After watching the Nova special on the Joint Strike Fighter, I got to thinking - is on a typical modern jet fighter, there has to be tons of data being used by various computer systems on the plane itself.
I was wondering if these planes used packet based data routing, perhaps even using TCP/IP packets. This is how the internet works, and internet was originally designed to withstand large network outages, including potential nuclear attack. This packet-based data delivery system ensures (in theory) that data can be rerouted around trouble spots.
It seems to me that in a combat plane, which might take on some damage during battle, this same packet-based data delivery system would be a good idea.
Not sure about military planes, but a similar technology exists in modern automobiles. The Controller Area Network Bus is used in many vehicles to handle the interaction of the various computer devices (ECU, radio, ABS, etc.)
The CAN Bus has many similar requirements to the airplane bus you talk about (high electrical noise, etc.) so it might be a good place to start looking.
Phillips CAN Bus information
CAN Bus specification
For what it’s worth, I work in the telco office that manages fast packet traffic for a certain nearby government, which I won’t name in the interests of national security. Most of their MAN links are fiber & sonet rings, to reduce susceptibility to eavesdropping or EMP radiation.