Head of DDS Research Dr Forbidden has written this exclusive article on the exciting new Open Architecture that will revolutionise DDS spacecraft technology.
So what is Open Architecture, it basically is the building blocks and design philosophy behind the next generation of DDS ships, starting with the Pangaea class (though the Pentekonter and Terran Sea Block 2 will have a preliminary version) through to future classes like the Panther. Open Architecture (OA) is a standardised structure for the systems and organisation of DDS ships. With OA we have a 100% wireless control sub-system with standardised communications protocols.
This allows us full "plug & play" with ship components. We can replace a system such as a sensor signal processor as simply as unplugging the old box from the power grid and plugging a new one in. The activated system automatically communiates with the rest of the relevant systems and configures itself for use within a second. There is no longer any need for system integration as all protocols are standardised and auto-configuring. The old box need not even be physically replaced, just turned off and the new box activated somewhere within the ship, and it just works!
Another part of OA is off-ship processing. This is an automatic process whereby if a sub-system fails the data that would be processed by it is automatically sent via hyperlaser link to the nearest ground station where it is processed and then sent back. We did an example on the SS Isometric lately where the Shields Integrity Processor was turned off. The data was rerouted instantly to our base at Solaris and sent back after processing. The bridge crew did not even notice the system had been turned off! Data processing centres will be set up at Proxima 7, Solaris and Rathun's World, with maybe more in future.
As OA is a standardised architecture the same basic structure can be used on any ship. OA is easily extendable and is modular. As everything is standardised there are considerable cost and time savings in developing and production. We can also update the software used onboard easily, and in minor cases without affecting operation.
I suppose the key to OA and the future of DDS ship design is seamless communications and data warehousing. We are building an infrastructure for data storage and processing gathered from every day ship operation. Currently every signal and datum that travels around a Terran Sea class frigate is stored and once a day unloaded to a 100 petabyte database at Solaris HQ. In a couple of years we will roll this system out to every ship in the fleet so every signal and datum is stored of every ship every day.
So why do we do this? Well there are two reasons, in the short term we have scripts that analyse new data looking for anomolies. We did discover a malfunctioning component in a ship a few weeks ago in fact. The script flagged up the problem before it would normally be noticed by the engineering team and action could be taken. In the long term we will have scripts that analyse the massive amount of data and look for trends to assist efficiency and improve operations and design.
This therefore is where the DDS is moving in it's system design, its an exciting road. Lets travel it.
(c) Dr Forbidden 2105
