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IFE380
A380 In-flight Entertainment System (IFE) Simulation

Application Scope

The IFE380 simulation program, which simulates the behavior of an In-flight Entertainment System (IFE) head end equipment, is used to test and validate the data exchange to and from the Cabin Intercommunication Data System (CIDS) serving as UUT. The IFE380 simulation supports the following main functions:

  • Configuration using stand-alone panels
  • Loading of configuration data from files
  • Exchange of cabin layout data
  • Reception of update requests from CIDS
  • Transmission of service requests to CIDS
  • Monitoring of cyclic labels and protocol
  • Optional full ARINC 429 data logging
  • Optional hardware emulation of the keylines
  • Protocol error stimulation

The simulation is implemented in the platform-independent TCL/Tk script language. Presently, there are versions for the following software and hardware platforms:

  • Windows XP / 2000/ ME / NT / 98
  • A429 hardware PCI or PCC (PCMCIA)
  • ADS2 using an IP429 on a MVME162 IP carrier

GUI Overview

The IFE380 simulation application is comprised of a set of control, configuration and display panels, all integrated in a single container window. Due to the large amount of data required for the A380, some of the panels use lower-level container windows. The bottom section, but not in the ADS2 version, contains controls to terminate the IFE simulation and to start and stop the IFE recording file.

In the following each of the panel types will be presented in brief.

Cabin layouts – These interactive panels consist of both of the following layouts, each for the Upper Deck and Main Deck:

  • Typical A380-800 passenger cabin layouts, comprising up to 63 rows with up to 8 seats each, arranged in 8 color-coded zones.
  • All theoretical passenger seats comprising 63 rows with 15 seats each arranged in 8 zones. Non-smoking zones are indicated by blue bars. At startup the header and zoning data is retrieved from the CIDS LRU. All these panels have an interactive area allowing interchange of seat data with the CIDS.


Room layouts – each of these panels displays 8 of the 64 A380 rooms, each room has a block of 15x15 seats. These panels have the same interactive features as the Cabin Layouts panels.

Signs panels – each of these panels displays the current states of the Signs, Alerts, Illumination Modes and Compartment Status as set by the CIDS director for the various zones and rooms, 8 rooms or zones per panel

Config/PAX resets – This panel is used to:

  • set protocol characteristics
  • select the equipment ID
  • define the protocol timing
  • submit PAXCALL RESET commands
  • display the current CIDS general status


CIDS cyclic labels – This panel is used to:

  • display the current values and timing data for the CIDS periodic labels
  • display the current CIDS equipment ID and General Status


Music/Keylines – This panel is used to:

  • display and manipulate the keyline data (only if the optional hardware is available)
  • interactively change the IFE Theme Music Scenarios and PA sources.


Enquiries – this panel is used to:

  • request data updates (ENQUIRY requests to CIDS).
  • display the timing of the data exchanges, not only during the complete UPDATE request sequence but also during single IFE data requests.
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