Development and Demonstration of PC-Based Satellite Telemetry Server System

Due to the lack of hardware architecture standard for satellite front ends and the multitude of satellite telemetry formats, telemetry front ends can be expensive to develop and maintain-custom hardware and software solutions (unique for each satellite or station application) are often the only way to satisfy mission needs. Because of the tailor-made nature of these components, costs are often high, maintainability is difficult, and their use with other satellites is not feasible. The proposed investigation includes the development of a satellite front end that embodies the MAGIC objectives and architecture, and utilizes PC hardware and COTS components. This effort includes: 1) Design and prototype development of a satellite front end that uses IBM-PC hardware running Windows-NT, and COTS PCI telemetry data processing hardware; 2) The study of two front end hardware/software architectures. The first to frame format and time stamp only input data, and the second to perform real-time satellite-specific telemetry decommutation directly in the front end; 3) The functional design of the required hardware for the front end. 4) The design and development of a prototype front end Master Control Program (MCP) that runs under Windows-NT, and development of the required hardware drivers to support the prototype demonstration; 5) A prototype demonstration to illustrate operation of the front end MCP, determine hardware and network bandwidth, and demonstrate remote operation with a MAGIC analysis workstation.|Benefits: The potential DOD benefits include reduced cost, accelerated product, robust software and hardware, and reduced operator training. The commercial satellite industry (projected to be a $31B industry in hardware and a $131B market in services would find wide applications for a universal ground station front end that can service telemetry data from a large number of satellites.|