A virtualized version of MIL-STD-1553

The MIL-STD-1553B standard specifies a bidirectional data bus that has been used in defense and aerospace industry in a vast number of systems. However, its use for simulation and development environments might lead to unnecessary restriction on the design and usability due to the high cost incurred for hardware and harness procurement. Since Ethernet networks are nowadays extensible present in simulation and development environments, integrating these existing communication architectures as part of the test-bench should reduce complexity while allowing flexibility and mitigating procurement cost. In this article, a virtualized 1553 bus interface is presented with the aim to demonstrate the integration of a 1553 network architecture which operation and functional capabilities are independent from the physical layer. This is achieved by replacing specific hardware functionalities into software simulated components.