Extended Capabilities

Customization and extension of CH node capabilities can be realized through instantiations of the Expansion Profile. In instances where custom electronics are needed (for example, spacecraft interfaces or attachments to expansion memory), mezzanines or custom backplane routing to other boards connect electronics to the CH node for use by the FPGA and microprocessor.

Other examples of extended capabilities include customized network interfaces that may not be needed on every standard CH node. For example, a Rear Transition Module (RTM) connected to the CH node through a backplane may implement high-speed fiber transceivers to enable box-to-box communications. In other cases, a mezzanine on a node may include specialized interfaces to connect to the host spacecraft bus (for example, MIL-STD-1553).

In all cases, the implementations for extended capability shall utilize industry standards whenever possible. Also, when extending the network capabilities of the CH node, any implemented communications protocols shall follow requirements described in the Communication Specification.