The Future of Safe and Secure Aerospace Systems

By Christian Fidi, TTTech Aerospace
EETimes Europe (April 26, 2023)

Next-generation aircraft and spacecraft are generating big data from high-resolution sensors. They are interconnected with other vehicles and are able to securely access clouds. The need for safety and dependability is increasing, even as the aerospace regulatory framework for certification becomes stricter. Modern aircraft and spacecraft not only are generating much more data but also require data from other networks to which they are connected. This is crucial for autonomous operations as well as for processing and visualizing data for operators and sharing it with other vehicles.

Along with lots of processing power, such data-heavy systems need high-bandwidth communication capability within the vehicle and secure connectivity between vehicles, as well as to ground infrastructure. These requirements apply to all types of aircraft as well as to spacecraft. Technology development for these platforms therefore involves a high degree of complexity to fulfill the increased demand for digitalization. The technologies used to enable safe operations and capture massive amounts of data from the vehicle in a secure way throughout the operation are key, but it can take years to develop such technologies and certify that they meet the applicable aerospace standards.

To overcome this challenge, the industry is evolving open standards and reference architectures, allowing the integration of different technologies with defined interfaces.

Over the years, Ethernet has become the established standard for all high-speed communication within these applications. Together with 5/6G technology, it allows manufacturers and their system suppliers to build a vehicle network with the needed quality of service and connect it to the cloud. Nevertheless, the need to ensure security, safety, reliability and data availability throughout the network—while key to the success of any aircraft or spacecraft program—is still a challenge. To mitigate delays and cost overruns, the interoperability of the essential building blocks of a system and the connectivity to other systems must be ensured at the outset of development.

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