SpaceFibre Multi-Lane Routing Switch IP

SpaceFibre (ECSS-E-ST-50-11C) is a very high-performance, high-reliability and high-availability network technology specifically designed to meet the needs of space applications. It provides point-to-point and networked interconnections at Gigabit rates with Quality of Service (QoS) and Fault Detection, Isolation and Recovery (FDIR). SpaceFibre has been designed as a replacement of SpaceWire (ECSS-E-ST-50-12C) - it is backwards compatible with SpaceWire at the packet level - for next-generation space missions where very high throughput is required. SpaceFibre provides up to 6.25 Gbit/s per lane, with multi-lane allowing to reach up to 16 times the speed of a single lane. In this work we present the SpaceFibre Multi-Lane Routing Switch IP Core developed by STAR-Dundee and its subsidiary STAR-Barcelona. This IP provides a highly flexible router comprising a number of ports and a fully configurable, non-blocking, high performance, routing switch matrix. The internal ports use AXI4-Stream protocol, and the external ports can implement SpaceFibre or SpaceWire interfaces. The SpaceWire ports include additional bridging logic for efficient interconnection between SpaceWire and SpaceFibre equipment. The core logic of the IP is technology independent but has been optimised to be easily implemented in radiation tolerant FPGAs. The routing switch is fully compliant with all layers of the SpaceFibre standard, supporting up to 64 virtual networks and 256 broadcast channels. Among other features, it implements network time synchronisation, packet time-outs, and automatic translation between SpaceFibre broadcast messages and SpaceWire broadcast codes (SpaceWire Time-Codes or Interrupts). With up to 8 lanes per SpaceFibre interface, raw link rates of 50Gbps per port can be achieved. The multi-lane routing Switch Ip Core is implemented in the STAR-Tiger Routing Switch of the Hi-SIDE project.