TIME SYNCHRONIZATION MECHANISMS FOR SPACEFIBRE NETWORKS

Real-time requirements are very important for most aerospace systems. To support real-time mechanisms, time synchronization is required throughout the network, in all network devices. SpaceFibre is developed for aerospace networks. However, the current version of this standard does not include any time synchronization mechanism. In this article, we look at the time synchronization mechanisms supported by the standards currently used for aerospace systems, and suggest several mechanisms for time synchronization in SpaceFibre networks. We present estimates of the achievable synchronization accuracy for the proposed mechanisms. The paper proposes the implementation of these mechanisms based on a dynamically reconfigurable unit of the local time controller. This implementation made it possible to evaluate the achievable characteristics of all proposed mechanisms. It is planned to use it in further research, since it provides the ability to reconfigure to implement other modes. In this paper, we show that in different networks it may be appropriate to use different synchronization mechanisms depending on the user’s requirements. Our implementation with dynamic reconfiguration provides the ability to use various mechanisms, including when implemented using ASIC technology.