Military local situational awareness (LSA) and driver vision enhancer (DVE) applications require real-time low-latency video and sensor data to help reduce cognitive burden and increase mission effectiveness.
Often military ground vehicle crew are challenged by unknown terrain, changing soil grades and other on-path obstacles, with limited sight outside the vehicle jeopardizing their safety. To help improve decision-making and reduce size, weight, and power (SWaP), global military standards are encouraging the use of Ethernet networking to integrate the numerous sensors, cameras, processors, and displays within a vehicle.
The challenge for designers is replicating the low latency performance of point-to-point connections in a networked environment. In a DVE application integrating multiple cameras and a display panel, for example, delay in video transmission can result in motion sickness and compromise decision making.
Latency performance is imperative in LSA and DVE applications where critical decisions are made quickly based on data provided in real-time. System integrators can optimize networks for latency through GPU performance and sequence analysis. While there is an overall activity from camera/sensor to display, end-users must acknowledge several components of the process that affect the final latency results. To meet application requirements for large scale video switching systems, hardware and software solutions can be introduced to provide a flexible scalable architecture with different levels of latency performance. Read more about military organization standards and latency performance requirements in Latency for Situational Awareness and Driving Applications Whitepaper.
Sensor networking over Ethernet ensures new and retrofit design projects meet performance requirements for low latency video to reduce cognitive burden and improve vehicle safety, while providing a scalable multi-vendor approach that meets standards requirements.