With the increasing use of AdvancedTCA and the rise of SA Forum middleware implementations in mil/aero applications, the HPI and AIS specifications are in turn increasingly being adopted by the mil/aero industry. A number of defense implementations using AIS have appeared in the last 2-3 years. The U.S. Navy has adopted the SA Forum AIS specification as the core of its high-availability requirements for its objective architecture efforts to create commonality and reuse across combat systems.

In early 2010, SA Forum member company GoAhead Software announced partnering with Global Technical Systems (GTS) and Northrop Grumman (NGC) to support the Navy’s Common Processing System program. The SA aspects of the system are based on SA Forum specifications and integrate GoAhead’s SAFfire solution, ensuring continuous service of warfighter systems without loss of service or data. Pre-SA Forum versions of GoAhead’s software, Self-Reliant, have already been deployed through Lockheed Martin’s work on the LCS COMBATSS-21 combat system, and with the Royal Australian Navy for installation of the Aeigis system aboard the Australian Hobart-class air warfare destroyers.

The next generation of SA middleware is taking shape through the OpenSAF open source project. This project was formally launched in early 2008 and has since gathered significant industry backing. GoAhead Software has embraced this industry move and announced a commercial distribution of OpenSAF: OpenSAFfire. This includes contribution of many of the key concepts of its SAFfire and Self-Reliant products to the project to enhance the code base. The upcoming release 4.0 of OpenSAF incorporates the latest specifications from the SA Forum in a highly modular architecture, which is expected to form the basis for next-generation implementations, and the migration of existing applications into an open SA environment.

Building Block Ecosystem Approach

It is important to understand that open specifications provide key benefits in building and creating service available systems in the diverse application areas of military and aerospace. The building block ecosystem approach of AdvancedTCA and the SA Forum specifications enables system designers to leverage the commercial ecosystem, yet provide their own value-add and expertise in specific areas without having to design the whole system. This not only leads to cost-effective and more rapid development timeframes, but enables system upgrades as new generations of blades appear based on the latest technology. With a common SA infrastructure based on SA Forum specifications, applications can be ported, combined and updated in a much more seamless manner. With a common system infrastructure, the management of many aspects of these systems can be aligned, saving time, money and reducing the need for specialized training on all aspects of each individual system.

As network-centric defense operations continue to evolve and increase in importance, the complexity of next-generation systems could produce a myriad of unforeseen outages across diverse applications. It is expected that the requirements for five-nines service availability and higher, along with increased usage of commercial systems and open specifications building blocks, will continue to grow in the military and aerospace segments. AdvancedTCA and the SA Forum specifications are key elements in the effective use of commercial ecosystems for service availability. The resulting enhancement of system transparency and reliability will eliminate the dramatic outages and confusion about their causes and offer cost and time saving benefits.  

SA Forum
Beaverton, OR.
(503) 619-0576.
[www.saforum.org].