Optimal Redundant Routing of Virtual Links for Avionics Full-Duplex Switched Ethernet Network

ARINC 664 AFDX (Avionics Full Duplex Switched Ethernet) is an aviation-specific developed data bus with additional features such as redundancy, dedicated bandwidth, and deterministic timing characteristics based on the IEEE 802.3 Ethernet standard to meet the increasing data exchange requirements among aircraft equipment. Virtual Links (VLs) are created to route ethernet frames from a single source end system (ES) to one or more destination ESs using ES and switches (SWs) via static and predefined routing communication channels specific to ARINC 664 P7 AFDX. The redundancy of the network structure for ensuring flight safety is an important requirement criterion in aircraft design. One of the most important features of ARINC 664 P7 AFDX is that it contains a special redundancy concept. F Although there are a limited number of algorithms presented in the literature for routing VLs, none of them have been concerned with forming redundant networks. In this study, the Loops Erased Random Walk Algorithm (LERWA) is modified with Traverse Approach (TA), and optimal redundant VLs routings have been formed considering constraints which are the bandwidth usage and the node hop amount. Simulation experiments were carried out with proposed LERWA-TA and Dijkstra’s Shortest Path Algorithm, and the results were presented comparatively. Experimental simulation results have shown the efficiency and applicability of the proposed algorithm for the usage of the avionics industry.