Rydal Research proposes to develop and demonstrate a high performance hardware based multi-level secure fiberoptic backbone for next generation Navy aircraft. The network will be based on a high-performance COTS protocol. Multi-level security will be implemented by adding a sensitivity field 0x9D to the Logical Layer header within the existing protocol. Packet filtering will be performed at the endpoints and switches, so that no single failure will result in classified data being revealed. Feasibility and performance will be demonstrated by fine-grain modeling and simulation. Key networking components including switches and interfaces to one or more legacy data buses will be designed and demonstrated in an FPGA environment. Timing results from the hardware synthesis and place-and-route for these key components will be used to achieve realistic performance predictions from the simulation models. In addition, an FPGA-based network prototype will be demonstrated in Phase I to verify simulation results. The components that will be developed in the Phase I effort together with Rydals existing line of high-performance networking products will provide a full network solution that offers all the necessary building blocks needed to realize a complete system.
Benefit: The development of this system will benefit the Navy in a number of ways. First, the incorporation of multi-level security in hardware directly into the communications channel will result in low latency needed for real-time performance. Second, a number of precedents have been established for the certification of systems based on this technique. The existence of these precedents can speed the certification process and substantially reduce development cost and time. Third, the full network solution approach will provide the system implementer with all key building blocks ranging from cores to chips and subsystems needed to realize a complete system with low risk and cost. Fourth, the early development of useable FPGA-based products in Phase I will allow system integrators to use Phase I development boards to develop and evaluate prototype systems while the Phase II effort is progressing. Finally, the approach is extremely flexible, so that it may be used with a number of current or future high-performance network protocols.
Keywords: Low-latency networks, Low-latency networks, Optical backbone, High-performance protocols, Fiber optics, Multi-level Security
