The Boeing Company

Brian C Thompson

Andrew Paul Riha

Ketao Liu

Christopher Andre Mouton

Richard Louis Singleton

Christopher J Epple

A spacecraft network management system includes five functional entities, namely, attendant, accessor, collector, logic, and logic watchdog in a distributed architecture configured with both in-band and out-of-band data paths. Management data is structured so that it can travel over either in-band or out-of-band and be identified as such; user data travels over in-band paths. These five entities are distributed over the units of the design and then a modified set of otherwise standard elements are assigned to each entity depending on the nature of its function. These elements include managers, management agents, device agents, device management information base, and manager management information base that enable the entities to perform their respective functions.

Spacecraft network management system and method

A system and method for SpaceWire network management are disclosed involving a network and a network manager (NM). The network includes a plurality of switches and a plurality of nodes. The switches and nodes do not have any preprogrammed knowledge of the network topology and/or of their unit identification (UID) code. In one or more embodiments, the network is a spacecraft communications network. In at least one embodiment, the method for managing the SpaceWire network comprises the network manager (NM) determining link connectivity of the network; verifying the switches are properly configured to allow for logical address routing; and verifying the nodes are configured to process, receive, and transmit data through the network. In some embodiments, the method further comprises determining newly added units, removed units, and/or unresponsive units in the network, and propagating this information through an active unit table.

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Lone Tree, CO, United States of America

Brian C Thompson