Remote Data Concentrator (RDC) Requirements for Diverse Mission Applicationsview on SAM.gov

The California Institute of Technology's (Caltech's) Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL), located at 4800 Oak Grove Drive, Pasadena, CA 91109, is issuing the subject RFI to obtain information from spacecraft operators, mission planners, and system integrators regarding requirements for Remote Data Concentrators (RDC) for modern avionics platforms. This information will inform the development of RDC architectures and support subsequent vendor engagement. This RFI is to also gather information of potential qualified sources and to obtain your business size relative to the following NAICS code: 336413 - Other Aircraft Part and Auxiliary Equipment Manufacturing with a size standard of 1,250 employees. Responses to this RFI may be used by JPL to make appropriate decisions regarding a Small Business Set-Aside procurement. Purpose As NASA continues to advance avionics technologies used in a wide range of applications, new, higher-bandwidth intercommunications buses are becoming available. TSN Ethernet is being evaluated as an alternative to heritage avionics bus technologies, due to its combination of fault tolerance features, deterministic timing to support for high-rate real-time control loops, high bandwidth, and large commercial off-the-shelf (COTS) ecosystem. However, it is likely that missions will need to fly legacy non-Ethernet devices such as UART, MIL-STD-1553, I2C, and CAN, as well as more modern high-speed interfaces such as USB 3.x or MIPI CSI-2. There is a need for products allowing flight computers, which will typically natively support either PCI-Express or TSN Ethernet, to communicate with devices on these other interfaces, while meeting strict fault tolerance, latency, and jitter guarantees. The purpose of this RFI is to assess RDC requirements across a wide range of avionics architectures, mission applications, and certification levels to inform the design of a flexible RDC architecture. The insights gathered may lead to an RFP soliciting RDC development or procurement from qualified vendors. Overview The RDC is part of a broader NASA effort to modernize spacecraft avionics through reusable, standards-based components. By developing RDC platforms that embrace open standards and interoperability, NASA aims to: Leverage commercial ecosystems: Benefit from ongoing advances in open standards for middleware, device configuration, electronic data sheets, auto-coding tools, and other approaches that would allow the RDC to easily evolve to support new capabilities and interfaces. Reduce development risk and cost: Build RDC platforms that can be adapted across multiple missions rather than developing one-off solutions. Integrate complex avionics platforms: Ease integration / interoperability between modern and legacy products from a variety of vendors with a variety of interfaces. Remote Data Concentrator Specifications Mission Applications Human safety critical applications (e.g. attitude control & life support) Mission critical applications (e.…