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In the past, aircraft network design did not demand for information security considerations. The aircraft systems were simple, obscure, proprietary and, most importantly for security, the systems have been either physically isolated or they have been connected by directed communication links. The union of the aircraft systems thus formed a federated network. These properties are in sharp contrast with today’s system designs, which rest upon platform-based solutions with shared resources being interconnected by a massively meshed and shared communication network. The resulting connectivity and the high number of interfaces require an in-depth security analysis as the systems also provide functions that are required for the safe operation of the aircraft. This network design evolution, however, resulted in an iterative and continuous adaption of existing network solutions as these have not been developed from scratch.

Current communication architectures in the aircraft cabin are mostly proprietary and limited to the boundaries of the diverging systems, i.e. existing cabin systems operate mostly isolated from each other. Modern system design, however, requires a shared communication platform in order to enable novel services by means of a contract-based data and information exchange. Data-driven predictive maintenance applications are one example for which the fundamentals are studied intensively, but its integration into a multi-system environment with respect to communication requirements is often neglected. As the aircraft cabin is a highly dynamic environment with changing air pressure, humidity, temperature, and flight attitude, context information is needed in order to get meaningful predictions for e.g. the Remaining Useful Life (RUL) of a system, component or item.