Federated Display Mezzanine Switching for Redundant Fiber Reduction
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Solution Overview
Problem
Existing cockpit-based head down display systems are complex, expensive, and heavy due to redundant fiber optic links, which can lead to loss of functionality if a graphics processor fails, and existing solutions fail to preserve independence across individual processing nodes.
Innovation Solution
A federated display system with a mezzanine board that centralizes fiber optic data links, reducing redundancy and maintaining node independence by using switching fabrics to manage data distribution, thereby minimizing size, weight, and cost while ensuring continued functionality even if individual nodes fail.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Reliability
If redundant fiber optic links are used to ensure system functionality, then reliability is improved, but device complexity and weight increase
Solution Approach 1:
The patent extracts the fiber optic routing logic from individual display nodes and consolidates it into a centralized mezzanine board. The mezzanine board contains switching fabrics that manage all fiber optic connections, removing the complexity of redundant fiber routing from each node while maintaining system reliability through centralized control.
Solution Approach 2:
The mezzanine board acts as an intermediary between display processors and display devices. It manages fiber optic routing and switching, serving as a mediator that handles the complexity of redundant connections centrally rather than at each endpoint, thereby reducing overall system complexity while preserving reliability.
2Device complexity
If fiber optic redundancy is minimized by routing and merging image data, then device complexity is reduced, but node independence is lost
Solution Approach 1:
The patent segments the fiber optic routing function from the display nodes and places it in a separate mezzanine board. This segmentation allows display nodes to remain independent and simple while the mezzanine board handles the complexity of fiber routing and merging through its switching fabrics, preserving both node independence and reduced complexity.
Solution Approach 2:
The mezzanine board serves as an intermediary that enables display nodes to maintain independence. It provides the routing and merging functions that would otherwise require complex fiber management at each node, allowing nodes to operate independently while still achieving efficient fiber utilization through centralized control.
3Reliability
If multiple fiber outputs are used to preserve functionality during processor failure, then reliability is improved, but weight and cost increase
Solution Approach 1:
The patent implements dynamic routing capabilities in the mezzanine board's switching fabrics. This allows the system to dynamically reconfigure fiber connections in response to processor failures, maintaining functionality without requiring static redundant fiber paths for each possible failure scenario, thereby reducing overall fiber weight while preserving reliability.
Solution Approach 2:
The mezzanine board provides universal fiber routing capabilities that serve multiple display processors and devices. A single set of fiber connections in the mezzanine board can be dynamically allocated to different processors as needed, eliminating the need for dedicated redundant fiber paths from each processor and reducing total fiber weight while maintaining functionality during failures.
Data Source
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AI summary
A federated display system includes multiple head down displays (HDD) (102,104,106,108) driven by two or more display processing computers (DPC) (110,112). Each DPC includes two or more display nodes independently managing display processing, graphics generation, and I/O functionality (either within a single processing unit or a multiprocessor environment). Each display node is linked to a mezzanine control plane (MCP) independent of the display nodes, which MCP includes dedicated optical channels to each member HDD of the system and a switching fabric to control the routing of graphical signals from the graphics generators of each node to the optical channel connected to the desired target HDD. The switching fabric includes a master selector for designating any node of a DPC as a master node capable of controlling the switching fabric via its processing control or graphics generation functions.