ABSTRACT
This chapter summarizes the assumptions of the Avionics Full Duplex Switched Ethernet (AFDX) network technology and gives an overview of the different approaches that are used for the worst-case analysis of such networks. Three approaches exist for the computation of a safe upper bound of the end-to-end delay of each flow transmitted on the avionic network. The first approach is based on network calculus. It gives safe upper bounds on the end-to-end delays of flows. The second approach is based on trajectories. It computes the maximum workload faced by any frame of a given flow on its trajectory. The third approach is based on model checking and allows the computation of the exact worst-case delay of each flow, but it is limited by the combinatorial explosion problem. Both the network calculus and the trajectory approaches have been implemented using Python programming language. Both network calculus and trajectory approaches lead to pessimistic results.
