Investigation of a high-speed serial bus between satellite subsystems
FRANCOIS P. RETIEF · SUNScholar (Stellenbosch University) · 2003
ENGLISH ABSTRACT: The aim of this thesis is to investigate the implementation of a high-speed serial bus based on the IEEE Std 1394-1995 specification for use in a microsatellite. Earth observation microsatellites carry imagers (or cameras) that take photographs of the earth. Each photograph generates a large volume of digital data that has to be transferred to either a storage device, a RF transmission unit or a video processing device. Traditionally, the connection between such systems were dedicated serial bus systems that were custom designed for just that purpose. This thesis will investigate the the implementation of a generic alternative to such a custom serial bus. The IEEE 1394 serial bus will allow many devices and subsystems to be connected to the serial bus and will allow these different subsystems to exchange data between each other. As an example implementation, a real-time video link between two points using the IEEE 1394 serial bus will be developed.