Ethernet Goes into Space

Darren Pauli, Computerworld Australia

Saturday, June 14, 2008 9:10 AM PDT

The first commercial Ethernet switch has been successfully deployed in space aboard the Columbus module research laboratory.

The switch will form part of a half duplex 10Mbps local area network (LAN) on board the International Space Station (ISS), which has previously used a mix of IT technology dating back as far as the 1980s.

Switches from Cisco, D-Link, Avaya, 3Com, NetGear and Hewlett Packard were exposed to extreme levels of radiation in a particle accelerator in Villigen, Switzerland under conditions similar to space.

Two redundant LAN switches, developed by the European Aeronautic Defence and Space Company (EADS) Astrium, already operate in the ISS network core and now have been joined by HP's ProCurve 2524 switch. The HP switch has a lifespan of 10 years.

The switch was taken straight off the conveyor belt without modification.

"It proved much more advantageous to us [that the switch] used fewer chips on the circuit board, as the fewer components present, the lower the susceptibility to radiation and mechanical duress during the launch into space," said EADS Astrium Space Transportation Columbus Data Management System Engineer, Rolf Schmidhuber.

The switch underwent three years of development, configuration and qualification testing before it journeyed into space.

HP said it was the "most unusual and demanding" projects that Procurve has experienced.

It is now some 400km above Earth.

Sponsored Resource:Are you ready for virtualization? Try the sever assessment tool.
Sponsored Resource:Learn more about ultra light notebooks from Asus and the best warranty in the industry.
Sponsored Resource:Thinking about a new Laptop? Lenovo has models to meet everyone's needs.
Sponsored Resource:Get the truth about remanufactured ink. Learn more from HP.
Sponsored Resource:Six smart ways to grow small business IT

Recommend this story?
Vote Yes
Vote No
0 Yes
0 No
Email
Comment

Community Comments

News For Your Business

More News

PC World's Marketplace

PC World's Free Whitepapers

Network Management News

Cell Phones - August 30, 2008
Cellular Services Brace for Gustav The nation's major cellular network providers say they've invested in infrastructure that will see customers through storms.
Network Management - August 26, 2008
Network Management: Tips for Managing Costs These tips, including virtualization, consolidation and measuring bandwidth consumption, will help you reduce costs as network management becomes more complex and expensive.
Network Management - August 25, 2008
Netflix: Hardware Flaw Caused Shipping Mess Netflix has identified the culprit of its days-long technical outage this month as a hardware component.
Networking - August 24, 2008
East Coast Rules in Broadband, Study Says The advocacy group Speed Matters reports that Eastern sttes have the fastest broadband, while the Midwest lags.

Latest Expert Blogs

Glenn Fleishman on Hardware - August 15, 2008 10:11 AM
Wake Me When You Need Me, Says Intel Intel's Remote Wake lets a computer listen intelligently for a signal to rouse from sleep mode and carry out an activity.
Neil McAllister on Software - August 19, 2008 6:04 PM
Microsoft Sends Up Trial Balloons for Windows 7 While Vista takes a beating in the press, Microsoft seems increasingly willing to disclose details of its forthcoming OS.
Erik Larkin on the Web - August 29, 2008 12:14 PM
Quick Fix for Firefox 3 Bug with Yahoo Mail If you're missing scrollbars in Yahoo Mail, here's how to get them back.

All Blogs

Featured Resources

Premier Content From Our Sponsors

HP Ink Center You don't need a big budget to produce high quality marketing materials. Click here for more info...
CDW Virtualization Center What is Virtualization and how can it help you save money? Click here for more info...