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At least 109 records · Page 6

Space Link Extension (SLE) Emulation for High-Throughput Network Communication

As the data rate requirements for space communications increases, signicant stressis placed not only on the wireless satellite communication links, but also on the groundnetworks which forward data from end-users to remote ground stations. These wide areanetwork (WAN) connections add delay and jitter to the end-to-end satellite communicationlink, eects which can have signicant impacts on the wireless communication link. It isimperative that any ground communication protocol can react to these eects such that theground network does not become a bottleneck in the communication path to the satellite.In this paper, we present our SCENIC Emulation Lab testbed which was developed to testthe CCSDS SLE protocol implementations proposed for use on future NASA communica-tion networks. Our results show that in the presence of realistic levels of network delay,high-throughput SLE communication links can experience signicant data rate throttling.Based on our observations, we present some insight into why this data throttling happens,and trace the probable issue back to non-optimal blocking communication which is sup-ported by the CCSDS SLE API recommended practices. These issues were presented aswell to the SLE implementation developers which, based on our reports, developed a newrelease for SLE which we show xes the SLE blocking issue and greatly improves the pro-tocol throughput. In this paper, we also discuss future developments for our end-to-endemulation lab and how these improvements can be used to develop and test future spacecommunication technologies.

Networking↗

Mission Control Operations: Employing a New High Performance Design for Communications Links Supporting Exploration Programs

The planetary exploration programs demand a totally new examination of data multiplexing, digital communications protocols and data transmission principles for both ground and spacecraft operations. Highly adaptive communications devices on‐board and on the ground must provide the greatest possible transmitted data density between deployed crew personnel, spacecraft and ground control teams. Regarding these requirements, this proposal borrows from research into quantum mechanical computing by applying the concept of a qubit, a single bit that represents 16 states, to radio frequency (RF) communications link design for exploration programs. This concept of placing multiple character values into a single data bit can easily make the evolutionary steps needed to meet exploration mission demands. To move the qubit from the quantum mechanical research laboratory into long distance RF data transmission, this proposal utilizes polarization modulation of the RF carrier signal to represent numbers from zero to fifteen. It introduces the concept of a binary‐to‐hexadecimal converter that quickly chops any data stream into 16‐bit words and connects variously polarized feedhorns to a single‐frequency radio transmitter. Further, the concept relies on development of a receiver that uses low‐noise amplifiers and an antenna array to quickly assess carrier polarity and perform hexadecimal to binary conversion. Early testbed experiments using the International Space Station (ISS) as an operations laboratory can be implemented to provide the most cost‐effective return for research investment. The improvement in signal‐to‐noise ratio while supporting greater baseband data rates that could be achieved through this concept justifies its consideration for long‐distance exploration programs.

Jackson, Dan E., Jr.↗

DDCP framework

DDCP protocol software 1.0 This repository contains the C++ implementation of version 1.x of the Distributed Data Communications Protocol (DDCP). DDCP provides request/reply, feature discovery, data transfer, control, interrupt, and transaction support for communicating with accelerator instrumentation over UDP. The standard server port is 65000. The framework is a source dependency for services that communicate directly with DDCP hardware. It is not a deployable service by itself.

Joshi, Shreya [Fermi National Accelerator Laborato↗

Modelling high data rate communication network access protocol

Modeling of high data rate communication systems is different from the low data rate systems. Three simulations were built during the development phase of Carrier Sensed Multiple Access/Ring Network (CSMA/RN) modeling. The first was a model using SIMCRIPT based upon the determination and processing of each event at each node. The second simulation was developed in C based upon isolating the distinct object that can be identified as the ring, the message, the node, and the set of critical events. The third model further identified the basic network functionality by creating a single object, the node which includes the set of critical events which occur at the node. The ring structure is implicit in the node structure. This model was also built in C. Each model is discussed and their features compared. It should be stated that the language used was mainly selected by the model developer because of his past familiarity. Further the models were not built with the intent to compare either structure or language but because the complexity of the problem and initial results contained obvious errors, so alternative models were built to isolate, determine, and correct programming and modeling errors. The CSMA/RN protocol is discussed in sufficient detail to understand modeling complexities. Each model is described along with its features and problems. The models are compared and concluding observations and remarks are presented.

Khanna, S.↗

TRIGA: Telecommunications Protocol Processing Subsystem Using Reconfigurable Interoperable Gate Arrays

We present the Telecommunications protocol processing subsystem using Reconfigurable Interoperable Gate Arrays (TRIGA), a novel approach that unifies fault tolerance, error correction coding and interplanetary communication protocol off-loading to implement CCSDS File Delivery Protocol and Datalink layers. The new reconfigurable architecture offers more than one order of magnitude throughput increase while reducing footprint requirements in memory, command and data handling processor utilization, communication system interconnects and power consumption.

protocol processing hardware engine↗

Simulator of Space Communication Networks

Multimission Advanced Communications Hybrid Environment for Test and Evaluation (MACHETE) is a suite of software tools that simulates the behaviors of communication networks to be used in space exploration, and predict the performance of established and emerging space communication protocols and services. MACHETE consists of four general software systems: (1) a system for kinematic modeling of planetary and spacecraft motions; (2) a system for characterizing the engineering impact on the bandwidth and reliability of deep-space and in-situ communication links; (3) a system for generating traffic loads and modeling of protocol behaviors and state machines; and (4) a system of user-interface for performance metric visualizations. The kinematic-modeling system makes it possible to characterize space link connectivity effects, including occultations and signal losses arising from dynamic slant-range changes and antenna radiation patterns. The link-engineering system also accounts for antenna radiation patterns and other phenomena, including modulations, data rates, coding, noise, and multipath fading. The protocol system utilizes information from the kinematic-modeling and link-engineering systems to simulate operational scenarios of space missions and evaluate overall network performance. In addition, a Communications Effect Server (CES) interface for MACHETE has been developed to facilitate hybrid simulation of space communication networks with actual flight/ground software/hardware embedded in the overall system.

Clare, Loren↗

Overview of International Space Standards

This presentation reviews space standards as put forth by the International Organization for Standardization, additionally the organizational structure for both the international and US groups are presented. A new technical committee for space is proposed, areas of technical coverage are highlighted and models of space communications protocol and space link access service are presented.

spaceport data communications↗

A Blockchain and PKI-Based Secure Vehicle-to-Vehicle Energy-Trading Protocol

With the increasing awareness for sustainable future and green energy, the demand for electric vehicles (EVs) is growing rapidly, thus placing immense pressure on the energy grid. To alleviate this, local trading between EVs should be encouraged. In this paper, we propose a blockchain and public key infrastructure (PKI)-based secure vehicle-to-vehicle (V2V) energy-trading protocol. A permissioned blockchain utilizing the proof of authority (PoA) consensus and smart contracts is used to securely store data. Encrypted communication is ensured through transport layer security (TLS), with PKI managing the necessary digital certificates and keys. A multi-leader, multi-follower Stackelberg game-based trade algorithm is formulated to determine the optimal energy demands, supplies, and prices. Finally, we propose a detailed communication protocol that ties all the components together, enabling smooth interaction between them. Key findings, such as system behavior and performance, scalability of the trade algorithm and the blockchain, smart contract execution costs, etc., are presented through numerical results by implementing and simulating the protocol in various scenarios. This work not only enhances local energy trading among EVs, encouraging efficient energy usage and reducing burden on the power grid, but also paves a way for future research in sustainable energy management.

Stackelberg game↗

Policy-Based Negotiation Engine for Cross-Domain Interoperability

A successful policy negotiation scheme for Policy-Based Management (PBM) has been implemented. Policy negotiation is the process of determining the "best" communication policy that all of the parties involved can agree on. Specifically, the problem is how to reconcile the various (and possibly conflicting) communication protocols used by different divisions. The solution must use protocols available to all parties involved, and should attempt to do so in the best way possible. Which protocols are commonly available, and what the definition of "best" is will be dependent on the parties involved and their individual communications priorities.

Vatan, Farrokh↗

The Next Generation of Space Telemetry and Telecommand Standards

New standards for space/ground communications protocols are suggested for the following areas: a) file transfer based on the Internet, b) transport based on the Internet TCP/UDP, c) security derived from the ISO NLSP, a new space network, and a new space data link.

spacecraft communications telemetry standards tele↗

Hardware-in-the-Loop Testing of Wide-Area Damping Controller for Field Implementation in Large-scale Power Grid

In our previous work, an adaptive measurement-driven wide-area damping controller (WADC) for suppressing inter-area oscillations has been proposed and a hardware prototype was developed and validated through hardware-in-the-loop tests. As a continuation of the work, this paper introduces a WADC software prototype to handle the realistic challenges for field implementation in the control room of the power grid. The WADC software is developed and operated as an openPDC adapter with a graphical user interface (GUI) to monitor the WADC inputs and output, the communication delays and other variables. The software prototype has been fully tested through an enhanced hardware-in-the-loop (HIL) test setup. Its performance is verified under various realistic communication uncertainties, such as random time delays and data losses, with different communication protocols. The experiment results have proven the WADC software can deliver sufficient damping to suppress the targeted oscillation mode in handling various communication uncertainties for future field deployment.

Jia, Xinlan↗

SMC: SCENIC Model Control

NASAs Space Communications and Navigation (SCaN) program manages three active networks: the Near Earth Network, the Space Network, and the Deep Space Network. These networks simultaneously support NASA missions and provide communications services to customers worldwide. To efficiently manage these resources and their capabilities, a team of student interns at the NASA Glenn Research Center is developing a distributed system to model the SCaN networks. Once complete, the system shall provide a platform that enables users to perform capacity modeling of current and prospective missions with finer-grained control of information between several simulation and modeling tools. This will enable the SCaN program to access a holistic view of its networks and simulate the effects of modifications in order to provide NASA with decisional information. The development of this capacity modeling system is managed by NASAs Strategic Center for Education, Networking, Integration, and Communication (SCENIC). Three primary third-party software tools offer their unique abilities in different stages of the simulation process. MagicDraw provides UMLSysML modeling, AGIs Systems Tool Kit simulates the physical transmission parameters and de-conflicts scheduled communication, and Riverbed Modeler (formerly OPNET) simulates communication protocols and packet-based networking. SCENIC developers are building custom software extensions to integrate these components in an end-to-end space communications modeling platform. A central control module acts as the hub for report-based messaging between client wrappers. Backend databases provide information related to mission parameters and ground station configurations, while the end user defines scenario-specific attributes for the model. The eight SCENIC interns are working under the direction of their mentors to complete an initial version of this capacity modeling system during the summer of 2015. The intern team is composed of four students in Computer Science, two in Computer Engineering, one in Electrical Engineering, and one studying Space Systems Engineering.

Simulation↗

Redis-Based Streaming Architecture for Accelerator Beam Instrumentation DAQ Systems

The Fermilab Acceleraor Division, Beam Instrumentation Department, is always adopting modern and current software methodologies for complex DAQ architectures. This paper highlights the Redis Adapter (RA) as the key software component enabling high performance, modular communication between digitizers and distributed control systems by leveraging Redis and containerization. The RA provides a unified, efficient interface between Redis based data streams and consumer systems. In the legacy architecture, digitized data flowed through the custom, UDP based Distributed Data Communication Protocol in the middle layer. In the current system, DDCP remains the ingestion path, while the RA serves as the decoupling layer. The proposed system replaces old VME digitizers with a SOM-based digitizer that communicates with Redis using the RA. The RA acts as both a performance-critical bridge and a protocol-agnostic adapter, ensuring compatibility with legacy control frameworks while enabling future scalability and modularity. This restructuring of the middle layer also helps the system achieve high throughput, reduce latency, and simplify the data path. Finally, we will demonstrate how RA is utilized in our two core products to deliver both legacy compatibility and future flexibility.

Joshi, S. [Fermilab]↗

A Distributed Simulation-to-Flight Framework to Support Investigating Trust/Trustworthiness in Multi-Agent Systems

As autonomous systems continue to grow both in use and complexity, the necessity for robust and extensible simulation-to-flight frameworks is paramount for establishing an effective architecture for autonomous systems. Hardware test flights are time-consuming and cost prohibitive during early system design and development. Simulation environments can be useful tools to accelerate algorithm development and testing. However, transitions from simulation to flight (sim-to-flight) can be challenging, unless systems are designed with this transition in mind and with the necessary capabilities built into the architecture and framework. One of the objectives of Autonomy Teaming and TRAjectories for Complex Trusted Operational Reliability (ATTRACTOR) was to design and develop a distributed mixed-reality simulation environment to begin establishing a basis for certification of autonomous systems via research into trust and trustworthiness. ATTRACTOR’s objective was to construct computational concepts of trustworthiness and justifiable trust in multi-agent autonomous teams, to inform future certification of safety-critical and time-critical autonomous systems in aviation. In this paper, we present an autonomous systems architecture and development framework paired with a persistent distributed modeling and simulation (ModSim) environment for test and evaluation of autonomous systems. They were designed under ATTRACTOR in order to measure and establish trustworthiness and trust in single-and multi-agent human-machine systems whether these machines are fixed-wing general aviation, rotary-wing Unmanned Aerial Vehicles (UAVs), ground rovers, or even spacecraft. The Autonomous Entity Operational Network (AEON) framework enables autonomous system development with an easily extensible collection of libraries and plug-n-play nodes facilitated by the Data Distribution Service (DDS) communication protocol standard. The Baseline Environment for Autonomous Modeling (BEAM) simulation environment is a distributed mixed-reality Unity™-based environment built around the same DDS communication paradigm allowing for easy integration with AEON-based autonomous applications, enabling sim-to-flight with minimal configuration changes. Using AEON and BEAM, source code that runs in simulation ports directly to hardware and has successfully flown in the National Airspace System (NAS) at NASA LaRC many times over the lifetime of ATTRACTOR.

Benjamin N Kelley↗

A Distributed Simulation-to-Flight Framework to Support Investigating Trust/Trustworthiness in Multi-Agent Systems

As autonomous systems continue to grow both in use and complexity, the necessity for robust and extensible simulation-to-flight methods is paramount for establishing an effective architecture for autonomous systems. A fundamental objective of the ATTRACTOR (Autonomy Teaming and TRAjectories for Complex Trusted Operational Reliability) project was to design and develop a distributed mixed-reality simulation environment to begin establishing a basis for certification of autonomous systems via research into trust and trustworthiness. In this paper, we present an autonomous systems architecture and development framework paired with a persistent distributed modeling and simulation environment for test and evaluation of autonomous systems. The Autonomous Entity Operations Network (AEON) framework enables autonomous system development with an easily extensible collection of libraries and plug-n-play nodes facilitated by the Data Distribution Service (DDS) communication protocol standard. The Baseline Environment for Autonomous Modeling (BEAM) simulation environment is a distributed mixed-reality Unity™-based environment built around the same DDS communication paradigm allowing for easy integration with AEON-based autonomous applications. They were designed under ATTRACTOR in order to measure and establish trustworthiness and trust in single- and multi-agent human-machine systems whether these machines are fixed-wing general aviation, rotary-wing Unmanned Aerial Vehicles (UAVs), ground rovers, or even spacecraft. Together AEON and BEAM enable sim-to-flight with minimal configuration changes. By using AEON and BEAM, source code that runs in simulation ports directly to hardware and has successfully flown in the lab and in the National Airspace System (NAS) at NASA LaRC many times over the lifetime of ATTRACTOR.

Benjamin N Kelley↗

A Distributed Simulation-to-Flight Framework to Support Investigating Trust/Trustworthiness in Multi-Agent Systems

As autonomous systems continue to grow both in use and complexity, the necessity for robust and extensible simulation-to-flight methods is paramount for establishing an effective architecture for autonomous systems. A fundamental objective of the ATTRACTOR (Autonomy Teaming and TRAjectories for Complex Trusted Operational Reliability) project was to design and develop a distributed mixed-reality simulation environment to begin establishing a basis for certification of autonomous systems via research into trust and trustworthiness. In this paper, we present an autonomous systems architecture and development framework paired with a persistent distributed modeling and simulation environment for test and evaluation of autonomous systems. The Autonomous Entity Operations Network (AEON) framework enables autonomous system development with an easily extensible collection of libraries and plug-n-play nodes facilitated by the Data Distribution Service (DDS) communication protocol standard. The Baseline Environment for Autonomous Modeling (BEAM) simulation environment is a distributed mixed-reality Unity™-based environment built around the same DDS communication paradigm allowing for easy integration with AEON-based autonomous applications. They were designed under ATTRACTOR in order to measure and establish trustworthiness and trust in single- and multi-agent human-machine systems whether these machines are fixed-wing general aviation, rotary-wing Unmanned Aerial Vehicles (UAVs), ground rovers, or even spacecraft. Together AEON and BEAM enable sim-to-flight with minimal configuration changes. By using AEON and BEAM, source code that runs in simulation ports directly to hardware and has successfully flown in the lab and in the National Airspace System (NAS) at NASA LaRC many times over the lifetime of ATTRACTOR.

Benjamin N Kelley↗

Vehicle Integrated Prognostic Reasoner (VIPR) 2010 Annual Final Report

Honeywell's Central Maintenance Computer Function (CMCF) and Aircraft Condition Monitoring Function (ACMF) represent the state-of-the art in integrated vehicle health management (IVHM). Underlying these technologies is a fault propagation modeling system that provides nose-to-tail coverage and root cause diagnostics. The Vehicle Integrated Prognostic Reasoner (VIPR) extends this technology to interpret evidence generated by advanced diagnostic and prognostic monitors provided by component suppliers to detect, isolate, and predict adverse events that affect flight safety. This report describes year one work that included defining the architecture and communication protocols and establishing the user requirements for such a system. Based on these and a set of ConOps scenarios, we designed and implemented a demonstration of communication pathways and associated three-tiered health management architecture. A series of scripted scenarios showed how VIPR would detect adverse events before they escalate as safety incidents through a combination of advanced reasoning and additional aircraft data collected from an aircraft condition monitoring system. Demonstrating VIPR capability for cases recorded in the ASIAS database and cross linking them with historical aircraft data is planned for year two.

Hadden, George D.↗

Semi-Autonomous Vehicle Project

The primary objective this summer is "evaluating standards for wireless architecture for the internet of things". The Internet of Things is the network of physical objects or "things" embedded with electronics, software, sensors and network connectivity which enables these objects to collect and exchange data and make decisions based on said data. This was accomplished by creating a semi-autonomous vehicle that takes advantage of multiple sensors, cameras, and onboard computers and combined them with a mesh network which enabled communication across large distances with little to no interruption. The mesh network took advantage of what is known as DTN - Disruption Tolerant Networking which according to NASA is the new communications protocol that is "the first step towards interplanetary internet." The use of DTN comes from the fact that it will store information if an interruption in communications is detected and even forward that information via other relays within range so that the data is not lost. This translates well into the project because as the car moves further away from whatever is sending it commands (in this case a joystick), the information can still be forwarded to the car with little to no loss of information thanks to the mesh nodes around the driving area.

Stewart, Christopher↗