Comparative simulative analysis of WDM LANs for avionics platforms

With their almost unlimited potential for performance and their decreasing costs, advanced optical components and networks are now being seriously considered for deployment in emerging avionics systems. Towards the goal of developing an advanced avionics network that features wave-division multiplexing (WDM) for performance that is highly scalable, dependable, protocol-independent, and versatile, many disparate architecture strategies need to be evaluated. Due to the high cost of testbed prototyping and integration with existing systems, a simulative approach is used in this study to analyze and compare candidate WDM LAN architectures at a high level. Using discrete-event simulation models developed at the University of Florida, several contrasting approaches are examined for constructing an optical network architecture supportive of future avionics requirements. Each architecture is evaluated in terms of two application scenarios. The results from the simulation experiments enable a high-level comparison of competing architectures and provide insight for aerospace network researchers and designers.