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Network Switch Enclosures Extend Service Life

Navy News Service

Story Number: NNS121011-20
10/11/2012

By Joseph Battista, Naval Surface Warfare Center Carderock Division Public Affairs

PHILADELPHIA (NNS) -- New protective enclosures for the MX5000 network switches, designed and tested by engineers at Naval Surface Warfare Center Carderock Division - Ship Systems Engineering Station (NSWCCD-SSES), are currently being installed aboard USS Comstock (LSD 45) and USS Oak Hill (LSD 51) during the ships' ongoing availabilities.

The MX5000 network switch is commercial-off-the-shelf, computer-networking technology that provides ships a modular, multi-platform device with flexible "plug-and-play" interfaces. The new protective enclosures will significantly extend the switches' service lives.

"All of these network switches are designed to operate at ambient temperatures up to 85 degrees Celsius, but we desired a dust-tight, maintenance-free enclosure that still allowed the MX5000 to operate at these extreme temperatures," said Steve Walicki, Ship Networks Branch head at NSWCCD-SSES. "The result was a switch enclosure, the MX5000RE, which provides the Navy greater shipboard installation flexibility."

Walicki and Ryan Brenner, NSWCCD-SSES' Dock Landing Ship Mid-Life Advanced Engineering Control System Local Area Network team lead, worked with industry partners to design a protective enclosure that met the Navy's stringent environmental requirements.

The MX5000RE was tested to withstand electromagnetic interference, shock, vibration, temperature and humidity, and will support the network equipment until the end of the ship's service life. Following the test, NSWC-SSES engineers identified the opportunity for the first installation of the new devices aboard USS Rushmore (LSD 47), during the ship's mid-life upgrade.

"LSD 47 made the most sense," said Brenner. "It was coming up for availability and already had an existing digital control systems operating over a network. The four previous LSDs to have gone through their mid-life upgrades did not."

MX5000RE units have been installed aboard USS Rushmore, USS Ashland (LSD 48) and USS Harpers Ferry (LSD 49), and are planned for USS Carter Hall (LSD 50) and USS Pearl Harbor (LSD 52).

The Ship Systems Engineering Station, Philadelphia is a major component of Naval Surface Warfare Center Carderock Division. It is the Navy's principal test and evaluation station and in-service engineering agent for all hull, mechanical and electrical ship systems and equipment and has the capability to test and engineer the full range of shipboard systems and equipment from full-scale propulsion systems to digital controls and electric power systems.