Reliability Increase for Avionics Data Communication

The ARINC 429 protocol stands out in point-to-point interfaces in commercial aviation. Its reliability is guaranteed by dependable installation requirements, achieving failure rates as low as 10-5 or 10-6. Complex systems require processing a high volume of data from several sources, and, to increase the reliability, additional weight is added in the form of redundancy. This article presents a method to include verification bits on ARINC 429 payload for error detection, reducing the rate of undetected errors in the order of 10-2, elevating the overall safety standard, and providing an alternative to avoid weight expenditure. Four different error detection methods (CRC-4, CRC-5, Hamming, and Fletcher Checksum) were applied in a real commercial aircraft avionics system test bench, showing transparency for the information consumer systems. The system safety assessment perspective was also analyzed via a typical triple source system with a voting scheme, demonstrating the method's applicability.