SDDS | Sunhillo

Key Features

Surveillance Data Distribution System Architecture

Modular network design and Architecture Network layers are separate from the message processing layers, allowing for the insertion of additional communication modules (i.e. serial) or future IP-based transport technologies. This translates to:

 Adaptable Message Stream Processing
 Input stream separation
 Modular processing units - adaptable function blocks perform conversion, validation, and filtering - open API allows additional Message Processing Functions to be added
 Separable XML Configuration Module - provides for runtime (VSP) as well as static configuration
 Integrated system data recoding component allowing message flow tracing anywhere in the system for detailed fault analysis
 Isolated maintenance components for all systems that controls, monitors, and accesses modules

 Separable System Monitoring and Control console providing hierarchical, menu driven, interfaces to operate all aspects of the SDDS system.

Our designs are open system architectures specifically designed to make minimal use of OS calls to allow portability. As a result, our systems accommodate diverse system requirements, conversions, and filtering we have modularized through software reuse methods with an open API to allow the addition of custom functions with minimal impact to additional and future system enhancements.Read More

Benefits of a SDDS

System Monitoring and Control

Our solution for the System Monitoring and Control (SMC) displays a multi-layered top-down view of the system and offers full monitoring and control capabilities from a single graphical user interface [GUI]. The SMC also provides a centralized mechanism for configuration, performance-monitoring, error reporting and tracking, and security monitoring.

To maintain integrity of communication between the SMC and the SDDS system, our platform solution uses secure protocols adhering to open communication standards, such as SSH, SSL, and SNMP v3 network protocols.

The SMC provides run-time (VSP) configuration options to restrict user access based on assigned authority levels. And the SMC also provides switchable recording levels to facilitate debug monitoring-mode during runtime.

The SMC console permits the definition of Management Domains, which allows grouping of each SDDS within one or more defined management domains. Access rights are configurable in an SDDS unit at run-time for each management domain. Internal Data Flow Depending on the configured data path, dynamic and static filters, converters and duplicators, a single input message can produce none, one or multiple output messages. In cases of protocol conversions some output messages may be generated by Message Data Process (MDP) Message Processing Functions on a periodic basis without any explicit stimulus (i.e. Virtual Radar generating Beacon and Search RTQC messages).

Output Data Flow - Surveillance Data Distribution The output of the Message Data Process (MDP) is transmitted to the Network Interface Process (NIP) via Message Queues for distribution into configured Output sinks. The destination nodes in the IP Network can be other SDDS systems or surveillance client applications. Addressing information on all sinks is configurable via SDDS XML configuration. Only authorized external applications can register (connect) to receive the processed output of the SDDS. The UDP/IP Multicast data authorization mechanism manages Multicast group handled by the network routers.

Data Stream Aggregation, Multiplication and MergingInput sources can be aggregated by the authorized SDDS operator via HMI into a single input stream Normally the input streams are kept on separate data paths. The Input Stream Aggregator and Router can route messages dynamically (the routing changes can be made via HMI) into one or more data paths. This Data Distribution mechanism is responsible for routing the output data streams to the appropriate user. The MDP can replicate output of a data path into multiple output sinks. Read More

Leverages current investments

Disparate sensor and data sources are received, validated, managed and delivered seamlessly to the desired networks over existing low or high-capacity communication channels. SDDSmain

This flexible data distribution system provides seamless integration of disparate sensor sources thereby providing network connectivity to a wide array of communication and transport channels including TCP/IP, UDP/IP, FTI, SWIM, GIG and will migrate efficiently to future Service-Oriented Architectures (SOA) and data interopability models.

Software Re-Use and how we leverage those Economies of Scale. Although computing power and network bandwidth have increased dramatically in recent years, the design and implementation of networked applications remains expensive and error-prone. Much of the cost and effort stems from the continual re-discovery and re-invention of core patterns and framework components throughout the software industry. The heterogeneity of hardware architectures, the diversity of OS and network platforms are making it increasingly infeasible, however, to build networked applications from scratch with the following qualities:

 Portability, that reduces the effort required to support applications across heterogeneous OS platforms, programming languages, and compilers
 Flexibility, that supports a growing range of multimedia data types, traffic patterns, and end-to-end quality of service (QoS) requirements
 Extensibility, that efficiently delivers successions of quick updates and additions to take advantage of new requirements and emerging markets
 Predictability and Efficiency, that provides low latency to delay-sensitive real-time applications and high performance to bandwidth-intensive applications, and;
 Reliability, that ensures applications are robust, fault tolerant, and highly available.

Developing software that achieves these qualities is difficult; systematically developing high quality reusable software components and frameworks adds even more difficulty and complexity. Reusable components and frameworks are inherently abstract, which makes it hard to engineer their quality and to manage their production. During the past two decades, our team has worked with a variety civil aviation and national defense organizations, aerospace, and homeland security agencies and written millions of lines of code while developing widely reusable middleware components and frameworks for networked applications. We marry legacy systems with modern networks In theory, organizations recognize the value of systematic reuse and reward internal reuse efforts. In practice, many factors conspire to make systematic software reuse hard, particularly in companies with a large installed base of legacy software and developers. Read More About Sunhillo's Experience