STANAG 7221 IP Data Transport System

MIL-STD-1553 specification defines the electrical characteristics of the receivers, transmitters, and cable used to implement the bus, as well as the message protocol. The spectrum on the physical bus occupied by the MIL-STD-1553 protocol is less than 15 Mhz. MIL-STD-1553 has two major limitations. Firstly, it is limited to 1 megabit per second communication bandwidth. While this was considered quite fast in 1973, greater communication bandwidth is required for current compute centric architectures. Secondly, there is no standardized interface for software to use when communicating via MIL-STD-1553. Most software using the MIL-STD-1553 bus needs to be customized for the specific MIL-STD-1553 implementation in use. In 2016 NATO Standard Agreement (STANAG) 7221 for Broadband, Real-Time Data Bus (BRTDB) was introduced. This standard defines a method for using a MIL-STD-1553 compliant bus to provide up to 100Mbps of additional capacity as a separate, independent binary data transport. Thus, STANAG 7221 fixes one of the major shortcomings of MIL-STD-1553, by providing substantially improved communication bandwidth. The problem with the lack of a standardized interface to the hardware remains though—software utilizing the 7221 bus must be customized to a specific vendor’s implementation. Thus, there is a need in the industry for a standardized interface to high-speed, high-reliability communication hardware for military communication aboard aircraft and other platforms.