4. IoT and Service Oriented Infrastructures for Flight 4.0

Flight 4.0 represents a rapidly expanding research domain that brings IoT (Internet of Things) technology in the aviation domain. Based on various engineering domains such as Wireless Sensor Networks (WSNs) and embedded systems, Flight 4.0 systems are characterized by high degree of heterogeneity regarding various perspectives, such as communication, hardware, and software solutions. Additionally, in order to be well accepted by the end users, it is of paramount importance to exhibit high degree of configurability and flexibility so as to be applicable in diverse application scenarios. Aiming to address such objectives, this chapter attempts to identify the main aspects and tendencies toward a holistic end-to-end communication infrastructure for Flight 4.0 systems. In this context, and serving as a roadmap, the respective architectures should offer a homogeneous support to a wide range of WSN communication technologies and protocols, while being able to support time-constrained monitor, control, and configuration of critical Flight 4.0 infrastructure. In addition, such architectures must emphasize on the use of distributed components that are able to offer enhanced fault tolerance performance, a critical aspect for most modern aviation systems.