The Architecture of SpaceFibre Bridges, which Provides the Ability to Synchronize Time between Different Standards
Elena A. Suvorova, Alexey Vinogradov · 2024
The SpaceFibre standard includes a rich set quality of service (QoS) mechanisms, which makes it suitable for Time Sensitive networks (TSN), Delay- and Disruption-tolerant networks (DTN). In particular, SpaceFibre has a broadcast message mechanism that can be used to synchronize time with high accuracy, which is important for these classes of networks. However, it may be necessary to connect terminal nodes and subnets with interfaces corresponding to such widespread standards as Ethernet, PCIe, USB to SpaceFibre networks. To connect them, it is necessary to use bridges between these standards and SpaceFibre. When developing such bridges, one of the most important issues is the issue of time synchronization between different subnets. In this article, we propose an approach to the implementation of bridges that ensures the accuracy of time synchronization in tens of ns. It is based on the use of a synchronization controller with RISC V architecture in bridges. This provides the ability to implement various time synchronization algorithms in the bridge.