ETTC'2003 - SEE

BACK
ABSTRACT
A380 FLIGHT TEST ARCHITECTURE : SWITCHED IENA
FROM PULSE CODE MODULATION TO ETHERNET LAN
NATHALIE REVAUX - FRÉDÉRIC ABADIE
AIRBUS INTEGRATION TEST CENTRE
Even if the global architecture of AIRBUS Flight Test Installations (FTI) hasn't changed since
CONCORDE or A320 certification programs, there has been significant evolution on data
communication between acquisition and recording & analysis systems.
The necessary evolution in FTI's communication principles comes mainly from :
The constant increase in the number and bandwidth of the observed aircraft parameters
(growth in the number of systems in the recent AIRBUS planes, number and bandwidth of FTI
analog inputs…)
The need to share data between recording systems, flight test analysis computers,
telemetry…
The need to merge data coming from different domains -and often from different
acquisition systems : standard and wide band analog inputs, ARINC429, AFDX, RSxxx, discretes…
The constant search for cost reduction in aircraft certification, implying the choice of
widely spread technologies to reduce development and maintenance costs
Until A340-500/600, these problems have been solved either by duplicating the "standard" acquisition
& recording chain, or by implementing specific installations. For the A380, the big gap has been filled
to integrate the multiple environments through a unique architecture. One first axis has been to
standardise the data format among all the acquisition and exploitation environments (IENA PACKET),
another has been to physically merge data coming from any acquisition system towards several
recording and analysis systems.
This paper describes the “FTI LAN” created by AIRBUS Test Means Departments to allow flexible,
optimised and secure data transfer within the A380 -and future- Flight Test Installations.
KEY WORDS
A380, Flight Tests, IENA, Ethernet, Network