Highly integrated modular avionics from platform to payload for micro-satellites

Abstract

Low-cost, intelligence and short development cycle has become its trend of small satellites. A hybrid on-board avionics topology based on CAN bus and router was proposed. The telemetry was collected by On-Board Computer (OBC) via CAN bus, while the router integrated RS422, LVDS, Ethernet, Camera Link and TLK2711 interfaces, which support data rate varying from 1Mbps to 10Gbps and usually used by payloads, so it makes regular payloads integrated into the avionics much easier. The OBC used the PowerPC MPC8548 processor, which run at 1GHz. Plug and play mechanism was adopted to make the OBC recognize the devices dynamically when they powered on, which accelerated the system integration; furthermore, the software modules were also allowed to install or uninstall dynamically on-line for flexibility. For the modular and various interfaces supported, payload modules such as GNSS-R receiver, ADS-B receiver and camera electronics was easily integrated into the avionics box, so the signaling were transferred via the backplane instead of cables.