Tutorial J

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The course is designed for approximately 40 students. Students should be familiar with the space domain and have a basic understanding of satellite operations. Upon taking the course, students will have an understanding and appreciation of the ground and space communication links, and the complexities involved.

Course Outline:

INTRODUCTIONS & OBJECTIVES OVERVIEW
This section includes a brief overview of the typical end-to-end system architecture, including both the space and ground links.

LINKS AND LAYERS
The section describes how communication links are built of reciprocal processing on the ground and on the vehicle.

DOWNLINK PATH
The main part of the tutorial begins by following a satellite telemetry point (e.g. battery voltage) from the spacecraft to the operator on the ground.

Creating the Telemetry
Includes a brief discussion of how the telemetry is commonly assembled, what data formats (TDM, CCSDS) are commonly used and design considerations such as Forward Error Correction (FEC) and when to add encryption.

Transmitting the Data
Introduces basic concepts regarding the choice of waveform, bandwidth, path loss and noise. The focus is on how this impacts the digital data by introducing errors, latencies and changes in bit rate. A high-level overview of waveforms, error correction, and encodings is provided.

Ground Processing
The process of ‘removing’ the layers created on board the satellite. An overview of the equipment commonly found at an antenna site, including antennas, frequency converters, receivers, demodulators & bit synchronizers, is given along with descriptions of the signal & data processing performed. Technical considerations regarding topics such as time-data-correlation and the applicability of standards such as CCSDS and OMG’s GEMS specification are discussed. An introduction to the common ground networks used (WAN, AFSCN etc) and associated protocols (SLE, TCP, PGM, etc). The effect these networks and protocols have on the data path and overall architecture is discussed. Attendees will gain an appreciation for some of the technical challenges such as bandwidth, data buffering, latency and packet loss involved in designing a ground system architecture.

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