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NASA NTRS2015

Ethernet for Aerospace Applications - Ethernet Heads for the Skies

One of the goals of aerospace applications is to reduce the cost and complexity of avionic systems. Ethernet is a highly scalable, flexible, and popular protocol. The aerospace market is large, with a forecasted production of over 50,000 turbine-powered aircraft valued at $1.7 trillion between 2012 and 2022. Boeing estimates demand for commercial aircraft by 2033 to total over 36,000 with a value of over $5 trillion. In 2014 US airlines served over 750 million passengers and this is growing over 2% yearly. Electronic fly-by-wire is now used for all airliners and high performance aircraft. Although Ethernet has been widely used for four decades, its use in aerospace applications is just beginning to become common. Ethernet is the universal solution in commercial networks because of its high bandwidths, lower cost, openness, reliability, maintainability, flexibility, and interoperability. However, when Ethernet was designed applications with time-critical, safety relevant and deterministic requirements were not given much consideration. Many aerospace applications use a variety of communication architectures that add cost and complexity. Some of them are SpaceWire, MIL-STD-1553, Avionics Full Duplex Switched Ethernet (AFDX), and Time-Triggered Ethernet (TTE). Aerospace network designers desire to decrease the number of networks to reduce cost and effort while improving scalability, flexibility, openness, maintainability, and reliability. AFDX and TTE are being considered more for critical aerospace systems because they provide redundancy, failover protection, guaranteed timing, and frame priority and are based on Ethernet IEEE 802.3. This paper explores the use of AFDX and TTE for aerospace applications.

Ethernet↗

NASA NTRS2000

HTMT-class Latency Tolerant Parallel Architecture for Petaflops Scale Computation

Computational Aero Sciences and other numeric intensive computation disciplines demand computing throughputs substantially greater than the Teraflops scale systems only now becoming available. The related fields of fluids, structures, thermal, combustion, and dynamic controls are among the interdisciplinary areas that in combination with sufficient resolution and advanced adaptive techniques may force performance requirements towards Petaflops. This will be especially true for compute intensive models such as Navier-Stokes are or when such system models are only part of a larger design optimization computation involving many design points. Yet recent experience with conventional MPP configurations comprising commodity processing and memory components has shown that larger scale frequently results in higher programming difficulty and lower system efficiency. While important advances in system software and algorithms techniques have had some impact on efficiency and programmability for certain classes of problems, in general it is unlikely that software alone will resolve the challenges to higher scalability. As in the past, future generations of high-end computers may require a combination of hardware architecture and system software advances to enable efficient operation at a Petaflops level. The NASA led HTMT project has engaged the talents of a broad interdisciplinary team to develop a new strategy in high-end system architecture to deliver petaflops scale computing in the 2004/5 timeframe. The Hybrid-Technology, MultiThreaded parallel computer architecture incorporates several advanced technologies in combination with an innovative dynamic adaptive scheduling mechanism to provide unprecedented performance and efficiency within practical constraints of cost, complexity, and power consumption. The emerging superconductor Rapid Single Flux Quantum electronics can operate at 100 GHz (the record is 770 GHz) and one percent of the power required by convention semiconductor logic. Wave Division Multiplexing optical communications can approach a peak per fiber bandwidth of 1 Tbps and the new Data Vortex network topology employing this technology can connect tens of thousands of ports providing a bi-section bandwidth on the order of a Petabyte per second with latencies well below 100 nanoseconds, even under heavy loads. Processor-in-Memory (PIM) technology combines logic and memory on the same chip exposing the internal bandwidth of the memory row buffers at low latency. And holographic storage photorefractive storage technologies provide high-density memory with access a thousand times faster than conventional disk technologies. Together these technologies enable a new class of shared memory system architecture with a peak performance in the range of a Petaflops but size and power requirements comparable to today's largest Teraflops scale systems. To achieve high-sustained performance, HTMT combines an advanced multithreading processor architecture with a memory-driven coarse-grained latency management strategy called "percolation", yielding high efficiency while reducing the much of the parallel programming burden. This paper will present the basic system architecture characteristics made possible through this series of advanced technologies and then give a detailed description of the new percolation approach to runtime latency management.

Sterling, Thomas↗

NASA NTRS2007

Antenna Technology and other Radio Frequency (RF) Communications Activities at the Glenn Research Center in Support of NASA's Exploration Vision

NASA s Vision for Space Exploration outlines a very ambitious program for the next several decades of the Space Agency endeavors. Ahead is the completion of the International Space Station (ISS); safely flight the shuttle (STS) until 2010; develop and fly the Crew Exploration Vehicle (Orion) by no later than 2014; return to the moon by no later than 2020; extend human presence across the solar system and beyond; implement a sustainable and affordable human and robotic program; develop supporting innovative technologies, knowledge and infrastructure; and promote international and commercial participation in exploration. To achieve these goals, a series of enabling technologies must be developed or matured in a timely manner. Some of these technologies are: spacecraft RF technology (e.g., high power sources and large antennas which using surface receive arrays can get up to 1 Gbps from Mars), uplink arraying (reduce reliance on large ground-based antennas and high operation costs; single point of failure; enable greater data-rates or greater effective distance; scalable, evolvable, flexible scheduling), software define radio (i.e., reconfigurable, flexible interoperability allows for in flight updates open architecture; reduces mass, power, volume), and optical communications (high capacity communications with low mass/power required; significantly increases data rates for deep space). This presentation will discuss some of the work being performed at the NASA Glenn Research Center, Cleveland, Ohio, in antenna technology as well as other on-going RF communications efforts.

Miranda, Felix A.↗

NASA NTRS2007

Stretched Lens Array Squarerigger (SLASR) Technology Maturation

Since April 2005, our team has been underway on a competitively awarded program sponsored by NASA s Exploration Systems Mission Directorate to develop, refine, and mature the unique solar array technology known as Stretched Lens Array SquareRigger (SLASR). SLASR offers an unprecedented portfolio of performance metrics, SLASR offers an unprecedented portfolio of performance metrics, including the following: Areal Power Density = 300 W/m2 (2005) - 400 W/m2 (2008 Target) Specific Power = 300 W/kg (2005) - 500 W/kg (2008 Target) for a Full 100 kW Solar Array Stowed Power = 80 kW/cu m (2005) - 120 kW/m3 (2008 Target) for a Full 100 kW Solar Array Scalable Array Capacity = 100 s of W s to 100 s of kW s Super-Insulated Small Cell Circuit = High-Voltage (300-600 V) Operation at Low Mass Penalty Super-Shielded Small Cell Circuit = Excellent Radiation Hardness at Low Mass Penalty 85% Cell Area Savings = 75% Lower Array Cost per Watt than One-Sun Array Modular, Scalable, & Mass-Producible at MW s per Year Using Existing Processes and Capacities

O'Neill, Mark↗

NASA NTRS2013

Nano-Ceramic Coated Plastics

Plastic products, due to their durability, safety, and low manufacturing cost, are now rapidly replacing cookware items traditionally made of glass and ceramics. Despite this trend, some still prefer relatively expensive and more fragile ceramic/glassware because plastics can deteriorate over time after exposure to foods, which can generate odors, bad appearance, and/or color change. Nano-ceramic coatings can eliminate these drawbacks while still retaining the advantages of the plastic, since the coating only alters the surface of the plastic. The surface coating adds functionality to the plastics such as self-cleaning and disinfectant capabilities that result from a photocatalytic effect of certain ceramic systems. These ceramic coatings can also provide non-stick surfaces and higher temperature capabilities for the base plastics without resorting to ceramic or glass materials. Titanium dioxide (TiO2) and zinc oxide (ZnO) are the candidates for a nano-ceramic coating to deposit on the plastics or plastic films used in cookware and kitchenware. Both are wide-bandgap semiconductors (3.0 to 3.2 eV for TiO2 and 3.2 to 3.3 eV for ZnO), so they exhibit a photocatalytic property under ultraviolet (UV) light. This will lead to decomposition of organic compounds. Decomposed products can be easily washed off by water, so the use of detergents will be minimal. High-crystalline film with large surface area for the reaction is essential to guarantee good photocatalytic performance of these oxides. Low-temperature processing (<100 C) is also a key to generating these ceramic coatings on the plastics. One possible way of processing nanoceramic coatings at low temperatures (< 90 C) is to take advantage of in-situ precipitated nanoparticles and nanostructures grown from aqueous solution. These nanostructures can be tailored to ceramic film formation and the subsequent microstructure development. In addition, the process provides environment- friendly processing because of the aqueous solution. Low-temperature processing has also shown versatility to generate various nanostructures. The growth of low-dimensional nanostructures (0-D, 1-D) provides a means of enhancing the crystallinity of the solution-prepared films that is of importance for photocatalytic performance. This technology can generate durable, fully functional nano-ceramic coatings (TiO2, ZnO) on plastic materials (silicone, Teflon, PET, etc.) that can possess both photocatalytic oxide properties and flexible plastic properties. Processing cost is low and it does not require any expensive equipment investment. Processing can be scalable to current manufacturing infrastructure.

Cho, Junghyun↗

NASA NTRS2016

A Spatiotemporal Indexing Approach for Efficient Processing of Big Array-Based Climate Data with MapReduce

Climate observations and model simulations are producing vast amounts of array-based spatiotemporal data. Efficient processing of these data is essential for assessing global challenges such as climate change, natural disasters, and diseases. This is challenging not only because of the large data volume, but also because of the intrinsic high-dimensional nature of geoscience data. To tackle this challenge, we propose a spatiotemporal indexing approach to efficiently manage and process big climate data with MapReduce in a highly scalable environment. Using this approach, big climate data are directly stored in a Hadoop Distributed File System in its original, native file format. A spatiotemporal index is built to bridge the logical array-based data model and the physical data layout, which enables fast data retrieval when performing spatiotemporal queries. Based on the index, a data-partitioning algorithm is applied to enable MapReduce to achieve high data locality, as well as balancing the workload. The proposed indexing approach is evaluated using the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) Modern-Era Retrospective Analysis for Research and Applications (MERRA) climate reanalysis dataset. The experimental results show that the index can significantly accelerate querying and processing (10 speedup compared to the baseline test using the same computing cluster), while keeping the index-to-data ratio small (0.0328). The applicability of the indexing approach is demonstrated by a climate anomaly detection deployed on a NASA Hadoop cluster. This approach is also able to support efficient processing of general array-based spatiotemporal data in various geoscience domains without special configuration on a Hadoop cluster.

big data↗

NASA NTRSDate not supplied

MPATH (Measuring Performance for Autonomy Teaming with Humans) Ground Control Station: Design Approach and Initial Usability Results

Envisioned future Advanced Air Mobility (AAM) operations will require a transition of aircraft command and control from onboard pilots to remote operators. The National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) has developed a research ground control station (GCS) software called MPATH (Measuring Performance for Autonomy Teaming with Humans) to study the human factors of remote operators in a representative AAM environment, where small uncrewed aerial systems (sUAS; simulated or real) act as surrogates for larger AAM aircraft. A primary focus of the research being conducted with the MPATH GCS is scalability (i.e., one human managing multiple vehicles). MPATH has demonstrated to be a useful capability for human factors research and remote operations. Two initial usability studies and a multi-vehicle control assessment were recently conducted, and usability data and operator feedback were collected. Generally, participants rated MPATH high on usability and interface quality, whereas information quality was rated slightly lower. These results were supported by specific feedback. Several generalized GCS design recommendations are proposed based on the results and feedback from these flight activities. Future updates to MPATH will incorporate the proposed recommendations. In practice, these recommendations could be used by any GCS software designer or developer to promote usability and safety.

Advanced Air Mobility↗

NASA NTRSDate not supplied

Predicting Airport Runway Configurations for Decision-Support Using Supervised Learning

One of the most challenging tasks for air traffic controllers is runway configuration management (RCM). It deals with the optimal selection of runways to operate on (for arrivals and departures) based on current and forecast of traffic, surface wind speed, wind direction, other environmental variables, noise constraints, and several other airport-specific factors. In this paper, a methodology using supervised learning is developed to build a predictive model for RCM decision-support from large volumes of historical data. Data from two full years (2018 and 2019) related to current and forecast weather, demand/capacity, etc. is collected, analyzed, and fused together. A variety of supervised learning algorithms are tested for predicting runway configuration and hyperparameter tuning is carried out to select the best performing model. The validation process involves two airports of low (Charlotte Douglas International Airport, CLT) and high (Denver International Airport, DEN) complexity of configuration decision-making. The results show significant promise for the two airports with test accuracy of 93% (CLT) and 73% (DEN). The methodology is scalable and generalizable to other airports across the U.S. National Airspace System.

air traffic management↗

NASA NTRSDate not supplied

Predicting Airport Runway Configuration for Decision-Support Using Supervised Learning

air traffic management↗

NASA NTRS1995

Parallel volume ray-casting for unstructured-grid data on distributed-memory architectures

As computing technology continues to advance, computational modeling of scientific and engineering problems produces data of increasing complexity: large in size and unstructured in shape. Volume visualization of such data is a challenging problem. This paper proposes a distributed parallel solution that makes ray-casting volume rendering of unstructured-grid data practical. Both the data and the rendering process are distributed among processors. At each processor, ray-casting of local data is performed independent of the other processors. The global image composing processes, which require inter-processor communication, are overlapped with the local ray-casting processes to achieve maximum parallel efficiency. This algorithm differs from previous ones in four ways: it is completely distributed, less view-dependent, reasonably scalable, and flexible. Without using dynamic load balancing, test results on the Intel Paragon using from two to 128 processors show, on average, about 60% parallel efficiency.

Ma, Kwan-Liu↗

NASA NTRS2001

Towards Scalable 1024 Processor Shared Memory Systems

Over the past 3 years, NASA Ames has been involved in a cooperative effort with SGI to develop the largest single system image systems available. Currently a 1024 Origin3OOO is under development, with first boot expected later in the summer of 2001. This paper discusses some early results with a 512p Origin3OOO system and some arcane IRIX system calls that can dramatically improve scaling performance.

Ciotti, Robert B.↗

NASA NTRS2004

Advanced Radioisotope Power Conversion Technology Research and Development

NASA's Radioisotope Power Conversion Technology program is developing next generation power conversion technologies that will enable future missions that have requirements that cannot be met by either the ubiquitous photovoltaic systems or by current Radioisotope Power System (RPS) technology. Performance goals of advanced radioisotope power systems include improvement over the state-of-practice General Purpose Heat Source/Radioisotope Thermoelectric Generator by providing significantly higher efficiency to reduce the number of radioisotope fuel modules, and increase specific power (watts/kilogram). Other Advanced RPS goals include safety, long-life, reliability, scalability, multi-mission capability, resistance to radiation, and minimal interference with the scientific payload. NASA has awarded ten contracts in the technology areas of Brayton, Stirling, Thermoelectric, and Thermophotovoltaic power conversion including five development contracts that deal with more mature technologies and five research contracts. The Advanced RPS Systems Assessment Team includes members from NASA GRC, JPL, DOE and Orbital Sciences whose function is to review the technologies being developed under the ten Radioisotope Power Conversion Technology contracts and assess their relevance to NASA's future missions. Presented is an overview of the ten radioisotope power conversion technology contracts and NASA's Advanced RPS Systems Assessment Team.

Wong, Wayne A.↗

NASA NTRS2019

Forming Aggregations using Virtual Sharding: Lessons Learned from Simple Scalable Storage (S3)

Data aggregation is the ability to combine separate datasets to form a single new logical dataset provides users with a powerful abstraction. The advantage of an aggregate dataset is that the users are freed from having to understand, and incorporate into their workflow, knowledge about the (ad hoc) organization of the constituent datasets. However, aggregating large numbers of files can be computationally complex with data server systems performing many repetitive operations. As part of the authors work on subsetting data stored on Amazon Web Service (AWS) Simple Storage Service (S3), we developed technology to read portions of otherwise monolithic data files. This enables the formation of virtual shards for user in subsetting data stored in HDF5 (hierarchical data format, version 5) files. This same tool can be used to form aggregations that combine data stored in many HDF5 files when those files are stored on S3. The nature of the virtual sharding and the algorithm that exploits it for subsetting is such that it can also be used for aggregation with the need for many of the repetitive operations required by the per file aggregation techniques. We will present timing information that demonstrates the flexibility of this approach. However, the lessons learned is that while this is a useful result in and of itself, these very same techniques can be applied in other contexts where data are stored in services and on media other than S3. For example, this same technique can be applied to data stored on spinning disk. Pushing the envelope for S3 forced a reexamination of our data access techniques which lead to unexpected positive benefits.

Gallagher, James↗

NASA NTRSDate not supplied

Corridor Design and Analysis for UAM Operations

The Urban Air Mobility (UAM) concept is a part of Advanced Air Mobility (AAM), a joint initiative between the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA), NASA, and industry to develop an air transportation system that uses new electric (i.e., green) air vehicles in geographical areas previously underserved by traditional aviation. Market forecast studies predict that there will be demand for alternate modes of air transportation using electric Vertical Take-off and Landing aircraft. UAM expands transportation networks by introducing short flights to move people and goods around metropolitan areas. UAM is expected to improve mobility for the public, decongest road traffic, reduce trip time, and decrease strain on existing public transportation networks. Various challenges exist to make the introduction of UAM operations successful in the U.S. National Airspace System (NAS). These include but are not limited to integration with existing airports and airspace, provision of air traffic services (e.g., separation), vehicle design and certification, and community acceptance. The focus of this paper is on integration of UAM operations into the NAS via introduction of new airspace structures. UAM will operate within a regulatory, operational, and technical environment that is incorporated into the NAS. As per the UAM Concept of Operations (ConOps), the FAA retains regulatory authority and is responsible for establishing operational parameters and maintaining oversight. The FAA’s UAM ConOps describes flights at low altitudes (below 5,000 ft) with minimal disruption to established conventional aircraft traffic and limited voice interactions with the Air Traffic Control (ATC). Early stages of UAM may use existing procedures to safely integrate UAM with conventional flights. This would involve flying under Part 91 Visual Flight Rules (VFR) and using voice for communications. The initial UAM ecosystem will utilize the current infrastructure such as routes, helipads, and ATC services, where practicable. A NASA study explored the use of existing helicopter routes in Dallas Fort Worth (DFW) airspace for initial UAM operations with a Letter of Agreement (LOA) that included procedures to request a Class B (controlled airspace) clearance. The research showed that the chosen approach was feasible for near-term, low-demand UAM traffic, but was not scalable. The growth of operations in today’s aviation system has resulted in airspace reorganization and procedures to ensure safety and efficiency as traffic rates increase. One proposed operating innovation that can help with the scalability of UAM is establishing routes and corridors. This may look similar to the Area Navigation (RNAV) procedures used today to streamline operations into busy airports. However, instead of FAA automation systems and ATC managing the flow of traffic, some UAM concepts envision a third-party service provider performing this role as part of the Provider of Services for UAM (PSU) network. The FAA’s UAM ConOps posits that new airspace structures such as UAM corridors include the following design criteria: 1) Minimal impact on existing NAS operations, 2) no or minimal additional ATC services, 3) public interest considerations such as noise, safety, and security, and 4) customer needs. The airspace available in urban environments is limited by the height of buildings, the effect of weather including wind gusts, privacy needs, and a clearance envelope. The new airspace structure would need to be designed around large airports and urban areas where the initial market demand is likely to exist. NASA has started evaluating airspace in the Dallas Fort Worth area to design new airspace structures, keeping the first two design criteria in mind. It is assumed that there will be an on-board pilot-in-command, and the flights will operate under VFR in Visual Meteorological Conditions. Corridors will be required in controlled airspace, whereas UAM operations can fly in uncontrolled Class G and E airspace using current day rules. Keeler et. al identified factors and heuristics for development of routes for UAM operations for integration with airspace close to large airports such as Dallas Fort Worth and Dallas Love Field. This paper describes the heuristics applied to define the corridors, analyzes them with respect to legacy traffic and presents key results.

Urban Air Mobility↗

NASA NTRS1992

Scalable problems and memory bounded speedup

In this paper three models of parallel speedup are studied. They are fixed-size speedup, fixed-time speedup and memory-bounded speedup. The latter two consider the relationship between speedup and problem scalability. Two sets of speedup formulations are derived for these three models. One set considers uneven workload allocation and communication overhead and gives more accurate estimation. Another set considers a simplified case and provides a clear picture on the impact of the sequential portion of an application on the possible performance gain from parallel processing. The simplified fixed-size speedup is Amdahl's law. The simplified fixed-time speedup is Gustafson's scaled speedup. The simplified memory-bounded speedup contains both Amdahl's law and Gustafson's scaled speedup as special cases. This study leads to a better understanding of parallel processing.

Sun, Xian-He↗

NASA NTRS2016

A Simple Method for High-Lift Propeller Conceptual Design

In this paper, we present a simple method for designing propellers that are placed upstream of the leading edge of a wing in order to augment lift. Because the primary purpose of these "high-lift propellers" is to increase lift rather than produce thrust, these props are best viewed as a form of high-lift device; consequently, they should be designed differently than traditional propellers. We present a theory that describes how these props can be designed to provide a relatively uniform axial velocity increase, which is hypothesized to be advantageous for lift augmentation based on a literature survey. Computational modeling indicates that such propellers can generate the same average induced axial velocity while consuming less power and producing less thrust than conventional propeller designs. For an example problem based on specifications for NASA's Scalable Convergent Electric Propulsion Technology and Operations Research (SCEPTOR) flight demonstrator, a propeller designed with the new method requires approximately 15% less power and produces approximately 11% less thrust than one designed for minimum induced loss. Higher-order modeling and/or wind tunnel testing are needed to verify the predicted performance.

Patterson, Michael↗

NASA NTRS2009

Service Management Database for DSN Equipment

This data- and event-driven persistent storage system leverages the use of commercial software provided by Oracle for portability, ease of maintenance, scalability, and ease of integration with embedded, client-server, and multi-tiered applications. In this role, the Service Management Database (SMDB) is a key component of the overall end-to-end process involved in the scheduling, preparation, and configuration of the Deep Space Network (DSN) equipment needed to perform the various telecommunication services the DSN provides to its customers worldwide. SMDB makes efficient use of triggers, stored procedures, queuing functions, e-mail capabilities, data management, and Java integration features provided by the Oracle relational database management system. SMDB uses a third normal form schema design that allows for simple data maintenance procedures and thin layers of integration with client applications. The software provides an integrated event logging system with ability to publish events to a JMS messaging system for synchronous and asynchronous delivery to subscribed applications. It provides a structured classification of events and application-level messages stored in database tables that are accessible by monitoring applications for real-time monitoring or for troubleshooting and analysis over historical archives.

Zendejas, Silvino↗

NASA NTRSDate not supplied

A Study of Parallel Scalability and Dynamic Workload Balancing in GlennICE

The Glenn Icing Computational Environment (GlennICE) is a computational tool designed to calculate ice growth on complex three-dimensional geometries. It utilizes user-supplied computational fluid dynamics solutions for the geometry of interest. Key developments include advancements in convergence of collection efficiency, trajectory optimization, and refinement methodology. These improvements have significantly enhanced GlennICE’s efficiency for practical engineering applications. A recent study focused on benchmarking GlennICE’s scalability in a parallel environment using static scheduling. Findings indicated a potential twofold increase in efficiency through workload balance enhancements. This paper presents an analysis of the solver’s new workload balancing improvements, incorporating shared memory and dynamic scheduling routines. Results demonstrate a highly efficient and consistent algorithm across high-performance computing clusters.

Computational Icing↗