HUNTINGTON BEACH, Calif., 6 Aug. 2009. Engineers at the Boeing Co. Integrated Defense Systems segment in Huntington Beach, Calif., are providing Gigabit Ethernet communications networking for Australian Arleigh Burke-class destroyers under terms of a $14.6 million contract awarded this week.

This network centric capability for Australian navy warships is called the Gigabit Ethernet Data Multiplex System (GEDMS), which is a shipboard network upgrade for the Burke-class destroyer warship.

The GEDMS system is a technology refresh to the Fiber Optic Data Multiplex System (FODMS) shipboard network, and will increase the overall shipboard communications networking bandwidth by replacing the Fiber Distributed Data Interface (FDDI) backbone associated with the FODMS system with a Gigabit Ethernet backbone.

The GEDMS system transfers data, command, or status messages between various types of user source and user sink devices. For purposes of survivability, the GEDMS system uses a Mesh Topology over two independent network backbones; each network uses backbone switch enclosures (BSEs) for connection to network and user links via the fiber optic cable

Boeing also is providing GEDMS capability for a land-based GEDMS trainer, GEDMS hardware, and installation and checkout repair to the Australian navy.

GEDMS is a ship-wide data transfer network for a ship's machinery, steering, navigation, combat, alarm and indicating, and damage control systems. It was designed to replace the miles of point-to-point cabling, signal converters, junction boxes, and switchboards associated with conventional ship's cabling.

Work will be in Huntington Beach, Calif., and should be finished by early 2011. Awarding the contract was the Naval Surface Warfare Center Dahlgren Division in Dahlgren, Va.