Fast Packet Switch System (FPSS)

Systems & Processes Engineering (SPEC), together with the COMSAT Laboratories, proposes to develop FPSS as dual use technology to support a flyable fast packet switch communications package applicable to a small, low cost commercial or military satellite. Such a flight demonstration would support technology insertion for the 1998-1999 DSCS program or other military satellite systems. Fast packet switching is a connectionless switching mechanism, in which data packets are routed from uplink to downlink beams according to the routing information contained in the packet header. Its main characteristic is self-routing without network control station or onboard network controller. Packets generated from the same data source and transmitted in the same uplink slot can be routed to different downlink beams. Fast packet satellite switching has a number of advantages over circuit switching but requires traffic flow and congestion control to minimize buffer overflow at the satellite. The SPEC/COMSAT lab. team will analyze/synthesize the key parameters of FPSS to support ASIC implementation in CMOS and/or GaAs chip and multichip module (MCM) technology. FPSS supports a military concept for fast packet satellite switching, identifies and resolves critical system design issues, identifies development areas, and designs of a candidate fast packet satellite switch.