BOARDS MOSA
Consortium’s goal, to “allow exibility
in the selection and acquisition of
sensors and subsystems that provide
sensor data collection, processing,
exploitation, communication, and
related functions over the full life cycle
of the C4ISR system,” is extremely
important.
The SOSA standards initiative
was initially developed as part of the
FACE consortium. SOSA standards
are compatible with FACE and OMS
standards, and they leverage a
number of VITA standards, including
VITA 65, the OpenVPX standard that
ensures interoperability among the
COTS solutions that are used to create
subsystems and systems.
Increased Interoperability
Modular and ruggedized COTS
solutions provide the interoperability
and exibility that’s needed to
rapidly integrate systems suitable for
deployment in all application spaces.
CMOSS de nes sharing
mechanisms across software,
hardware, and network layers. To
de ne these mechanisms, CMOSS
standards leverage the:
• VICTORY standards for network
interoperability
• OpenVPX standard for combining
cards in a common chassis
• Modular Open RF Architecture
(MORA) standard for sharing RF
resources
• FACE standard for software
portability
There are discussions about
including FACE in the VICTORY Shared
Processing Unit de nition.
With open standards-based COTS
solutions, organisations are no longer
forced to choose the proprietary
offerings of a particular vendor.
Instead, they have the freedom and
exibility to choose solutions from a
far broader selection of vendors who
are operating in a more competitive
environment.
This more competitive landscape
gives system developers access
to a wider range of functionality
combinations, availability
timelines, and price
points so they can keep
programs on spec, on
time, and on budget. They
can also choose the optimal
solution for the challenge at hand,
rather than the only solution offered by
the vendor to which they are tied.
In some cases, it will make sense
from capability and cost perspectives
to choose different solutions from
different vendors and combine them.
As long as each solution is designed
and proven to meet the requirements
in the relevant open standards,
the risk in taking this approach is
manageable. A multivendor strategy
also allows defence and aerospace
organisations to spread risk across
multiple vendors.
Once the system is deployed,
open standards compliance and
interoperability enable faster, easier,
and more frequent technology
refresh cycles. Systems, cards, and
components can simply be swapped
out for updated versions. And, those
updated versions don’t have to come
from the original vendor, providing
the opportunity to incorporate more
sophisticated, SWaP-friendly, or costeffective
replacements.
On a similar theme, the ability
to choose an appropriate solution
from any vendor makes it possible to
obtain and deploy the most up-to-date
technology available to counter or
overmatch a particular threat.
Finally, interoperability among
system components increases
operational availability levels because
it’s much easier to ensure a reliable,
long-term supply chain for spares and
replacement parts. As a result, a total
life cycle management approach can
be adopted that reduces risks and
increases the return on technology
investments over the long term.
Lowering SWaP-C
Space inside a military vehicle is
at a premium, and with such strict
restrictions on what a military vehicle
can t inside, an interior cluttered
with a myriad of systems, cables,
and power supplies limits the
amount of supplies that
can be carried and
hinders the in-vehicle
experience.
This scenario has become
increasingly common as technology
has evolved, resulting from military
vehicles being retro tted with new or
upgraded capabilities. Historically,
adding functionality meant equipping a
vehicle with a new standalone system.
Each of these line replaceable units
(LRUs) came with its own cabling and
power supply, and integrating the LRU
meant nding space to accommodate
all this equipment. What’s more,
nding the space to add a LRU comes
down to more than just physical
volume. The options for placing a new
LRU may be limited by a platform’s
mounts and harnesses, and the
orientation of an LRU’s connectors
can make nding the right space to
accommodate the system a challenge.
Open standards like SOSA and
CMOSS shift electronic systems
away from an LRU model. Instead,
a chassis can be installed to house
LRMs, which can be replaced in
order to upgrade functionality without
changing the system’s physical
footprint or peripherals. In addition,
multiple functionalities can be
incorporated into a single chassis,
greatly reducing the number of
boxes taking up space in a SWaPconstrained
platform. Costs are also
reduced since there are fewer pieces
of equipment to maintain.
The establishment of MOSA for
designing military systems has the
potential to signi cantly change
the landscape for COTS vendors
and their customers. By lowering
costs, fostering interoperability and
competition and delivering cutting
edge technologies to the battle eld
faster, open standards promises to
eld critical new capabilities to the
war ghter. Open architectures open
the door to many new possibilities!
Figure 2: Curtiss-
Wright’s VPX3-1260
is a rugged 3U
OpenVPX single
board computer
based on the highperformance
9th
Gen Intel “Coffee
Lake Refresh” Xeon
E-2276ME processor
Author details:
Paul Garnett,
Curtiss-Wright
Defense Solutions
www.newelectronics.co.uk 23 February 2021 17
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