Next Generation Instrumentation Bus (NexGenBus)
Abstract
Traditionally, DoD has approached instrumentation as an afterthought. This was not because instrumentation was not an important part of the acquisition process, mostly, it was because there was adequate funding for the program and the instrumentation budget was buried in the noise. For years weapons platforms were developed with whatever instrumentation system was desired by the contractor. After EMD, when the test vehicles were turned over to the DoD, a lot of infrastructure was required to maintain sparing levels, maintain support equipment, and keep personnel trained. With today's diminishing defense budget, everything gets scrutinized, including instrumentation. Data requirements are increasing to feed information hungry simulations. At the same time. Local area network (LAN) speeds are reaching 10-100 time current instrumentation busses. Through sheer volume in the computer industry, PC's and peripherals are available at unheard of prices. A good way to keep instrumentation affordable was to leverage off the commercial sector. NexGenBus has researched available commercial busses and found several possible candidates. These candidates were investigated and revealed Fibre Channel as the most promising. Currently, Fibre Channel is being tested and analyzed in more detail to decide if it will be useful as an instrumentation bus.
Document Details
- Document Type
- Technical Report
- Publication Date
- Mar 08, 1999
- Accession Number
- ADA368591
Entities
People
- Sidney R. Jones Jr
Organizations
- Naval Air Warfare Center