Method of guaranteed reception of common signals in an avionics system comprising a plurality of electronic computers

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-2017366302-A1
Application number	US-201715625844-A
Country	US
Kind code	A1
Filing date	Jun 16, 2017
Priority date	Jun 21, 2016
Publication date	Dec 21, 2017
Grant date	—

Abstract

Methods of guaranteed reception and of processing of a digital signal in an avionics system comprise a plurality of computers, each computer comprising processing electronics and a software layer, which, on receipt of an event, carries out the following steps: at a first instant, sending to each of the other computers of a first signal (ACK) of reception of the event; at a second instant termed “TimeOut ACK”, if the electronic computer has not received one of the first signals emanating from one of the other computers, sending of a second failure signal (FAIL) to each of the other computers; at a third instant termed “TimeOut GARANTEED”, if a second failure signal has been received by the computer, absence of taking into account of the event by the computer and if no failure signal has been received by the computer, taking into account of the event by the data processing electronics of the computer.

First claim

1 . A method of guaranteed reception and of processing of an “event” in the form of a digital signal in an avionics system comprising a plurality of electronic computers linked together by a data bus, each computer comprising data processing electronics,
wherein each electronic computer comprises one and the same software layer, which, on receipt of an event, carries out the following steps:
at a first instant, sending to each of the other electronic computers of a first signal (ACK) attesting the reception of the said event by the said electronic computer, one and only one of the electronic computers sending a stamp representative of the said first instant;
a second instant termed “TimeOut ACK”, if the said electronic computer has not received at least one of the first signals emanating from one of the other electronic computers, sending of a second so-called failure signal (FAIL) to each of the other electronic computers attesting the absence of reception of the said first signal;
t a third instant termed “TimeOut GARANTEED”, if a second so-called failure signal has been received by the said electronic computer, absence of taking into account of the event by the said electronic computer and if no failure signal has been received by the said electronic computer, taking into account of the event, according to the temporal order defined by the stamp, by the data processing electronics of the said electronic computer.

2 . The method of guaranteed reception and of processing of an event according to claim 1 , wherein, when two events of the same functional value are sent successively, the second event is taken into account by the software layers of the electronic computers only if the previous event is abandoned or processed by the data processing electronics of the said electronic computers.

3 . The method of guaranteed reception and of processing of an event according to claim 1 , wherein the plurality of electronic computers operating in a cyclic manner, the number of cycles elapsing between the reception of the physical event and the possible taking into account by the various processing electronics of the electronic computers is of the order of five.

4 . The method of guaranteed reception and of processing of an event according to claim 1 , wherein the event emanates from the man-machine control interfaces of the avionics system.

Assignees

• Thales Sa

Inventors

• Treuchot Stéphane

Classifications

• G06F11/1641 Primary

  where the comparison is not performed by the redundant processing components · CPC title

• H04L1/1607 Primary

  Details of the supervisory signal · CPC title

• H04L7/048

  using the properties of error detecting or error correcting codes, e.g. parity as synchronisation signal · CPC title

• H04L2012/4028

  the transportation system being an aircraft · CPC title

• G06F2201/845

  Systems in which the redundancy can be transformed in increased performance · CPC title