Abstract :
The avionic suite for the next generation of military aircraft is being designed with component and module commonality in mind in order to control recurring costs and capitalize on economy of scale. The backbone of the suite fashioned out of these modular building blocks is the fiber-optic bit-serial time-division multiplexed high-speed data bus (HSDB), operating at 50 Mb/s, which provides command and control communications among most of the aircraft subsystems and can be used to provide communications for a fly-by-light flight-control system or for the block transfer of data between mass memories and data processors. The fiber-optic HSDB is examined from the top down, beginning with an overview of the evolution of avionic architectures. A review is given of the standardization activity associated with development of the network, the protocols chosen to implement the desired communication functions, configuration options, and the fiber-optic components used in the bus interfaces or other active nodes of the network. It is believed that the utility of the bus extends beyond aircraft to spacecraft, ships, and land vehicles.<>
Keywords :
aircraft communication; command and control systems; computer interfaces; data communication systems; local area networks; open systems; optical links; protocols; time division multiplexing; 50 Mbit/s; avionic architectures; avionic suite; bit-serial TDM data bus; command and control communications; communication functions; configuration options; fiber-optic high-speed data bus; fly-by-light flight-control system; interoperability; military aircraft; next generation; protocols; standardization activity; token passing; Aerospace control; Aerospace electronics; Aircraft manufacture; Command and control systems; Communication system control; Costs; Economies of scale; Military aircraft; Optical fiber communication; Spine;
