Priority-Based Ring-Hybrid WDM LANS for Avionics

This paper documents the early efforts to create a fiber optic networking prototype for naval avionic systems, based on the scalability and determinism specified by the SAE. We propose a priority-based ring-hybrid WDM LAN architecture based on the ring-ring approach. The ring-ring architecture consists of a global ring, where each controller is assigned a WDM wavelength at which it can receive incoming packets, and a collection of local rings, where the nodes are assigned WDM wavelengths which can be reused within other local rings. In the ring-ring architecture, all communication between nodes occurs using the global or local ring topology, and no subsystems receive priority handling. On the other hand, the priority-based ring-hybrid architecture is designed to include a combination of ring and point-to-point topologies to support sub-systems with variable-priority traffic and integrates the architectural design with subsystem functionality, where the subsystems are based on the needs of avionic systems in present-day naval aircraft.