The Amphibious Assault Ship, USS Makin Island (LHD 8) encompasses multiple systems to support the
Navy's missions. The USS Makin Island systems include ballast, steering, propulsion, fresh water, power
distribution as well as many damage control systems. The systems utilize various signal types to operate
the systems while receiving signals to monitor the system components via the Machinery Control System
(MCS). Many input/output (I/O) signals exchange information between the MCS and the various
systems' equipment. The MCS monitors and controls the system components using a Human Machine
Interface (HMI). The user-friendly HMI permits authorized operators to perform many daily operations
remotely allowing operators to address system issues from multiple MCS units located throughout the
ship. The MCS utilizes a fiber optic network that serves as the backbone connecting the Local Area
Network (LAN) switches via blown optical fiber. Each MCS unit is intricately connected to the LAN
switches for maximum redundancy via fiber optic connections to non-adjacent LAN switches to ensure
system communications continuity. The LAN switches are connected in a star configuration for added
system survivability. The backbone's blown fiber is designed and installed with a sufficient percentage of
spare blowing tubes to ensure the potential of future growth. Conventional optical fiber is used to
interconnect the MCS consoles, workstations, and Data Acquisition Units (DAU) to each other and the
LAN switches. The conventional fiber also contains sufficient spare conductors in a combination of eight
and four conductor optical fiber. The network backbone is redundantly connected allowing for
continuous transmission of information throughout the ship.
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