Avionics are the electronic systems used on aircraft, artificial satellites, and spacecraft. Avionic systems include communications, navigation, the display and management of multiple systems, and the hundreds of systems that are fitted to aircraft to perform individual functions. These can be as simple as a searchlight for a police helicopter or as complicated as the tactical system for an airborne early warning platform. The term avionics is a portmanteau of the words aviation and electronics.
In computer architecture, a bus is a communication system that transfers data between components inside a computer, or between computers. This expression covers all related hardware components and software, including communication protocols.
The Real-time Transport Protocol (RTP) is a network protocol for delivering audio and video over IP networks. RTP is used in communication and entertainment systems that involve streaming media, such as telephony, video teleconference applications including WebRTC, television services and web-based push-to-talk features.
In telecommunication and data transmission, serial communication is the process of sending data one bit at a time, sequentially, over a communication channel or computer bus. This is in contrast to parallel communication, where several bits are sent as a whole, on a link with several parallel channels.
A Controller Area Network is a robust vehicle bus standard designed to allow microcontrollers and devices to communicate with each other in applications without a host computer. It is a message-based protocol, designed originally for multiplex electrical wiring within automobiles to save on copper, but is also used in many other contexts.
A line-replaceable unit (LRU), lower line-replaceable unit (LLRU), line-replaceable component (LRC), or line-replaceable item (LRI) is a modular component of an airplane, ship or spacecraft that is designed to be replaced quickly at an operating location. The different lines (distances) are essential for logistics planning and operation. An LRU is usually a sealed unit such as a radio or other auxiliary equipment. LRUs are typically assigned logistics control numbers (LCNs) or work unit codes (WUCs) to manage logistics operations.
A vehicle bus is a specialized internal communications network that interconnects components inside a vehicle. Special requirements for vehicle control such as assurance of message delivery, of non-conflicting messages, of minimum time of delivery, of low cost, and of EMF noise resilience, as well as redundant routing and other characteristics mandate the use of less common networking protocols. Protocols include Controller Area Network (CAN), Local Interconnect Network (LIN) and others. Conventional computer networking technologies are rarely used, except in aircraft, where implementations of the ARINC 664 such as the Avionics Full-Duplex Switched Ethernet are used. Aircraft that use AFDX include the B787, the A400M and the A380.
The RapidIO architecture is a high-performance packet-switched, interconnect technology. RapidIO supports messaging, read/write and cache coherency semantics. RapidIO fabrics guarantee in-order packet delivery, enabling power- and area- efficient protocol implementation in hardware. Based on industry-standard electrical specifications such as those for Ethernet, RapidIO can be used as a chip-to-chip, board-to-board, and chassis-to-chassis interconnect. The protocol is marketed as: RapidIO - the unified fabric for Performance Critical Computing, and is used in many applications such as Data Center & HPC, Communications Infrastructure, Industrial Automation and Military & Aerospace that are constrained by at least one of size, weight, and power (SWaP).
Secure voice is a term in cryptography for the encryption of voice communication over a range of communication types such as radio, telephone or IP.
Avionics Full-Duplex Switched Ethernet (AFDX) is a data network, patented by international aircraft manufacturer Airbus, for safety-critical applications that utilizes dedicated bandwidth while providing deterministic quality of service (QoS). AFDX is a worldwide registered trademark by Airbus. The AFDX data network is based on Ethernet technology using commercial off-the-shelf (COTS) components. The AFDX data network is a specific implementation of ARINC Specification 664 Part 7, a profiled version of an IEEE 802.3 network per parts 1 & 2, which defines how commercial off-the-shelf networking components will be used for future generation Aircraft Data Networks (ADN). The six primary aspects of an AFDX data network include full duplex, redundancy, determinism, high speed performance, switched and profiled network.
Twinaxial cabling, or "Twinax", is a type of cable similar to coaxial cable, but with two inner conductors instead of one. Due to cost efficiency it is becoming common in modern (2013) very-short-range high-speed differential signaling applications.
MIL-STD-1760 Aircraft/Store Electrical Interconnection System defines a standardized electrical interface between a military aircraft and its carriage stores. Carriage stores range from weapons, such as GBU-31 JDAM, to pods, such as AN/AAQ-14 LANTIRN, to drop tanks. Prior to adoption and widespread use of MIL-STD-1760, new store types were added to aircraft using dissimilar, proprietary interfaces. This greatly complicated the aircraft equipment used to control and monitor the store while it was attached to the aircraft: the stores management system, or SMS.
In computer networking, an Ethernet frame is a data link layer protocol data unit and uses the underlying Ethernet physical layer transport mechanisms. In other words, a data unit on an Ethernet link transports an Ethernet frame as its payload.
M-Modules are a mezzanine standard mainly used in industrial computers. Being mezzanines, they are always plugged on a carrier PCB that supports this format. The modules communicate with their carrier over a dedicated bus, and can have all kinds of special functions.
ARINC 818: Avionics Digital Video Bus (ADVB) is a video interface and protocol standard developed for high bandwidth, low latency, uncompressed digital video transmission in avionics systems. The standard, which was released in January 2007, has been advanced by ARINC and the aerospace community to meet the stringent needs of high performance digital video. The specification was updated and ARINC 818-2 was released in December 2013, adding a number of new features, including link rates up to 32X fibre channel rates, channel-bonding, switching, field sequential color, bi-directional control, and data only links.
Bus monitoring is a term used in flight testing when capturing data from avionics buses and networks in data acquisition telemetry systems. Commonly monitored avionics buses include
STANAG 3910High Speed Data Transmission Under STANAG 3838 or Fibre Optic Equivalent Control is a protocol defined in a NATO Standardization Agreement for the transfer of data, principally intended for use in avionic systems. STANAG 3910 allows a 1 Mb/s STANAG 3838 / MIL-STD-1553B / MoD Def Stan 00-18 Pt 2 (3838/1553B) data bus to be augmented with a 20 Mb/s high-speed (HS) bus, which is referred to in the standard as the HS channel: the 3838/1553B bus in an implementation of STANAG 3910 is then referred to as the low-speed (LS) channel. Either or both channels may be multiply redundant, and may use either electrical or optical media. Where the channels use redundant media, these are individually referred to as buses by the standard.
