Multi-Gb/s Fiberoptic Bus for Spacecraft

NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Pasadena, California

Example of the fault tolerant architecture of a RapidIO interconnect applied to a multiplestage spacecraft such as MSL with Main routing switch for rover, Sub routing switch I for Cruise, and Sub routing switch II for Descent.

A fiberoptic bus interconnect for spacecraft with multi-Gb/s data rate capacity is designed to provide seamless coordinated control and data exchange at typical intra-spacecraft distances. The system is composed of a physical layer and associated firmware for implementing a ring bus communication protocol and a switch-based RapidIO communication protocol.

The system enables intra-spacecraft networks with data rate on the order of 10 Gb/s or more, and reduces mass, power, cost, latency, jitter, and integration and test complexity and cost relative to conventional copper buses. This configuration also significantly reduces EMI (electromagnetic interference) and crosstalk, and uniquely supports distributed control, computation, and processing capability.

This work was done by Hamid Hemmati, Yijiang Chen, and Raphael R. Some of Caltech for NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory.

In accordance with Public Law 96-517, the contractor has elected to retain title to this invention. Inquiries concerning rights for its commercial use should be addressed to: