Supporting Legacy & High-Speed Protocols with the SOSA™ Technical Standard using COTS XMCs

Modern COTS XMCs enable integrators to create, support, and upgrade an existing platform’s unique networking requirements in a clean, isolated way that aligns with the SOSA Technical Standard. They also allow a system designer to quickly create new SOSA PICs with increased functionality in a single slot.

To achieve the goals and benefits from the SOSA™ Reference Architecture, it needs to be adopted as widely as possible. This means in addition to brand new platforms, upgrades to existing platforms are needed. The problem is many legacy platforms have interfaces and protocols that are not part of the SOSA Technical Standard. To “go fast” and provide a cost-effective solution, SOSA sensors need the ability to interface with legacy system interfaces as upgrading an entire platform network may not be an option.

Leveraging COTS XMCs in alignment with the SOSA Technical Standard as demonstrated in this paper can expand the addressable market for SOSA sensor systems and will provide the DoD and its allies a more responsive and cost-effective supply chain. The use of XMCs to address network requirements not readily available from COTS suppliers will provide the DoD the ability to upgrade their systems rapidly and economically while achieving MOSA objectives.