Large Area Network for On-Line Health Monitoring

Innovative Dynamics, Inc. (IDI) proposes to develop the POWERLAN network-a digital communications network that runs over existing DC power lines. Many aircraft/spacecraft systems have bandwidth limitations on their communications buses such as ARINC 429, ARINC 629, and/or MIL-STD-1553. While emerging fiber-optic buses such as MIL-STD-1773 could meet this need, retrofitting such networks to existing vehicles will be expensive because of infrastructure changes required to accommodate high speed serial communications. Moreover, these high-speed networks are overkill for systems not directly involved in time-critical vehicles control. Suitable examples include sub-system health monitors, damage detection sensor, and payload status monitors. These systems could be more inexpensively controlled or monitored over a network running on the existing powerbus wiring. The POWERLAN network would allow any number of sub-systems network access, limited only by signal strength and addressing limitations imposed by the selected software link protocol. Phase I will develop a prototype network and demonstrate feasibility on simulated DC powerlines. This effort will lead to a full scale implementation and installation of the system on a suitable testbed vehicle for field testing during Phase II.