Security Testing and Evaluation Labs
Security Evaluation Laboratory (SEL)
DiCon: Secure Switching Unit Version D with firmware Version 3.0
| Sponsor: | DiCon Fiberoptics, Inc. |
| Point of Contact: | Michelle Muha Phone: (510)620-5135 |
| Assurance Level: | EAL4+ |
| Status: | Evaluated |
The Secure Switching Unit (SSU) is an all-optical switch unit. All data flowing through the optical switches will be optical. Each switch has the capability to connect to optical fibres. These optical fibres are typically connected to optical transceivers on a compurter or a signal processing / routing board on the other end. There is no requirement that the connection is to a host computer or a network. The SSU provides multiple point-to-point fiber connections.
The optical switches provide isolation between the output ports of the 1X3 switch block and between separate 1X3 switch blocks. There are 15 duplex pairs of 1X3 switches in the SSU. Two 1X3 switches make up a duplex 1X3 switch, so there are 30 actual switches in the SSU.
One way to think of the SSU is an automated patch panel. Without the SSU, one would take an optical fibre and patch one optical port to another optical port (like the old telephone switchboards). The SSU provides a convenient way to switch ports with push buttons. However, unlike today's data/telecommunication routers, the SSU doesn not provide ANY sort of traffic or data package management.
The SSU front LED panel provides switch position indicators. The front panle can be used to select the switch configuration modes, define user configurable modes, and to manually configure switch states. The console part on the back of the SSU can be used to define the programmable modes.