Patent ID: 8135807

Claim:
A device for simulating a source endpoint for an Aeronautical Radio, Inc (ARINC) 664 aircraft data network having a plurality of end systems, the device comprising: a configuration module; a payload description module; a storage component adapted to store the configuration module and the payload description module; a processor adapted to execute instructions; a plurality of network interface components adapted to communicate with network interface components of corresponding end systems via the aircraft data network; and a user interface component adapted to interact with the processor to: retrieve the configuration module and the payload description module from the storage component; select one or more network interface components to communicate with one or more corresponding end systems; generate a data packet for distribution to the corresponding end systems by executing instructions from the configuration module to define ARINC 664 configurations selected from the group consisting of equipment class, transmit port, receive port, time manager subscriber data, and error detection encoding data for the corresponding end groups and by executing instructions from the payload description module to define an ARINC 664 payload such that the data packet is distributed according to a transmit interval determined by the payload description module instructions; and communicate with the selected network interface components to transmit the generated data packet to the network interface components of the corresponding end systems via the aircraft data network.