ARINC 428

Purpose: The purpose of this document is to provide theframework for developing a compilation of requirements for anairplane-wide avionics network. This document is intended toprovide system-level considerations for the development of such anetwork. The avionics network may include a mix of standard databuses and private data buses.

This document is written for the “avionics network developer”involved with the systems engineering process and the selection ofexisting data standards and protocols for use in an airborneenvironment. It presumes that existing standards such as ARINCSpecification 429 and ARINC Specification 629 will be considered inthe network definition.

This document applies to the digital data communication betweenidentifiable sources and sinks that include, but are not limited toLine Replaceable Units (LRUs), Line Replaceable Modules (LRMs), andIntegrated Modular Avionics (IMA) cabinets on a single airplane.Other resources such as power distribution, cooling, mechanicalsupport are outside the scope of this document. However, thisdocument may affect the definition of those resources.

This document represents a top-down approach for the selectionof data bus and protocol standards applied to an avionics network.As a secondary role, this document is expected to be useful in thedevelopment of AEEC standards for data communication. This includesdata bus standards, protocol standards and, where applicable,network standards. It establishes the criteria for selecting provendata communication standards used elsewhere in the electronicsindustry that meet the expectations of airline users. Depending onthe type of avionics application, the resulting network may fullyor only partially refer to existing data communication standardsand protocol definitions. These standards describe the physicallayer, data link layer and the appropriate elements of the networklayer of the Open Systems Interconnect (OSI) reference modelpublished by the International Organization for Standardization(ISO).

For instance, for deterministic flight critical data transfers,a communication stack that is less complex than the OSI stack maybe preferred, and a specific upper layer protocol may be developed.Where compatibility with the OSI standards is needed (i.e., for airto ground communications) the full OSI stack may be used. Bothapproaches could be implemented at the same time on a givennetwork, different stacks would be used for different types ofexchanges.

The functions to be performed by upper layers of the OSIreference model are defined in ARINC Specification 638, “OSI UpperLayer Specification.” ARINC Specification 638 refers to numerousISO documents that pertain to the OSI reference model.

Edition:

95

Published:

10/09/1995

Number of Pages:

15

File Size:

1 file , 53 KB