Benchmarking Spacewire Networks

Measuring and comparing performance, cost, and other attributes of SpaceWire networks is a significant challenge. A new benchmark for SpaceWire-based satellites is presented. The benchmark contains a potential architecture of a multi-mission satellite, as well as specifications of the traffic flow. The proposed benchmark is demonstrated on an OPNET-based network simulation for various network configurations. The simulated SpaceWire network supports priority in multiple alternative manners: (1) a simple SpaceWire network that ignores priority, (2) a network that supports packet priority according to the SpaceWire specifications, (3) a nonstandard support for N-Char interleaving on multiple virtual channels, and (4) support for both packet priority and N-Char interleaving.