High-speed Serial SpaceFibre link Software Evaluation

Abstract

SpaceFibre is an emerging standard for onboard spacecraft communication. Cobham Gaisler has recently developed an IP core to communicate through a SpaceFibrelink. However, no software driver API to use the IP is currently available. By using SpaceFibre the speed of communication can be increased by up to 15 times compared to the previously used SpaceWire. This increased speed could enable more data to be sent from sensors quicker for processing at the onboard computer.Currently, few other drivers for SpaceFibre exist and there is little benchmarking for how well it actually performs. The aim of this thesis was to design a software driver to benchmark the actual performance and validate the SpaceFibre IP developed atCobham Gaisler. To accomplish this an external tool, developed by the creators ofthe SpaceFibre standard, was used: the STAR Fire Mk3. With this tool, a test using the driver designed in this thesis was performed where the STAR Fire Mk3 was used to measure the statistics and act as both a recipient and transmitter of messages. As a result, it was found that the IP core does reach speeds up to 1.91 Gbps for reception and 1.5 Gbps for transmission with a link running at effectively 2 Gbps. Using this the user can reach speeds of at least ten times the speed of SpaceWire, and including all the standardised quality of service the protocol provides.