I am trying to figure out if a COTS ethernet switch or something else will work for AFDX. AFDX is avionics full duplex switched ethernet. It is used deterministically and redundantly in aircraft. In a traditional Ethernet switch, incoming Ethernet frames are routed to output links based on the Ethernet destination address. In AFDX, a 16-bit value called a Virtual Link ID is used to route Ethernet frames in an AFDX network. The switches in an AFDX network are “configured” to route an incoming Ethernet frame to one or more outgoing links. The AFDX switches are configured to deliver frames with the same Virtual Link ID to a predetermined set of End Systems. This means that the routing table must be configured with all known virtual links to know where the packets are to be sent. This is done in an aircraft so the packets make it to their destination on time. Does it sound like this switching application can be handled by a programmable ethernet switch or any other commercially available device? I appreciate any feedback.
