The present disclosure relates to data transfer systems, and more particularly, to one-way datalink data transfer systems.
Data transfer systems typically include various security measures to prevent unauthorized access to proprietary data. One-way data (OWD) links have been developed as an alternative to physically transferring the data to and from one or more data systems (e.g., transferring data on to a portable storage medium at a first destination and travelling to a second data system to load the data on to a second destination to load the data on to the data system). An OWD link provides secure and reliable unidirectional data transfers between an unsecure data system (referred to a low-side network) and one or more secured data systems (referred to as a high-side network).
The OWD link typically includes an optical transmitter installed at a sending site (e.g., at the low-side network and an optical receiver at a receiving site (e.g., the high-side network). The optical transmitter can output optical data, but cannot receive optical data. Similarly, the optical receiver can receive optical data, but cannot transmit optical data. A unidirectional data transmission path, hereinafter referred to as a data diode, is interposed between the optical transmitter and the optical receiver.
A conventional data diode 100 is illustrated in FIG. 1. The data diode 100 utilizes a fiber optic system including a transmitter interface 102 and a receiver interface 104. Two separate paths, i.e., a transmission path 106 for transmitting data and a receiving path 108 for receiving data, are established between the transmitter interface 102 and the receiver interface 104. By breaking one of those paths (e.g., using a beam splitter 110), data can flow in only one direction, thereby establishing a unidirectional data transfer from transmitting interface 102 to the receiving interface 104. That is, the data diode 100 allows data to be sent from the transmitter interface 102 located at a low-side network and imported into the high-side network via the receiver interface 104, but prevents data from being exported from the high-side network to the low-side network. Accordingly, the OWD link establishes network security in a data network by isolating the high-side networks from potential security breaches (i.e., undesired and unauthorized data flow out of the secure network) while still providing the ability to import data from a low-security external source into a high-security network.
Data is typically imported from the low-side network to the high-side network according to a scheduled data importing operation or by manually submitting a command to import the data. For instance, a user uploads data to the low-side network and a scheduled data import operation is performed which imports the data from the low-side network to the high-side network. Conventional data systems that store large amounts of data typically perform the import operation once a day and during off-peak usage times. The data transfer, therefore, through the OWD link is non-continuous and occurs only during the scheduled importing operation. Accordingly, there may be delay from the time the data is uploaded at the low-side network and the time at which the data can be accessed at the high-side network.