Hybrid MIL-STD-1553B/1773 Electrical/Optical Buses

Hybrid buses, which use MIL-STD-1553B transmission on wire cable as well as DOD-STD-1773 transmission on fiber optic cable, are relatively easy to implement because of the similarity of the two standards. There are a number of applications where the use of a hybrid bus offers significant advantages. Some examples are where a cable passes through a high electromagnetic interference area, the cable passes through an area where the fire or explosion hazard needs to be reduced, or long cable runs are required.

This paper describes a number of possible hybrid bus configurations and test results are given on two hybrid buses which were designed, built, and tested. The hybrid buses utilized gateway circuits which provide the interface required for bidirectional transmission of signals between a MIL-STD-1553B bus and a DOD-STD-1773 bus.