High Performance, High Reliability Weapons Bus Switch

This proposal seeks to determine the best approach for the design of a high performance, high reliability Fibre Channel switch for use in weapons systems. Most military avionics systems use a standard called MIL-STD-1760E for transferring data between smart stores and weapon payloads/munitions. Existing Fibre Channel systems in use are bulky, slow, and expensive. Fibre Channel is an older spec (finalized in 1994) which was abandoned for a newer technology called InfiniBand in the commercial world. It is the Air Force’s goal to determine the best approach to design and manufacture a fast, reliable, and small Fibre Channel switch using current technology. Luna will perform a survey of currently available, state-of-the-art technology regarding Fibre Channel switches along with investigating some innovative approaches involving adding Quality of Service (QoS) to the existing Fibre Channel transport protocol. We will also explore providing the end user the ability to monitor network performance with statistics using an out-of-band management channel. BENEFIT: Any commercial or military system currently using the Fibre Channel system would benefit from Luna’s research to develop a fast, high reliability, high throughput, inexpensive, fibre channel switch. The Air Force has a current need for such a device. We anticipate developing and refining our approach of adding Quality of Service (QoS) to the existing Fibre Channel transport protocol, as well as exploring the ability of providing the end user the ability to monitor network performance with statistics using an out-of-band management channel. Successful integration would immediately add much needed functionality and speed to current Fibre Channel systems. This would benefits current Fibre Channel users from a cost and functionality perspective by extending the serviceability of currently fielded systems.