Space Plug-and-Play Compatible Wireless Avionics

The Space Plug-and-play Avionics (SPA) approach initiated by the Air Force Research Laboratory supports an à la carte method of constructing arbitrarily complex arrangements of virtually any sensor or actuator type. However, SPA still relies on many physical wire harnesses to interconnect modules and panels. We propose to pursue the ultimate interconnection flexibility by removing all physical data wires. In the proposed design, all of the data streams on an ASIM that are currently going a SPA-S connector will be connected to a built-in ultra wideband (UWB) transceiver. The baseband signal generated by this transceiver will go through a built-in front end to a dual antenna port. All ASIMs can use their wireless links to communicate with each other directly. UWL can achieve 480 Mbps --- sufficient for transmitting SPA-S’s 400-Mbps data. We propose to add a backup communication link by coupling the same baseband signal into the existing power line. A fail-over mechanism will automatically transmit the data through the Power Line Link when the wireless link fails. The proposed hybrid SPA scheme (SPA-H) can reduce launch systems’ weight, development cost, operational cost, development risk, and operational risk.