The forthcoming European missions both for earth observation and science (e.g. Euclid, Metop-SG) are more and more demanding very high-speed data transmission (above Gbps) especially within the different units in a payload. As SpaceWire standard (ECSS-E-ST-50-12C) is no longer capable to meet such stringent requirements, the European Space Agency is finalizing a new standard for high-speed data links called SpaceFibre.
The definition of a new standard for communication in space opens up a considerable business opportunity related to the implementation of IP cores and systems compliant with this standard. In order to guarantee highly reliable communication, SpaceFibre is rather complex, thus two main issues are expected to be faced by any developer: on one side the design and implementation of a system compliant with the standard and on the other side the need for a test equipment capable of validating such a design. The proposed innovation project has the ambitious goal to solve both the problems as on one hand it will provide an IP-core of a SpaceFibre point-to-point interface (SpaceFibre IP-core) to be used especially in payload design while on the other hand this IP will be the core of a test equipment (SpaceFibre Analyser) which will be capable of validating any implementation related to SpaceFibre. The final aim of the project is to provide the customer with a powerful instrument to simplify the development of its own system based on SpaceFibre technology, thus the acronym SIMPLE.
