Dependable SCDR-TSN Avionics Architecture for Hard-Time Safety-Critical Applications: Proposal, Validation, Quantification, and Comparison

The avionic system of sixth-generation fighter aircraft shall have the capabilities to sense, process, communicate, command, and control in near real-time, within and across participating aircraft. The aircraft data transmission medium, mechanism, and protocol shall have higher bandwidth, data rate, determinism, and dependability to achieve some of these capabilities. Determinism and dependability are two significant system capabilities required when these data within and across the aircraft are used for safetycritical applications. The criticality of missing/incorrect data and/or incorrect arrival time may lead to risky events. Conventional avionics architectures employed in fighter aircraft do not guarantee determinism. This paper proposes a new Successive Cross-wire Dual Ring (SCDR) network topology-based avionics architecture that is highly dependable compared to conventional topologies. It also recommends incorporating Time Sensitive Networking (TSN) features over Ethernet protocol in the SCDR, guaranteeing determinism and time synchronization with minimal latency and worst-case delay. The topology and the protocol proposed in SCDR-TSN Ethernet are first-of-kind in the aerospace industry. They are suitable for Safety Integrity Level-4 applications per IEC-61508/EN-50128 and Design Assurance Level-A applications as per RTCA DO-254 & DO-178. Simulation and analysis results suggest the proposed architecture is highly suitable for hard-time safety-critical applications in any domain.