The vision of hardware interoperability at the tactical edge, from air platforms to ground vehicles to base stations, is now being realized. Because MOSA [modular open systems approach] is an approach and not itself a standard, solutions that support this vision can be achieved through many different means as long as interfaces and communications protocols are based on open standards. There remains a key area to address, though, to achieve seamless interoperability between heterogeneous systems. Consider, for example, the Sensor Open Systems Architecture (SOSA) Technical Standard: While most aspects of sensor processing system architectures are well-defined within SOSA, one area that has not been rigidly defined is the network configuration and operational environment of individual cards and modules.

For rugged DSP [digital signal processing] processor cards, it is important to have a balance between processor performance, memory bandwidth, I/O bandwidth, and ruggedization. Deficiencies in any of these attributes will limit the achievable performance. Due to limited real estate available on 3U OpenVPX boards, designers and users must make tradeoffs on which dimensions to maximize and/or minimize.

A software-defined WAN (SD-WAN) can establish a data fabric capable of dealing with any tactical edge scenario where reliable WAN is needed.

Many defense and aerospace processing systems are upgraded or refreshed rather than replaced for cost efficiency and to reduce out-of-service time.

Secure wireless communications (SWC) technology for vehicle-to-vehicle (V2V) and vehicle-to-end user device (V2E) communication is useful for tactical environments as it improves network flexibility and operational maneuverability while reducing management complexity and cost. As seen in the commercial market, securely implementing wireless local area network (WLAN) communication opens the door for innovative solutions to existing and future operational challenges.

Virtualization software and model-based design provide a path that not only enables system designers to maintain legacy software for avionics and other mission-critical systems but also makes it possible to migrate that code to modern higher-performance processing platforms, for example from an older PowerPC-based VME board over to a new x86 or Arm-based VME or OpenVPX module.

ASHBURN, Va. – March 14, 2022 – Curtiss-Wright's Defense Solutions division, a leading supplier of modular open systems approach (MOSA) solutions engineered to succeed, today introduced the Parvus DuraCOR Pi, the embedded industry’s first Raspberry Pi (RPi) powered mission computer for defense and aerospace applications.