The Airbus A380 - an AFDX-based flight test computer concept

Commercial aircraft are in the process of defining new standards with the introduction of the Airbus A380, which involves the latest digital information techniques, such as the AFDX onboard realtime network. The AFDX standard, a major innovation in aircraft technology, first used with the Airbus A380, introduces telecom Ethernet-based technology, as well as a switch connection topology, rather than part-to-part links or buses. Airbus and CES partnered to develop a general-purpose building block, which allows the simulation, test or connection of any AFDX connected equipment. Integrated into different packages, ranging from the small equipment tester, through the complete aircraft integration test bench, up to the full flight test computer. Hence the name "AFDX General-Purpose Test Platform". In the flight test applications, it 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 transmission have been incorporated in 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 entry in the flight test computer. This paper will describe the different modular elements of the ground and flight test computers, as well as the hardware and software tuning and performance analysis tools, which have been developed around these computers. All of these elements are now in operation and have shown that AFDX tools are a real concept, which can be reused for other programs.