BENEFITS OF INTRA-VEHICLE DISTRIBUTED NETWORK ARCHITECTURE

Curtiss-Wright has developed an advanced, open system architectural approach to Vehicle Electronics, based on our vast experience in providing military electronics to many programs for ground, sea, and air platforms. This experience has provided Curtiss-Wright with a unique understanding of key architectural concepts which provide for highly successful implementation of specific Vehicle Electronics suites to meet Ground Combat System program and platform requirements. This Open-Standard and COTS based Intra-Vehicle Network Reference Architecture was previously presented the paper “Ground Combat Systems Common Vehicle Electronics Architecture and Applications” (D. Jedynak, et al., 2010) and will be summarized and described in terms of the US Army’s VICTORY Architecture in this paper as a foundation for discussion. Clarification is provided for the differences between federated and distributed architectures with regard to function, and how physical and functional system implementations are decoupled. Key Metrics associated with the concepts of Interoperability, Risk Mitigation, Upgradeability / Obsolescence Mitigation, Scalability, as well as Space, Weight and Power (SWaP) optimization are presented. Advanced Concepts are presented, including Commonality, Thermal Management, Cost Optimization, and Warfighter Benefit.