Open systems architecture solutions for military avionics testing

Raytheon makes extensive use of open systems architecture methods in developing special test equipment (STE) for testing military avionics equipment. Such use has resulted in significant cost and schedule savings in the development of production test equipment for radar and infrared systems. With open systems architectures, a test system can be assembled using COTS products. This brings economies of scale to test equipment, which is normally built in very low quantities. Therefore, the potential cost savings due to COTS usage is proportionately greater in STE than in the higher volume avionics systems that are tested. A second major benefit of using COTS products is that test system development schedule cycle time is greatly reduced. This paper describes the application of Open Systems Architectures (OSA) to avionics testing. The following major architectures are surveyed: VME bus, VXI bus, IEEE GPIB, IEEE 1149.1 JTAG test bus, 1553 Military Bus, Fibre Channel, and COTS Test Applications Software. We describe how the benefits of OSA have been extended at Raytheon into achieving vertical test commonalities. The flexibility of OSA can be exploited to provide an overall optimum test solution, taking all levels of test into account. For example, test systems can be tailored with COTS products to provide integrated methods for avionics tests at the module, unit, and system levels. Test systems can be configured to maximize the reuse of COTS hardware over all test levels. Test software can also be programmed to optimize such reuse over levels of test. Additional test verticality synergies derived from such OSA usage are described, including: test false alarm avoidance; test cones of tolerance optimization; and efficient test of field returns     

FPGA-based military avionics computing circuits

There are processing requirements for military avionics applications in excess of 10/sup 10/ operations per second. Field programmable gate arrays (FPGAs) support these types of processing rates, and also offer other advantages (i.e., lower cost, lower power consumption, and smaller size) for military avionics relative to alternate types of processing solutions. This paper discusses the need for very high performance computing in military avionics, with precision guided munition (PGM) applications used as an example of this need. It presents a model suggesting continued rapid improvements in FPGA processing capability, and it analyzes the utility of FPGAs as processing engines in terms of processing capability, cost, power consumption, and size. It presents several examples of the use of FPGAs as processing engines which validate the model, and it also uses these examples to describe various FPGA-based processing engine implementation techniques.     

Firewire in modern integrated military avionics

High performance communications, navigation, and identification (CNI) functions on modern military aircraft are increasingly required for mission readiness. The operation of simultaneous waveforms through an integrated avionics rack of shared resources becomes a test in moving data rapidly from one signal processing stage to the next. The IEEE 1394, or Firewire, is a commercial high bandwidth bus whose 64-bit addressing and maximum 400 Mbits/second throughput satisfies this demanding military avionics interconnect need. The challenge in applying this commercial product to integrated avionics is the requirement to seamlessly add message priority encoding. By having message priorities, the slower strategic communications links will not impair the performance of higher data rate tactical communications, thereby avoiding potentially life-threatening bottlenecks. The flight environment imposes additional challenges to ruggedize the cabling between integrated avionics racks and to utilize the full capabilities of the Firewire bus. A discussion of the physical, data link, network, and transport layers, as used in avionics applications will be done. Additionally, the versatility of 1394 in military avionics with its variable channel sizes, bandwidth on demand, hierarchical addressing, and upgrade to 800 and 1600 Mbps with a 64-bit wide data path, is emphasized. Finally, system maintenance advantages of 1394's hot pluggable features are discussed, with an eye toward cost reduction on the flight line and total operational time of the aircraft avionics systems     

Optical fiber data bus modulation techniques for military avionics

In this paper, we propose several modulation techniques for use in military avionics optical fiber data buses, namely, Extended Manchester II Bi-Phase Coding with Beginning-Stopping Flags, Partial Trilevel Manchester II Bi-Phase Coding, Four-ary Pulse Width Modulation, Two-ary Pulse Width Modulation with Amplitude-Distinguished Sync Field, Two-ary Message Pulse Width Modulation and Two-ary Sync Pulse Amplitude Modulation, respectively. Compared with an existing modulation scheme of MIL-STD-1773 avionics data buses, the proposed techniques can be effectively used to overcome the difficulty in recognizing the correct operation states of an active transmitter at the output of optical receivers. The feasibility of proposed modulation schemes are discussed, and their performance is also evaluated     

Design for testability for future digital avionics systems

The authors describe an integrated testing approach called the Maintenance and Diagnostic System (MADS), which was developed for digital avionics systems using VHSIC and semicustom devices. Mission/operational requirements dictate high availability with capability to detect 98% of all faults and isolate 90% of these faults to a line replacement module (LRM) or 95% of the faults to two LRMs. MADS achieves these goals by defining a module maintenance node (MMN) chip set for each LRM in the system and the design for testability concepts for hardware. The MMN aids parallel, high-speed testing of LRMs, isolating the fault(s) to a module/chip level while incurring less than 10% overhead. It uses the concepts of scan set design, pseudorandom test vector generation, output response compression, and separate scan set loops to test the SSI-MSI logic on the LRM. It also stores interim test results and run-time fault information to isolate the hard-to-reproduce failures and performs verification of interchip and intermodule wiring     

Open systems avionics network to replace MIL-STD-1553

This paper is a proposal for a future method of avionics data communication. The need for this proposal results from the shortcomings in the current avionics architecture, video distribution network, and in the MIL-STD-1553 data communication system. The separately wired video and data communication systems can be combined to save weight, which is especially critical for rotorcraft. Aircraft, once fielded, have limited capacity for modification and improvement due to fixed computer throughput and processing performance, network bandwidth, and space available in the avionics equipment bays. The changes proposed by this paper are to be made in conjunction with the replacement of the redundant computer boxes with open system avionics functions on industry standard circuit cards. This open architecture approach was developed over the last ten years and is now being implemented in many aircraft applications including the F-22 and the RAH-66 programs. The V-22 rotorcraft, which although just entering production, is being modified for joint service customers where modern computer performance and expanded data network bandwidth is needed. The changes of this proposal will fill this need, reduce the weight of upcoming production models, and provide growth or spare capability so that additional video and data components can be added with minimal effect on existing components. This paper examines the current V-22 avionics video and data communication hardware and wiring and propose a new implementation of open system architecture standards with integrated digital video and data communication based on ANSI standard copper fibre channel     

Spiral evolution applied to legacy avionics systems

The US Department of Defense (DoD), through the Office of the Secretary of Defense (OSD), has determined that evolutionary acquisition is their strategy of choice for future software-intensive systems, and that the spiral development model (SDM) is the preferred method/process for software-intensive development life cycles. Electronic Systems Command (ESC) at Hanscom AFB, Massachusetts, has written a draft handbook on the use of Spiral Development for all future Command and Control (C2) systems, including reference to the DoD 5000 series and Air Force Program Directive 63-1, Acquisition System, which deploys this OSD mandate for future C2 systems. Barry Boehm's continued work on SDM which he conceived in the 1980s, is heavily biased toward development of new systems that are software-intensive, as noted in a workshop he gave at the Software Engineering Institute (SEI) in 2000.     

Hybrid partition-and network-level scheduling design for distributed integrated modular avionics systems

Distributed Integrated Modular Avionics(DIMA) develops from Integrated Modular Avionics(IMA) and realizes distributed integration of multiple sub-function areas. Timetriggered network provides effective support for time synchronization and information coordination in DIMA systems. However, inconsistency between processing resources and communication network destroys the time determinism benefiting from partitions and time-triggered mechanism.To ensure such time determinism and achieve guaranteed real-time performance, system design should collectively provide a global communication scheme for messages in network domain and a corresponding execution scheme for partitions in processing domain. This paper firstly establishes a general DIMA model which coordinates partitioned processing and time-triggered communication, and then proposes a hybrid scheduling algorithm using Mixed Integer Programming to produce feasible system schemes. Furthermore, incrementally integrating new functions causes upgrades or reconfigurations of DIMA systems and will generate integration cost. To control such cost, this paper further develops an optimization algorithm based on Maximum Satisfiability Problem and guarantees that the scheduling design for upgraded DIMA systems inherit their original schemes as much as possible. Finally, two typical cases, including a simple fully connected DIMA system case and an industrial DIMA system case, are constructed to illustrate our DIMA model and validate the effectiveness of our hybrid scheduling algorithms.     

High-performance front-end converter for avionics applications [aircraft power systems]

The distributed power systems of future commercial aircraft will adopt variable frequency generation (360 to 800 Hz). Front-end converters in the system will be required to have a high efficiency and a low total harmonic distortion (THD) of the input current. This paper explains the design of a zero-voltage-switching (ZVS) active-clamped isolated low-harmonic SEPIC rectifier for such applications. Utilization of the transformer leakage inductance for ZVS and a single-layer transformer design contribute to a high efficiency. An accurate averaged switch model has been developed, which shows that the control-to-input-current transfer function of this converter does not exhibit resonances observed in the conventional SEPIC. As a result, for closed-loop operation using average current control, damping of the coupling capacitor is not required. Operating at a switching frequency of 200 kHz, an experimental 100 W, 28 V output rectifier achieves a THD of 3-4% and efficiency exceeding 90% over the entire line frequency range.     

Using LabVIEW to provide rapid prototyping environment for theteaching of avionics systems

This paper describes a simulation environment which has been used to teach the fundamental principles of Avionics Systems to students of Systems Engineering at Loughborough University of Technology. A versatile model of a Radar System is detailed as an example and its attributes from a teaching perspective are highlighted. The generic nature of the environment is also described, as is its position within the systems life cycle     

An environment for the integration and test of the Space Stationdistributed avionics systems

An approach is described to supplying an environment for the integration and test of the Space Station distributed avionics systems. Background is included on the development of this concept including the lessons learned from Space Shuttle experience. The environment's relationship to the process flow of the Space-Station verification, from systems development to on-orbit verification, is presented. The uses of the environment's hardware implementation, called Data Management System (DMS) kits, are covered. It is explained how these DMS kits provide a development version of the Space-Station operational environment and how this environment allows system developers to verify their systems performance, fault detection, and recovery capability. Conclusions on how the use of the DMS kits, in support of this concept, will ensure adequate on-orbit test capability are included     

Hardware reconfiguration algorithm in multiprocessor systems of integrated modular avionics

Reconfiguration of multiprocessor systems makes it possible to improve their failure-resistance that is especially important for the integrated modular avionics systems. The algorithm considered in this paper allows minimizing the reservation and providing the better safety level and more effective flight completion or even its further execution in the case of failures of airborne equipment.     

Surface emitting lasers for avionics applications

Vertical cavity surface emitting lasers offer many features that are suitable for applications in optical interconnect, optical data bus, optical backplane, and optical signal processing. The authors describe basic device structure and fabrication techniques of GaAs-based vertical cavity surface emitting lasers and discuss key laser performance characteristics such as emission wavelength, beam pattern, threshold current, power output, quantum efficiency, and modulation response that are important to these potential applications. Results on monolithic integration of the laser with an n-channel MESFET driver are described     

Open system concepts for modular avionics

Advanced communications, guidance and navigation systems play key roles in determining superiority of one combat aircraft over another. The use of advanced technology is essential to meeting the mission requirements of present as well as future aircraft. Modular avionics are being used in next generation aircraft, such as the Air Force F-22 fighter and the Army Comanche helicopter, as the means of achieving higher levels of performance, including reduced volume and improved adaptability, maintainability, and expandability. New system acquisitions such as Joint Strike Fighter will attempt to achieve these same performance levels but at dramatically reduced life cycle cost. Retrofit applications will also take on increasing roles in meeting this affordability need as the Department of Defense (DoD) struggles to maintain readiness in the face of the shrinking defense budget. The government is encouraging the use of open standards practices as a means of addressing the affordability issue. The Open Systems Joint Task Force (OS-JTF), formed in September 1994, is chartered to “sponsor and accelerate the adoption of open systems in weapons systems and subsystem electronics to reduce life-cycle costs and facilitate effective weapon system intra- and interoperability”. The purpose of this paper is to relate the concept of open systems to modular avionics. It discusses the key attributes of an open systems approach and identifies key technologies necessary for its success     

Switched Ethernet testing for avionics applications

Switched Ethernet is being implemented as an avionics communication architecture. A commercial standard (ARINC-664) and an aircraft vendor-specific implementation known as avionics full duplex switched Ethernet (AFDX) have been developed that defines the topology and use of switched Ethernet in an avionics application. In avionics applications, the movement of data between devices must take place in a deterministic fashion and must be delivered reliably. All aircraft flight hardware must be tested to be sure that it will communicate information properly in the switched Ethernet network. The airframe manufacture must test the integrated network to verify that all flight hardware is communicating properly. Testing and maintenance testing is required to perform data communication level testing of switched Ethernet architectures for avionics applications to insure that all communication is deterministic and reliable. This paper provides an overview of a switched Ethernet avionics network and identifies the testing challenges associated with a switched Ethernet avionics application. A practical implementation performing the required tests is discussed.     

商用货架产品的可靠性风险控制方法

归纳提出了选用COTS的五项原则,分析了COTS可靠性风险源,指出了COTS可靠性工作的重点,提出了型号研制中COTS可靠性风险控制的程序与方法,最后还分析了尚需进一步开展的COTS可靠性管理与技术研究工作。     

Integrated modular avionics for next generation commercialairplanes

The goals are objectives of integrated modular avionics (IMA) are discussed. One candidate computing architecture for IMA, the Boeing 777 Airplane Information Management System (AIMS), is presented. The cabinet architecture, fault tolerance characteristics, backplane bus, and functional growth provisions are considered. The integration concepts developed for AIMS represent a first step in real-world application of the IMA technologies