Space Communications Protocol Standards (SCPS) Integration into Satellite Operations Infrastructures

Three government agencies are working collectively to define and implement SCPS for the Federal Government. In addition, commercial industry is attempting to expand their product line support of Space Communications Protocol Standards (SCPS) and other Consultative Committee for Space Data Systems (CCSDS) specifications to support current and existing customer requirements. The Air Force is currently identifying, isolating, and mitigating risks associated with the integration of, and migration to, SCPS within their space communications and management networks, such as the Air Force Space Control Network (AFSCN). Phase I activities will include investigating existing architectures and configurations, operational and security procedures, and newer technology-based commercial offerings to evaluate the impacts and benefits to the existing and future AFSCN infrastructure. Areas of investigation include experienced latencies, delay variations, acknowledgment strategies, bandwidth utilization factors, and error effects. Avtec will use its space communications ground system products as a foundation for the experiments and incorporate additional Government Furnished Equipment (GFE) and Commercial-Off-The-Shelf (COTS) products and advanced tools to emulate the AFSCN environment, including necessary DOD security mechanisms. The results of this investigation will identify candidate equipment architectures for the AFSCN environment which will be further investigated and tested under Phase II.