Products » SBB Emulator

SwiftBroadband Arinc 781 Emulator

Inmarsat’s SwiftBroadband (SBB) service enables remote communications services on aircraft. But testing new services over the satellite system is very expensive. TriaGnoSys’ SwiftBroadband Emulator simulates the real satcom and satellite IP network’s behaviour, meaning true system tests can go ahead without real hardware or a satellite connection. The cost of using TriaGnoSys’ SBB Emulator is around 10% of the cost of using a SBB modem and satellite airtime. It also enables thorough testing of new systems under lab conditions.

TriaGnoSys’ SBB Emulator simulates the Arinc 781 Attachment 5 interface, providing system developers with a cost-effective way of testing new inflight connectivity applications. The SBB Emulator allows the Test Controller to replicate satellite link characteristics: Delay: packets can be delayed by a specified amount of time, given in milliseconds Jitter: variation in the delay is induced Drop: packets are dropped, both with a given probability and through a filter, whereby specific packets are dropped Duplicates: packet duplication can be simulated during context switching Bandwidth limitation: link bandwidth is set to the negotiated QoS This allows a more systematic assessment of the behaviour of the System Under Test (SUT) than when using a live satellite link, since any problems occurring during a live link are not within the control of the tester and nor are they repeatable.

The SBB Emulator modem interfaces to the SUT via an Ethernet port, which responds to SBB signalling and routes IP traffic through the SBB simulator. The SUT requests modem contexts from the emulator, in exactly the same way it would from a real modem. Protocols used between the SUT and the emulator modem are based on the Arinc 781 attachment 5 standard: PPP/PPPoE Telnet SNMP The SBB Emulator can also simulate unsuccessful signalling and failures. Block diagram of the simulator click to enlarge Product Sheet: SwiftBroadband Emulator product sheet (pdf)