Deterministic end-to-end delay analysis in an avionics network

Avionics Full DupleX Switched Ethernet is a deterministic communication protocol for distributed embedded real-time applications over asynchronous channels. It is a promising technique that can replace the existing avionics data buses, such as ARINC429 and MIL-STD-1553B. One of the key challenges for deploying and maintaining Avionics Full DupleX Switched Ethernet is to determine the end-to-end transmission delay in such a network. This article aims at handling this challenge effectively applying a completely theoretical analysis. An analytical method based on the network calculus theory is presented in detail to calculate the end-to-end transmission delay in an Avionics Full DupleX Switched Ethernet network, which consists of many interconnect nodes with different scheduling disciplines. Further, this approach is improved by taking into account the effects of source node initial jitter and first in, first out optimization. Additionally, a Matlab/TrueTime simulation platform is constructed to verify the effectiveness of the method. Simulation results show that switches with advanced scheduling algorithms, i.e. static priority scheduling, can significantly improve the delay performance in a multi-hop network.