Lessons Learned in Using COTS for Real Time High Speed Data Distribution

Abstract

Currently, there is a large effort being placed on the use of commercial-off-the-shelf (COTS) equipment to satisfy dedicated system requirements. This emphasis is being pursued in the quest of reducing overall system development costs. The development activity discussed in this paper consisted of determining some of the boundaries and constraints in the use of COTS equipment for high speed data distribution. This paper will present some of the lessons learned in developing a real-time high speed (greater than 1 MByte/sec) data distribution subsystem using COTS equipment based on industry accepted standards and POSIX P1003.1 operating system compliance.