Much of IEEE-1394’s success came with the development of IEEE-1394b-2002, which specified several key features that when coupled with SAE Standard AS5643 created a deterministic, robust, and redundant system architecture that meets most A&D requirements for a hard real-time control bus. Technology suitability studies are common within the A&D industry for specific subsystems such as flight control, mission systems, and avionics to measure how technology meets stringent requirements; this document highlights several criteria often used to evaluate I/O technologies an how 1394 coupled with AS5643 meet them.

IEEE-1394 was first standardized in 1995. Major updates were completed in 2000 (IEEE-1394a-2000), 2002 (IEEE-1394b-2002), and in 2008 (IEEE-1394-2008). IEEE-1394-2008 Beta refined and extended IEEE-1394b-2002. It defines operation from S100 (98.304 Mb/s) to S3200 (3.932 Gb/s). Given this wide range of throughput options, 1394 is suitable for vehicle management and avionic and mission system networks including Electro-Optic/Infrared (EO/IR) sensor interfaces.