| Gigabit Ethernet Data Multiplex System (GEDMS) - Evolution of a Net-Centric Navy Surface Combatant
MILCOM 2006 _ October 23-25
Balancing the Navy’s current response to world conflicts with the development of systems that address future objective requirements must be the driving criteria in implementing flexible system approaches. GEDMS fulfills this objective, while demonstrating proven performance, incrementally infusing technology to meet evolving fleet needs, and successfully fielding this capability into the fleets with minimal impact.
The Boeing Company Data Multiplex System (DMS) AN/USQ-82(V), the first ship-wide control system network installed in a US Navy ship class, was introduced in the mid-1980s primarily as a means of significantly reducing cable weight point-to-point cable runs with a common, networked cable plant. Moreover, DMS ushered in unprecedented flexibility in shipboard system configuration and monitoring. For the first time in Navy ships, the various major systems in the Arleigh Burke (DDG 51) Class of guided missile destroyers could intercommunicate without manual cable plant changes. Long before the era of ubiquitous Internet Protocol (IP) adoption, DMS was switching messages among control system components distributed throughout these ships.
The system has evolved beyond its original five-way redundant, linear, coaxial cable bus architecture to the actively redundant Fiber Distributed Data Interface (FDDI) networks of the Fiber Optic DMS (FODMS), to the dual-mesh topology of the developmental Gigabit Ethernet DMS . With the advance of FODMS and GEDMS came the migration of user devices from military interface standards to commercial off-the-shelf interfaces and protocols, including Ethernet and the Internet Protocol (IP). Support for these commercial standards became imperative to serve the new generation of Navy systems. Introduction of IP instantly made every device connected to each DMS and FODMS ship uniquely addressable on a global scale. Current upgrade work on FODMS, in concert with the US Navy DDG 51 Class Modernization Program, addresses the upcoming replacement of DMS and FODMS with GEDMS in back-fit and forward fit ships. |
| Scott Meier earned a BSEE from Rose-Hulman Institute of Technology and a MSEE from the University of California at Irvine. He has been involved in the design and integration of shipboard network control systems for both US and foreign Navy programs since joining the design team for the Data Multiplex System in 1979. He led the hardware development team for a fiber optic data network used on the Australian Collins-class submarine. Currently employed at Boeing Integrated Defense Systems, he supports the integration of new ship systems with DMS and FODMS. As the Technical Director for the FODMS Design Agency Team, he is responsible for the successful completion of the GEDMS design activities.
Albert Manfredi earned a BSEE from the University of Rochester and a Master of Science in Operations Research from the Johns Hopkins University. Commissioned in the US Navy in 1970, he served aboard USS Berkeley (DDG 15) as Main Propulsion Assistant, and M and B division officer. In 1975 he was assigned to the Destroyer Development Group, Charleston SC, where he developed anti ship missile defense and over the horizon targeting tactics for surface combatants. His work on the Data Multiplex System and Fiber Optic Data Multiplex System began in 1983, as a member of the DDG 51 Contract Design Team. Now employed at Boeing Integrated Defense Systems, his responsibilities include the continued integration of new ship systems over FODMS for US and foreign Navy programs, GEDMS development, performance modeling, and specification of required new features. He is a member of the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers, and participates in various working groups of the Internet Engineering Task Force. |