network complexity and speed

PROTOCOL:- Set of formal rules and conventions governing the flow of information among the systems

Low level protocols define the electrical and physical standards

High level protocols deal with the data formatting, including the syntax of messages and its format

TYPES OF PROTOCOL:-

 Command/Response : Centralized Control Method

 Token Passing : Decentralized Control Method (Free token)

 CSMA/CA : Random Access Method

DIGITAL AVIONICS ARCHITECTURE:-

# DATA BUS:-It provides a medium for the exchange of data and information between various Avionics
subsystems.

# Integration of Avionics subsystems in military or civil aircraft and spacecraft.

 Physical arrangement of bus users in a network is called Topology.

 Three methods have been used to connect bus users with data buses. They are as follows:-

 Linear topology:-LRUs are added by sequentially attaching them to the data bus. All LRUs can listen to
any transmission on the bus.

 Ring topology:- The ring must be broken to add new LRUs. Messages are passed sequentially from one
LRU to the next.

 Star topology:- The LRUs are connected to a central hub. A message from an LRU passes through the
hub to any or all other LRUs on the hub.
DIGITAL AVIONICS ARCHITECTURE:-

 When one data bus is controlled by another it is called hierarchical topology. This is common in a military data
bus topology, which uses the MIL-STD-1553 bus. In civilian aircraft, it is common for buses to be equal and
share data as required.

 Redundancy is used in a data bus architecture to provide continued operation on one data bus if there is a
failure on another, regardless of the cause of failure and whether or not the error is a recoverable type.

 Redundancy is implemented both physically and functionally.

BUS
ARCHITECTURE
 MILITARY STANDARD 1553:-

MIL-STD-1553 Command / Response Aircraft Internal Time Division Multiplex Data Bus, is a Military standard
(presently in revision B), which has become one of the basic tools being used today for integration of Avionics
subsystems.

This standard describes the method of communication and the electrical interface requirements for the
subsystems connected in the data bus.

SPECIFICATION OVERVIEW:-

 Data Rate 1 MBPS

 Word Length 20 bits

 Message Length 32 word strings (maximum)

 Data Bits per Word 16 bits

 Transmission Technique Half duplex

 Encoding Manchester II Bi-Phase

 Protocol Command/ response

 Transmission Mode Voltage mode

ELEMENTS OF MIL-STD-1553B:-

BUS CONTROLLER (BC):- There is only one Bus Controller at a time on any MIL-STD-1553 bus. It initiates all
message communication over the bus.
 operates according to a command list stored in its local memory
 commands the various Remote Terminals to send or receive messages
 services any requests that it receives from the Remote Terminals
 detects and recovers from errors
 keeps a history of errors
The 1553B dictates that all devices in the system be connected to a redundant  pair of buses to provide an alternate
data path in the event of damage or failure of the primary bus. Bus messages only travel on one bus at a time,
determined by the Bus Controller.

REMOTE TERMINAL (RT):- A Remote Terminal can be used to provide:

 an interface between the MIL-STD-1553B data bus and an attached subsystem

 a bridge between a MIL-STD-1553B bus and another MIL-STD-1553B bus.
For example, in a tracked vehicle, a Remote Terminal might acquire data from an inertial navigational subsystem, and
send that data over a 1553 data bus to another Remote Terminal, for display on a crew instrument. Simpler examples
of Remote Terminals might be interfaces that switch on the headlights, the landing lights, or the annunciator in an
aircraft.
MONITORING TERMINAL (MT):- A Bus Monitor (BM) cannot transmit messages over the data bus. Its primary
role is to monitor and record bus transactions, without interfering with the operation of the Bus Controller or
the RTs. These recorded bus transactions can then be stored, for later off-line analysis.
Ideally, a BM captures and records all messages sent over the 1553 data bus. However recording all of the
transactions on a busy data bus might be impractical, so a BM is often configured to record a subset of the
transactions, based on some criteria provided by the application program.
Alternatively, a BM is used in conjunction with a Backup Bus Controller. This allows the Backup Bus Controller
to "hit the ground running", if it is called upon to become the active Bus Controller .
TRANSMISSION MEDIA

(Quadruple MIL-STD-1553 BUS ARCHITECTURE)

INTRODUCTION TO ARINC (AERONAUTICAL RADIO INCORPORATED):-

 ARINC is a non profit-making organization in USA .
It was formed and run by Civil airlines with industry and establishment both for radio & telephony.
ESTABLISHED in 1926 charted by Federal Radio Commission in order to served a single licensee and
coordinator communication outside of the government.
In 1978, ARINC introduced Aircraft communication addressing system (ACARS) , data link system that
enables ground station (airport, ac maintenance base etc) to upload data (flight plan) and down load data
such as weight on Wheel( WOW) data, FMS data, fuel quantity via on board communication management
Unit (CMU).

PURPOSE OF ARINC:-

It defines system & equipment specification in terms of functional requirement, performance &
accuracy,, environment requirements, physical dimension and electrical interface.

It standardizes interface among airborne sub-systems within the aircraft .

It is a major provider of transport aircraft and system engineering solution for eight industries; Aviation,
airport, defense, Government, health care, Network, Security & Transport.

Activities& Authorities of ARINC:-

 AEEC (Avionics Electronics Engineering Committee)

 Develops ARINC Standards

 AMC (Avionics Maintenance Conference)

 Organize the annual avionics maintenance Conference

 FSEMC (Flight Simulator Engineering & maintenance Conference)

 Organize annual FSE maintenance Conference.

ARINC STANDARDS:-

ARINC 400 SERIES: It describes guidelines for installation, wiring, data buses and database.
o ARINC 404: Air transport Rack (ATR) form factor for avionics equipment cases and racking.
o ARINC 424: International standard file format for aircraft navigation data.
o ARINC 429: Widely used data bus standard for aviation. Electrical & data format characteristics are
defined for two wire serial bus with one transmitter and up to 20 receivers. The bus is capable is of
operating at a speed of 100 kbps.
ARINC 500 SERIES: Used in Boeing 727, Douglas DC-9 & 10, Boeing 737,747 & airbus A300.
ARINC 600 SERIES: Reference standard for avionics components specified by ARINC 700.
ARINC 700 SERIES: Describes form fit, and function of avionics equipment installed predominately on transport
category aircraft.
ARINC 800 SERIES: Comprises of set of aviation standards for aircraft using fiber optics.

ARINC SPECIFICATION 429:-

 It is a specification that defines a local area network for transfer of digital data between avionics system
elements in civil aircraft.

It is simplex digital broadcast data bus with single transmitter but no more than twenty receivers for each bus
implementation

ARINC 429 has two type of transmission rates: low-speed of range 12.0 to 14.5 Kbps; and high-speed, which is
100 Kbps.

There are two mode of operation used in ARINC 429 bus protocol; character-oriented mode and bit oriented
mode.

o ARINC 429 bus has a word length of 32 bits; Eight bits for the label, Two bits for the Source/Destination
Identifier, Twenty-one data bitsand One parity bit.

Since the ARINC has 429 bus is broadcast bus, no access protocol is used by transmitter on the bus.

There is no bus control in the data buses as found in MIL-STD 1553B

It has direct coupling of transmitter and receiving terminals.

ARINC 429 ARCHITECTURE:-

ARINC 429
TRANSMITTER

ARINC specification 629:-

 In 1989 ARINC 629 was adopted by AEEC and1990 ARINC 629 was first implemented in BOEING-777

 ARINC Specification 629, Multi-Transmitter Data Bus, a linear bus which connects multiple LRUs, each of which
may either transmit or receive.
  It is a high-speed, bidirectional data bus. On such a bus, all responses to the output of the transmitting LRU can
be passed on the same bus at a later time. This greatly simplifies the network of buses. A single bus could
provide all the required interconnections.

 It uses a bus protocol that supports both periodic and non-periodic data with multiple transmitters and
receivers.

SPECIFICATION OVERVIEW of ARINC 629:-

 Data Rate 2 MBPS

 Word Length 20 bits

 Message Length 31word strings (maximum)

 Data Bits per Word 16 bits

 Transmission Technique Half duplex

 Encoding Manchester II Bi-Phase

 Protocol Carrier sense multiple access & collision avoidance

 Transmission Mode Voltage mode, current mode and fiber optic mode

UPTO 120 SUBSCRIBER

TERMINALS
Typical difference between ARINC 429/ 629:-

DATA BUS COMPARISON

Standard/ MIL-STD-1553 ARINC 429 ARINC 629

Characteristics

Signal rate or transmission 1 Mbps 12.5 t0 14 Kbps & 2 Mbps

rate 100 Kbps

Bus access Predetermined Fixed, one Multi transmitter

transmitter

Mode of coupling Transformer Direct Transformer

Protocol TDM No access CSMA/CA

protocol

Number of Node 31+BC+BM 20 120

Hierarchy Master/ Slave No master No master

Word length 20 bits 32 bits 20 bits

Message length 32 words max - 31 words max