PRODUCTS & SERVICES
compliance testing tools
A systems approach to the compliance testing of ARINC664 end
systems and switches that is based on the very latest off-the-shelf
technology offers a fully traceable solution
AEROSPACETESTINGINTERNATIONAL.COM // SEPTEMBER 2019 97
The use of ethernet-based ARINC664
technology for communication between
avionics computers and systems,
introduced by Airbus first on the A380
program, known as AFDX (avionics full duplex
switched Ethernet), is increasingly being
used on many other aircraft. It has led to
further developments and implementations of
End Systems (E/S) and switches in the
industry that have to be compatible to the
ARINC664 specification, or its variants as
used by Boeing on the 787 program or
another AFDX derivative called MicroAFDX
Since no standardized public test plans
were released, the responsibility of test plans
for the above-mentioned devices has been
placed on the designers and manufactures of
these components which normally leads to
proprietary test system implementations.
The first stage for creating such a system
solution is the identification of the functional
requirements and the specification of the
related test requirements for End Systems
and Switches derived from the ARINC664
specification. Since the ARINC664
specification does not fully define all of the
functional requirements in detail, the E/S
and/or Switch supplier has to “fill in the gaps”
with proprietary device specific definitions.
It has proved to be the case that dedicated
ARINC664 COTS test equipment, specifically
interface boards with IRIG-B synchronization,
time stamping, error detection/injection
capabilities for received/transmitted frames,
and hardware trigger input/output support,
ease such a test system’s implementation
and reduce risk with basically zero
development effort on hardware side.
Today PXIe, as the latest hardware
platform, offers a powerful and modular
solution for many different kinds of test
systems and therefore qualifies as a good
candidate for hosting the ARINC664 test and
simulation interfaces. Such a test system
solution is suitable for both ARINC664 Switch
and End System
testing. The
hardware engineering
tasks for such a test system
can be reduced to the integration
of corresponding COTS ARINC664
interface boards into such a PXIe chassis
which supports breakout/access to PXI
trigger signals as well as the PXI 10MHz
system clock. The test system can be
operated either directly via an embedded
PXIe controller with monitor, keyboard and
mouse connected or via suitable PXIe
extender unit to a suitable control host PC.
From the software side, the specified test
requirements justifies the use of a
Commercial Off-The-Shelf (COTS) software
solution as a baseline that offers
customization, automation (scripting),
report/logging generation
and data loading capabilities.
The software engineering
tasks are then related to the
specification, implementation
and test of the related testing
scripts, which are organized
and executed via the
COTS software’s own
scripting capability.
One of the most important
benefits of building the test
system with mostly COTS
hardware and software
components is that it gives
rise to the possibility of
quickly setting up an
intermediate test system for
manual/interactive and
pre-testing prior to the final
formal test, because it
represents, without any customization thus
far, a fully functional multi-channel ARINC664
network analyzer.
Compared to the switch testing, where
taking the UUT as a black box with different
configurations required,
the End System testing
requires the specification of a test
application which is executed on the end
system under test and acts as a
counterpart to the test system for setup
and control of the End System under test.
This test application is a mandatory element
since the test focus is basically on ARINC664
interoperability and not on a particular
operational functionality.
In summary, the described approach offers
a fully traceable method of testing ARINC664
compliance from the ARINC specification
level with its functional requirements down
to the implemented test scripts in the test
system for ARINC664 compatible switches
and End Systems. This is based on
customization of COTS tools as well as on
Windows software and the PXIe hardware
platform. Adaptations of the current solution
to more customer-specific requirements are
possible. These can be undertaken by the
customer and are of low risk due to the
modular approach of the test system
hardware and software.
As a supplier of COTS hardware and
software products for ARINC664 test and
simulation, AIM has already implemented and
delivered several ARINC664 test systems and
developed the corresponding test plans for
compliance testing, available as optional
Script Packages for the COTS databus test
and analysis software, PBA.pro. \\
1 // PXIe offers a modular
system for test systems
2 // The approach to end
systems and switches
uses COTS hardware and
software is low risk
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AIM
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