To meet the Navys need for innovative transport interfaces, Accipiter Systems is proposing a unified passive optical core-based transport system able to provide connectivity over distances greater than 200 feet between the elements of an Electronic Warfare System (EWS), namely RF digitizing front end equipment, DSP/FPGA signal processing equipment, data processing equipment and storage at overall capacities in the multiple terabytes per second. The transport is based on photonic switching; information is switched based solely on the wavelength upon which the data stream is modulated. As a result, the transport is protocol transparent and therefore able to support multiple protocols simultaneously. Two main classes of protocols have been identified, those transporting raw digitized RF data and those transferring network data. In the latter case, the system is able to support any of the common protocols such as PCIe, 10/40/100 Gbps Ethernet, Fibre Channel, etc. The system core uses no power; the end systems use low power optical transmitters and receivers to reduce the overall energy demand in providing this connectivity. It is expected that this system will meet or exceed the target 40% reduction in SWaP in comparison with current EWS.
Benefit: If the overall project is successful, Accipiter Systems will have demonstrated the key underlying technology from which a complete terabyte optical transport system that meets the SBIR topic requirements can be developed in a Phase III project. It will also have made a significant contribution to the development of key component technologies that will benefit the commercial potential of Photonic networking especially in data center fabrics, a multi-billion dollar opportunity.
Keywords: AWGR, AWGR, wavelength routing, Electronic Warfare system elements transport system. Digitized RF transport, Terabyte per second Optical Networking, PCIe transport. Low SWaP, multicast
