Scalable Network Approach for the Space Plug-and-play Architecture

The Air Force Research Laboratory (AFRL) is sponsoring an effort to develop Plug-and-Play (PnP) technology for spacecraft systems. The Space PnP Architecture (SPA) supports a method of constructing arbitrarily complex arrangements of components. SPA is a networked data exchange model. This paper presents the SPA network architecture in relation to the standard five layers of the Open System Interconnect (OSI) model. The responsibilities and functionality of each layer are described. The SPA networking provides a unified methodology for self-discovery and self-configuration of heterogeneous PnP networks. The SPA networking approach is shown to be elegant, robust, and scalable.