Wireless-SpaceWire bridge for intrasatellite transmissions

Abstract

The scope of this paper is to present the proof-of-concept and functional verification of a Wireless-SpaceWire bridge (High-Throughput Wireless-SpaceWire Bridge for Intra-Satellite Transmissions [HiSAT] bridge) designed to replace the wired SpaceWire (SpW) connections for intraspacecraft communications. To provide proper data handling and conversion, the proposed solution implements two main components: (1) the SpW Converter, which provides the SpW interface, and (2) the Wireless Converter, which provides the multiantenna radio frequency (RF) front-end. High-end research infrastructure is used in the solution implementation. STAR-Dundee SpW products emulate real spacecraft instrumentation and implement the SpW links and interfaces. Xilinx FPGA ZCU102 boards are used for the implementation of the hardware/software communication stack of the SpW Converter. A comprehensive National Instruments USRP Software Defined Radio platform is used to implement the Wireless Converter. End-to-end laboratory tests are run to evaluate the performance of the proposed solution in terms of average end-to-end delay, average data rate, and packet success rate and to assess the technology readiness. The results demonstrate that the HiSAT bridge is TRL4 and that the technological approach (i.e., using FPGAs and OFDM transmissions) can successfully replace an on-board intraspacecraft SpW link.