Real-Time Innovations (RTI) announced that Cassidian, an EADS Company, has chosen RTI Data Distribution Service to enable the rapid development and integration of mission-critical sub-systems into its next-generation Ground Control Station (GCS).

RTI Data Distribution Service is used both for the internal messaging requirements of several mission-oriented subsystems and for the messaging and integration between those subsystems. RTI Data Distribution Service had to meet the dual objectives of delivering very high performance while guaranteeing no single points of failure within the GCS architecture. This is a critical requirement for an Unmanned Air System (UAS) that will be deployed in hostile conditions or will be overflying populated areas. All subsystems must be designed to ensure they do not propagate failure across any other subsystem.

“RTI’s implementation of the DDS standard is the best-performing and most robust solution we have tested. Achieving a real-time distributed system architecture with no single point of failure is tough,” said César Castro Gómez, head of UAS Ground Segment, Cassidian Air Systems. “It was a pleasant surprise to find that RTI also significantly simplified and enhanced our integration environment, both for internal development and with subcontractors.”

The development of a common data model as promoted by DDS enabled Cassidian to meet tight development deadlines for both individual subsystem development and the broader integration of several subsystems that made up the GCS. Communication between developers, both within Cassidian and with its contractors, became much easier than anticipated due to the simplification of real-time integration issues into a straightforward expression of common data objects and real-time data-delivery requirements.