High-criticality and Design Assurance Level (DAL)-certifiable time-sensitive networking (TSN) networks for flight-critical systems may be a few years out, as any new technology takes time to harden and then prove airworthiness to the certification authorities. But for the large number of mission systems on today’s networked platforms, TSN can bring long-awaited time awareness to Ethernet communications. TSN is a critical technology now undergoing wider adoption, holding great promise as a transformative technology for connected systems. To be successful, industry must work together to align with common specifications and use cases to ensure interoperability. 

Defense platforms are becoming smaller, more modular, and more distributed. Whether stabilizing a remote weapon station, driving a missile launcher, or controlling a compact turret, today’s systems demand precise, reliable motion control in extremely constrained environments.

This week’s product, the Curtiss-Wright Defense Solutions VPX3-656 3U VPX Ethernet switch, brings deterministic networking to rugged defense and aerospace systems with its Time Sensitive Networking (TSN) capabilities that are aligned with the IEEE 802.1DP Aerospace Profile. The VPX3-656 is also aligned to the Sensor Open Systems Architecture (SOSA) Technical Standard, making it ideal for sensor processing systems, rugged network-centric ground and airborne systems, sensor fusion and distributed mission processing, and autonomous systems.

ASHBURN, Virginia.  A Curtiss-Wright 3U OpenVPX offering aligned to the Sensor Open Systems Architecture, or SOSA, Technical Standard, the VPX3-656 time-Sensitive Networking (TSN) 10G Ethernet switch, delivers assured deterministic performance to standard Ethernet systems for aerospace and defense applications.

DAVIDSON, North Carolina. As military ground vehicles add more radios, sensors, electronic warfare systems, assured-positioning, navigation, and timing equipment, artificial intelligence compute, and autonomy functions, power delivery and thermal management are becoming central integration challenges for vetronics suppliers, a Curtiss-Wright official told Military Embedded Systems.

VPX-based solutions have been deployed in signal-processing-intensive military applications like radar and electronic warfare (EW) for more than a decade, but the adoption of the VITA standard has been slow in Europe. Meanwhile, the more recently ratified small-form-factor VNX standard is already getting interest from European military system designers.