Challenges and Solutions for Testing Modern Optically Networked Weapon Systems

Current weapon system assemblies that operate in high bandwidth optical networks are driving the need for new test methods and capabilities. In the past, the number of networked assemblies has been small with a limited number of I/O ports and data bandwidth requirements. Modern networks include many assemblies with numerous I/O and high bandwidth data intensive computing, where fiber optics is the preferred technology that meets these requirements. The sensitivity of optical networks and transceivers to maintenance and environmentally induced degradation creates challenges for Automated Test System (ATS) in assuring that any given Weapon Replaceable Assembly (WRA) can work properly and repeatably with any other WRA across multiple platforms of the same type. Meeting this challenge requires high bandwidth (10GB+) instruments capable of sending, receiving, processing and storing large amounts of data coupled with Optical Network Performance Verification. ATS must also be capable of switching these high bandwidth instruments across large number of optical IO while verifying the Unit Under Test (UUT) performance across the full range of optical operating parameters. This paper will discuss these problems, solutions and relevance to the Defense and Aerospace industry.