The physical resources of the AERPAW platform (indicated by the rightmost pane, "Platform Resources", in the above diagram in Fig. 1.3.1) are distributed over the Centennial Campus, and the Laker Wheeler Road Agricultural Field Laboratory (LWRFL, or LWL) campus, of NC State University at the end of Phase-2. In the future, more resources are expected to be added at both these campuses, and additional resources may be added outside the NC State campus (such as the Town of Cary of City of Raleigh), and integrated logically with existing resources, for seamless deployability in support of AERPAW experiments.
(AVNs, AFRNs, APRNs, that this diagram refers to, are described briefly below in the rest of this page, and in more detail later in this User Manual.)
Note 1: The "Platform Control Software Tools" and "Portal Website" shown in the middle pane of Fig. 1.3.1 are software components, that physically run on the "Servers" shown in the "Virtual Resources" on the rightmost pane.
Note 2: The AERPAW APRNs UAVs, and UGVs, during testbed operation, are physically on the grounds or in the airspace above the LWL area, but are, obviously, not connected to the fiber plant of the Secure Backplane. They connect back securely to the AERPAW Secure Backplane through the public Internet by mediation of custom AERPAW control and networking software.
The diagram below shows the logical map of the physical resources of AERPAW as at the end of Phase-2. (The diagram may be easier to view by expanding your browser to the largest possible width.)
Logical Connectivity of AERPAW Physical Resources (as of the end of Phase-2)
Most of the diagram is self-explanatory. To understand the physical location of the AFRNs shown in the above diagram, please refer to the "Deployment Areas and Map" section of this User Manual. The DCS is located in a distributed fashion, in various buildings on the Centennial Campus. The gold-colored line represents the fiber plant dedicated to the AERPAW Secure Backplane, and the gold-colored switches represent the switches installed and operated by NC State Communication Technologies exclusively to realize the AERPAW Secure Backplane.