Modeling/Evaluation of modular spacecraft avionics network architectures

Abstract: Satellite or deep space exploration spacecraft avionics design is strongly
determined by the need to achieve a long lifetime and to autonomously
maintain safe operations in case of failure. To cope with an increasing
demand in on-board processing and to make architectures more scalable and
modular, future spacecraft data management architectures are about to
implement solutions selected today by the commercial aircraft industry such
as a central high speed backbone network linking processing nodes, with
local lower throughput buses enabling such nodes to interact with sensors,
effectors and other avionics equipment. Some specific issues to be
consolidated today are the sequencing of communications between the high
speed backbone and the local buses, the overall fault detection, isolation
and recovery strategy and the priority management and monitoring functions
to be included within backbone routers. From an avionics engineering
perspective, model driven engineering techniques are now being used to
validate operation scenarios, estimate performances and ensure seamless
transition between architectural design and the development of resulting
hardware and software constituents. A valuable method to deal with the a.m.
data management networking issues is to use the AADL (Architecture Analysis
and Design Language), an SAE standard. The scope of this document is to
perform a review of the state-of-the-art of reconfigurable, fault-tolerant
applications of router-based high speed data networks (mainly in
aeronautics and automotive industries). Furthermore to compare and support
the selection of solutions suited to spacecraft on-board networking needs
through the use of AADL and provide feedback on the applied engineering
methodology.