Page 30 - World Airnews Magazine June 2020 Edition

AVIONICS

SINGLE PAIR ETHERNET

FOR AVIONICS SYSTEMS

By Frank Wolfe

he ARINC 854 Cabin Equipment
TNetwork bus specifi cati on re-
leased earlier last month will set a stan-
dard that will help to open the doors to
single pair ethernet.

The specifications were due to be

released by the Airlines Electronic Engi-
neering Committee or (AEEC).

Russ Graves, TE Connectivity's global
aerospace business development
manager, said "TE is involved with the

implementation of the physical layer of
this standard,"
Graves said. "We believe that this
will establish Ethernet as a common
bus system throughout the aircraft,
as it's being used today. This will offer
significant savings in regard to installa- The company said that Mini-ETH is atively short so, to me, this Ethernet
tion, weight, and space associated with qualified for 200 MHz and 100 Mbps over Single Pair solution would be very
moving from eight-wire and four-wire operation at 15 m (49 ft) link lengths suitable for cockpit applications."
solutions to a two-wire solution - lower and that the company has a roadmap Single Pair Ethernet is needed to ac-
the complexity. Currently, we are to support 1 Gbps and 10 Gbps data commodate the ever increasing number
implementing this over 100Base-T1 speeds at 40 m (131 ft) link lengths of screens, sensors, data hubs, switches,
[100 megabits per second-Mbps], but and frequencies over 750MHz, as well solid-state drive (SSD) arrays, comput-
we're provisioning our components as new connector designs to support ers, IFE servers, and other electronics on
to be able to stretch to the ultimate higher frequencies and speeds. aircraft, according to a TE Connectivity

goal within the ARINC standard to The use cases for 100Base-T1 Single white paper called ‘Advancing Aircraft

achieve 1000Base-T1 [1 gigabit per Pair Ethernet provided by the AEEC cabin Connectivity with a Single Pair Ethernet

second-Gbps]. It is compliant with the systems sub-committee are to include Solution’. Without Single Pair Ethernet,

EWIS [Electrical Wiring Interconnect cabin lighting control and passenger excess wiring ends up affecting aircraft

System] standards." seat applications in bringing data to the performance and the environment, the

While airline passengers and crews screen or data to the passenger. white paper said.
demand higher capabilities from in- "Certainly, we expect that further use "All those electronics require a lot of
flight entertainment (IFE), security cases will be defined, as we move to a wiring," the white paper stated.

monitoring, and other aircraft electron- 1000Base state and applications that "Excess weight significantly affects fuel

ics, designers are unable to meet such we could envision that would go outside performance. For example, consider a
demands with the current Ethernet of the cabin which would require some Boeing B747-400 wide-body aircraft fly-

physical layer standards, according to further ruggedisation of our offering in ing a 5,000 nautical-mile average stage

TE Connectivity. those applications," Graves said. length for 3,000 flight hours per year.

The automotive sector recently re- "Potentially, you could also implement Carrying the weight of wiring and con-

leased its t00Base-T1 standard for Single this with 1000Base architecture over nectors (1,814 kg/4,000 lbs) consumes
Pair Ethernet - a standard to be refer- slightly longer distances than what we nearly 60,000 gallons of jet fuel every
enced in ARINC 854. envisioned in the 100Base standard so year. The annual cost for that amount of
TE Connectivity said that it has we are looking at new applications that fuel comes to nearly (US) $115,800. The

developed its Mini-ETH Single Pair would take this into other areas of the CO₂ emitted by burning that much fuel

Ethernet interconnection system to cabin and the aircraft. I'm seeing that amounts to 2,785,200 kg (1,266,000 lbs.)

comply with the ARINC 854 standard for some of the emerging applications in annually - equivalent to the emissions

100Base-T1. aerospace, including unmanned aerial from 124 passenger vehicles. To be more

David Procter, a product manager for vehicles, could be an excellent fit for sustainable, the aircraft cabin network

TE Connectivity, said that "the availabili- this technology." has to evolve - becoming smarter while

ty of ready to install, plug and play Mini- Cockpit avionics are likely in the mix growing lighter." Q
ETH assemblies fully tested to meet the as well. "The ARINC cabin systems
ARINC 854 requirements would offer a group is focusing inside of the cabin, Article courtesy: https://www.

number of advantages, as well as cost and certainly avionics in the cockpit aviationtoday.com/2020/05/07/new-

savings over traditional custom design would be part of that," Graves said. standard-to-open-the-doors-to-single-

cable assemblies." "The distances in the cockpit are rel- pair-ethernet/
World Airnews | June 2020
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