Comparative Analysis of Scheduling Strategies for Heterogeneous Avionics Applications

Abstract

A homogeneous avionic communication architecture to interconnect different avionics domains may bring significant advantages, such as easier installation and maintenance in addition to reduced weight and costs. This homogeneous communication architecture needs to support heterogeneous applications, where safety-critical and best effort traffic coexist. In this paper, we assess the pros and cons of the most relevant scheduling strategies supporting heterogeneous applications versus the main avionics requirements. Furthermore, we conduct a quantitative comparative analysis of the most promising solutions guaranteeing the main avionics requirements through a representative avionics case study. Results show that a recent shaper in Time Sensitive Networks is a promising solution in terms of performance and complexity.