Deterministic Ethernet VPX 3U/6U Switches for Open Integrated Architectures

VPX, as a switched fabric, supports the design of advanced integrated systems using technologies such as deterministic Ethernet. Deterministic Ethernet can be used in backplane and backbone applications. In cases where functional interrelationships and Ethernet network bandwidth sharing is deterministic and all logical links among critical function have configurable quality of service with guaranteed timing, the complexity challenges in design of advanced integrated architectures can be much simpler to handle and mitigate. VPX switches in 3/6U format with ARINC664 and SAE AS6802 services enable deterministic integration of many critical functions hosted on common embedded computing and networking resources. Both ARINC664 (asynchronous real-time) and SAE AS6802 (synchronous hard real-time), as Layer 2 enhancements, do not affect existing Ethernet services. They are compliant with all standard Ethernet physical layers for backbone and backplane networks, including those described in VPX (VITA 46) and VITA 48. They are also compliant with higher OSI Layers 3-6, and can be easily used in design of open and generic integrated architectures using VPX standards. This enables the design of truly open and flexible modular embedded systems, which can host hard real-time, real-time, and soft-time functions. Incremental modernization is fully supported, and new functions can be added without influencing already integrated capabilities.