Applications - CAN System Engineering - page 266

Fig. 5.10 A380 CAN (controller area network) in the global avionics network architecture

5.3.1.2 History and Future …

Two different worlds coexist in aviation: general aviation (GA) with small aircrafts
and helicopters and airframers (Airbus and Boeing).

Airframers CAN started with cabin systems (ventilation, smoke detection and
water/waste) on A318 and A340, developed by a unique supplier with low bit rate
(83 kbps). It was so appealing that the use was largely extended on A380 within
avionics high critical systems (power distribution, control panels, engine fire detec-
tion, door monitoring, etc.) leading to more than 500 CAN nodes and 75 busses
per A380. A380 was also the starting point of the backbone avionics communica-
tion with AFDX (avionics full duplex Ethernet; switched Internet ARINC 664). The
redundancies are not shown in Fig. 5.10 .
The redundancies are not shown on this drawing.

General Aviation Uses CAN for backbone communication and major avionics
buses. Therefore, it has to fulfil all the requirements of a flight safety network.
National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) has also used CAN for
research program.

A specific application layer was developed: CANaerospace , the initial version cre-
ated in 1998. The story does not stop there as the Boeing B787 Dreamliner also
hosts a large number of CAN systems, and Airbus as well as Boeing have chosen
CAN as a basis for subsystems communication. A CAN standard ARINC 825 is
ready for all applications on board aircraft.

Why is an ARINC standard needed, one could ask. The following sections give the
answer: aircrafts are specific….