A Fault-Tolerant Middleware Switch for Space Applications

Abstract

Typical data systems for space applications are computer-centric. The central component is a computer to which several devices are attached. The computer handles devices, communication, computation and storage of data. Furthermore, fault-tolerance is an important issue in space systems. This paper presents a novel multicast embedded middleware switch which at the first implementation is fully implemented on an FPGA. SRAM-based FPGAs are very susceptible to SEUs stemmed from radiation effects in space, therefore considering fault-tolerance is inevitable. High capability of this switch to handle different interfaces in form of an integrated single system together with its fault-tolerance feature makes it very suitable for space data handling applications.