GE Fanuc Intelligent Platforms, a unit of GE Enterprise Solutions, have announced that they are adding a deterministic Ethernet technology to their range of solutions for avionics applications. Known as Time-Triggered Ethernet (TTEthernet), and developed by TTTech Computertechnik AG of Vienna, Austria, the deterministic Ethernet technology responds to the demand for reliable, fault-tolerant, safety critical solutions that are both high bandwidth and scalable.
Products based on the TTEthernet, which is designed to allow for DO-178 and DO-254 certification, are used to connect systems on safety critical platforms. Their determinism or the ability to ensure that an information packet is sent/received in a finite amount of time prevents unintended behaviour or interruption in complex systems.
According to GE Fanuc Intelligent Platforms, Ethernet should feature determinism as it is required for safety-critical applications such as civilian aircrafts. The TTEthernet features determinism and provides an open standards-based alternative to legacy technologies such as MIL-STD-1553 and ARINC-429.
The TTEthernet deterministic Ethernet technology offers full scalability for real-time architectures based on Ethernet. It is suitable for real-time systems and has the following advantages:
- higher throughput
- complexity reduction
- better scalability
- reduction of system life-cycle costs
- low engineering, maintenance and training costs
The TTEthernet deterministic Ethernet technology meets the requirement for time-critical, deterministic or safety-relevant systems. The TTEthernet’s open networking technology for real-time industrial automation, aerospace and transportation industry applications provides interoperability with AFDX and ARINC 664 allowing TTEthernet’s deterministic capabilities to be added into existing network solutions.