ETTC'2003 - SEE

A380… AND THEN ?
SWITCHED IENA GAIN FOR A380
FTI 1
FTI 2
WB FTI
A340 500-600 A380 Gain
4 x 786,432
= 3,15 Mbit/s
4 x 786,432
= 3,15 Mbit/s
64 x 2,5 kHz x 16 bits
= 2,560 Mbit/s
~ 100 Mbit/s ~ x 15
~ 100 Mbit/s ~ x 35
Figure 5 - Performance step from PCM to LAN Physical Media
The step from PCM FTI architecture to the FTI LAN first of all blows up performance of the physical
media (cf. Figure 5), but also brings other implied benefits :
Flexibility in the architecture, since any L2 or L4 system can be added or removed without
other modification than cabling and/or L3 Switch configuration
Data sharing between Standard, Wide Band and Crash FTIs, whereas former architectures
are working independently
Central downloading for all the L2/L3/L4 systems that greatly reduces FTI process time
before Flight Tests
FTI cost reduction by integrating COTS systems into the Flight Test environment. Our first
experiments have shown that the gap between “industrial” and “flight test” environment
requirements is not so hard to fill for network equipments
Maintenance costs reduction by using existing well-proved tools from Networks and
Telecom
PERSPECTIVES FOR FUTURE PROGRAMS
A380 will be the first aircraft flying a switched IENA network, but the new coming AIRBUS programs
will also profit from this technology. With FTI LAN maturity and operational feedback, some new
opportunities will arise, starting with :
Redundancy remove if Switches failure rate is confirmed very low
Upgrade to Gigabit Ethernet, already existing on standard switches, on copper physical
link
Wireless link for dataloader or monitoring tools
Network interconnection between FTI LAN and AIRBUS Network, for configuration purpose
or distributed Flight Test data analysis
Opening to audio/video traffics
Storage Area Network
…