"Avionics Full-Duplex Switched Ethernet (AFDX) is an Ethernet-based data network that provides deterministic performance, high reliability, and lower costs and development time by utilizing commercial off-the-shelf networking components. As AFDX networks have become of the network are continually being evaluated. There are two main types of solutions to improving network performance: changes to the physical layer and changes to the logical layer. Because the physical network is setup prior to defining the data that is transferred on the network, logical layer optimization becomes important and is often the only viable solution. Previous research has explored optimization of different aspects of the logical solution for a given target (whether it be latency or bandwidth), however, an approach for a customizable target using optimization techniques has not been attempted. In this work, we provide an overview of AFDX networks and discuss factors engineers consider while optimizing the network. Previously researched solutions are evaluated for effectiveness. We identify the need for an optimization solution that allows for a customizable objective to account for both message latency and bandwidth. To fill this gap, we consider the problem of assigning messages to virtual links, which are configurable, logical unidirectional links from publishing end systems to one or more subscribing end systems. We propose a flexible framework based on particle swarm optimization (PSO) that performs message to virtual link assignment in AFDX networks to optimize a user-defined objective. We discuss and provide results on PSO optimization for a range of hyperparameters. Finally, results for a sample swarm are presented to prove the feasibility and usefulness of the proposed approach."--Page ii.
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