The Implications for Network Switch Design in a Networked FTI Data Acquisition System

Abstract

Switches are a critical component in any networked FTI data acquisition system in order to allow the forwarding of data from the DAU to the target destination devices such as the network recorder, PCM gateways, or ground station. Commercial off the shelf switches cannot meet the harsh operating conditions of FTI. This paper describes a hardware implementation of a crossbar switching architecture that meets the reliability and performance requirements of FTI equipment. Moreover, by combining the crossbar architecture with filtering techniques, the switch can be configured to achieve sophisticated forwarding operations. By way of illustration, a Gigabit network tap application is used to demonstrate the fundamental concepts of switching, forwarding, crossbar architecture, and filtering.