A study on avionics and automotive databus safety evaluation
Andrew J. Kornecki, Janusz Zalewski, Janusz S. Sosnowski, Dawid M. Trawczynski · Archives of Transport · 2005
This study presents an approach to evaluating safety of computer databuses for use in avionics and automotive industries. It responds to the need for qualification and certification of electronic devices used in safety-related applications. Some of these applications, such as fly-by-wire systems on the aircraft and steer-by-wire systems in cars, are reviewed briefly, first. Then the process of designing for safety is discussed, involving an outline of criteria for databus assessment with respect to the risk involved, followed by descriptions of respective approaches to hazard analysis and failure mode analysis. After presenting typical characteristics of major databuses used in avionics and automotive applications, including ARINC 429, 629 and 659 databuses, MIL-1553, IEEE-1394, CAN, TTCAN, FlexRay, TTP/C, Safe-by-Wire, and others, experimental results are presented and discussed for data throughput and latency evaluations with regard to safety in databus technologies. This is followed by a discussion of databus scheduling experiments for CAN and TTCAN networks with fault injection, which show significantly better databus utilization in case of TTCAN, even though CAN databuses can operate with higher performance in a fault-free environment.