The DAPHNE project is about photonic networks and components for aircraft. The project aims to exploit photonic technology from terrestrial communications networks and to identify and address technology gaps in implementing photonics extensively throughout the aircraft industry. The project brings together avionic equipment and aircraft manufacturers with photonic industry members and academic network specialists.

Aircraft data networks have increased dramatically in complexity throughout the history of powered flight. Modern networks must support many nodes with a wide range of span lengths, bandwidths and protocols. Existing systems, chiefly based on copper conductors, have evolved to support these ever-increasing demands. These networks have consequently become larger, heavier and more expensive, and this trend is set to continue. A coordinated step change to fibre optics would reduce network size, weight and cost and improve the modularity, flexibility and scalability. Moreover, fibre brings many other advantages including EMC immunity and improved security. By defining networks according to a DAL-based hierarchy, the flexibility of photonics can be harnessed within the constraints of safety certification restrictions. Terrestrial telecoms provides a rich source of technology. However, R&D is required to adapt terrestrial photonics for aircraft networks.