International Telemetering Conference Proceedings, Volume 39 (2003)
ABOUT THE COLLECTION
The International Telemetering Conference/USA (ITC/USA) is dedicated to the promotion and stimulation of technical growth in telemetering and its allied arts and sciences. It is the premier annual forum and technical exhibition providing telemetry specific short courses, technical papers from professionals and students, and exhibits of the industry’s leading companies. ITC/USA is sponsored by the International Foundation for Telemetering (IFT), a non-profit corporation dedicated to serving the technical and professional interests of the telemetering community.
This collection contains the proceedings of the thirty-ninth International Telemetering Conference, October 20-23, 2003. The conference, sponsored by the International Foundation for Telemetering, was held at the Riviera Hotel and Convention Center in Las Vegas, Nevada.
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International Telemetering Conference Proceedings, Volume 39 (2003)International Foundation for Telemetering, 2003-10
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A DESIGN FOR SATELLITE GROUND STATION RECEIVER AUTOCONFIGURATIONIn this paper, we propose a receiver design for satellite ground station use which can demodulate a waveform without specific knowledge of the data rate, convolutional code rate, or line code used. Several assumptions, consistent with the Space Network operating environment, are made including only certain data rates, convolutional code rates and generator polynomials, and types of line encoders. Despite the assumptions, a wide class of digital signaling (covering most of what might be seen at a ground station receiver) is captured. The approach uses standard signal processing techniques to identify data rate and line encoder class and a look up table with coded sync words (a standard feature of telemetry data frame header) in order to identify the key parameters. As our research has shown, the leading bits of the received coded frame can be used to uniquely identify the parameters. With proper identification, a basic receiver autoconfiguration sequence (date rate, line decoder, convolutional decoder) may be constructed.
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ALAMOUTI SPACE-TIME CODING FOR QPSK WITH DELAY DIFFERENTIALSpace-time coding (STC) for QPSK where the transmitted signals are received with the same delay is well known. This paper examines the case where the transmitted signals are received with a nonnegligible delay differential when the Alamouti 2x1 STC is used. Such a differential can be caused by a large spacing of the transmit antennas. In this paper, an expression for the received signal with a delay differential is derived and a decoding algorithm for that signal is developed. In addition, the performance of this new algorithm is compared to the standard Alamouti decoding algorithm for various delay differentials.
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SIMULATED PERFORMANCE OF SERIAL CONCATENATED LDPC CODESWith the discovery of Turbo Codes in 1993, interest in developing error control coding schemes that approach channel capacity has intensified. Some of this interest has been focused on lowdensity parity-check (LDPC) codes due to their high performance characteristics and reasonable decoding complexity. A great deal of literature has focused on performance of regular and irregular LDPC codes of various rates and on a variety of channels. This paper presents the simulated performance results of a serial concatenated LDPC coding system on an AWGN channel. Performance and complexity comparisons between this serial LDPC system and typical LDPC systems are made.
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Space-Time Coding for Avionic Telemetry ChannelsMultiple antennas promise high data capacity for wireless communications. Most space-time coding schemes in literature focus on the rich scatter environment. In this paper, we argue that minimax criterion is a good design criterion for space-time codes over the avionic telemetry channels. This design criterion is different than those of space-time codes over rich scattering Rayleigh fading channels. Theoretical and numerical results show that the codes with optimal performance in Rayleigh fading channels do not necessarily have optimal performance in avionic telemetry channels. Therefore, the space-time codes should be carefully designed/selected when used in the avionic telemetry channels.
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UNEQUAL ERROR PROTECTION FOR JOINT SOURCE-CHANNEL CODING SCHEMESA joint source-channel coding scheme (JSCCS) used in applications, like sending images, voice, music etc. over internet/ wireless networks, involves source coding to compress the information and channel coding to detect/ correct errors, introduced by the channel. In this paper, we investigate the unequal error protection (UEP) capability of a class of low-density parity-check (LDPC) codes in a JSCCS. This class of irregular LDPC codes is constructed from cyclic difference families (CDFs).
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AN INTRODUCTION TO LOW-DENSITY PARITY-CHECK CODESLow-Density Parity-Check (LDPC) codes are powerful codes capable of nearly achieving the Shannon channel capacity. This paper presents a tutorial introduction to LDPC codes, with a detailed description of the decoding algorithm. The algorithm propagates information about bit and check probabilities through a tree obtained from the Tanner graph for the code. This paper may be useful as a supplement in a course on error-control coding or digital communication.
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TCP EXTENSIONS FOR A SATELLITE CHANNELThe usage of Internet is explosively growing. Satellite has become a choice solution breaking through the bandwidth bottleneck and the terrain limit. TCP, which is well suited to terrestrial networks, performs poorly on a satellite channel. The reduced efficiency and QoS(Quality of Service) mainly result from three characteristics of a satellite link: higher bit error rate, the high latency, asymmetry. For this issue, the paper presents connection-subsection network architecture, and brings forward S-TCP based on the architecture.
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Wireless Transducer Systems Architectures – A User’s PerspectiveThis paper provides essential requirements and describes some possible architectures of so-called Wireless Transducers Systems from the user’s perspective and discusses the application advantages of each architecture, in the airplane-testing environment. The intent of this paper is to stimulate discussion in the transducer user and supplier communities and standards committees, leading to increased product suitability and lower cost for commercial off the shelf wireless transducer products.
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ACQUISITION AND DISTRIBUTION OF TSPI DATA USING COTS HARDWARE OVER AN ETHERNET NETWORKThe Western Aeronautical Test Range (WATR) operates the ground stations for research vehicles operating at the NASA Dryden Flight Research Center (DFRC). Recently, the WATR implemented a new system for distributing Time, Space, and Position Information (TSPI) data. The previous system for processing this data was built on archaic hardware that is no longer supported, running legacy software with no upgrade path. The purpose of the Radar Information Processing System (RIPS) is to provide the ability to acquire TSPI data from a variety of sources and process the data for subsequent distribution to other destinations located at the various DFRC facilities. RIPS is built of commercial, off the shelf (COTS) hardware installed in Personal Computers (PC). Data is transported between these computers on a Gigabit Ethernet network. The software was developed using C++ with a modular, object-oriented design approach.
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RANGE INSTRUMENTATION AND CONTROL SYSTEM (RICS)The Range Instrumentation and Control System (RICS) is a PC-based multi-platform data acquisition and display system utilizing CORBA and Multicast UDP in a client/server architecture. Its main purpose is to collect time-space position information (TSPI) from one or more remote radar sites and distribute it in real-time across a wide area network (WAN). This paper describes the collection of MS Windows-based software applications that are designed to control and monitor data acquisition in real-time from a remote console.
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DESIGN AND DEVELOPMENT OF ADVANCED TRANSCEIVER UNIT FOR WIRELESS MOBILE SENSING SYSTEMSSensor technology is continually advancing to meet demands of a wide range of potential applications. Many of these applications could be better served by distributed sensing than by traditional centralized sensing. To support these emerging applications, it is important to design and develop a unified framework for communication and network infrastructure capable of supporting various sensing functions. A research prototype operating in the 915 MHz Industrial, Scientific, and Medical band (ISM band) has been developed as potentially the core component of this infrastructure. In this paper, we will present the design and optimization of the system, data processing procedures, system parameters, network protocols, and experimental results.
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ADVANCED GPR SYSTEM FOR HIGH-PERFORMANCE TOMOGRAPHIC SUBSURFACE IMAGINGIn this paper, the research prototype of a high-performance GPR imaging system is presented. The system is equipped with the capability of synthetic-aperture scan, stepfrequency FMCW illumination, and high-resolution tomographic image reconstruction.
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EXPENDABLE LAUNCH VEHICLE VIDEO SYSTEMThe Delta expendable launch vehicle has been flying onboard video cameras. The camera is an NTSC analog camera that directly modulates an FM transmitter. A standard FM deviation is used to maximize link performance while minimizing transmitted bandwidth. Pre-emphasis per CCIR recommendation 405 is used to improve the video signal-to-noise ratio. The camera and transmitter obtain power from either a separate battery or the vehicle power system. Lighting is provided by sunlight, or a light may be added when sunlight is unavailable. Multiple cameras are accommodated by either using multiple transmitters or by switching the individual cameras in flight. IRIG-B timing is used to correlate the video with other vehicle telemetry.
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COMPRESSION FOR STORAGE AND TRANSMISSION OF LASER RADAR MEASUREMENTSWe develop novel methods for compressing volumetric imagery that has been generated by single platform (mobile) range sensors. We exploit the correlation structure inherent in multiple views in order to improve compression efficiency. We show that, for lossy compression, three-dimensional volumes compress more efficiently than two-dimensional (2D) images. In fact, our error metric suggests that accumulating more than 9 range images in one volume before compression yields up to a 99% improvement in compression performance over 2D compression.
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NAVY FLIGHT TEST AND THE REAL-TIME TELEMETRY PROCESSING SYSTEMThe architecture and capabilities of Navy Flight Test’s latest generation telemetry system are described. The Real-time Telemetry Processing System (RTPS) is the name ascribed to successive systems at the Patuxent River Navy Flight Test complex since 1973. This version of the system, dubbed RTPS IV, and the associated facility improvements will enable the Navy to support the next generation military fighter, the Joint Strike Fighter, and every other ongoing and planned Navy test program.
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BRINGING RANGES CLOSER TOGETHER – NEW OPPORTUNITIES IN RANGE INTERCONNECTIVITYTest and training ranges have sought the holy grail of large-scale range interconnectivity for many years. The ability to test at any range and transmit the information to the engineers at the home base and control the mission without sending the entire test team to a remote location improves the test schedules, reduces the cost of testing and improves the testing capabilities. New opportunities of interconnecting ranges are changing the business of open air range testing and the resulting capabilities. Two predominant opportunities will be discussed in this paper. First, is taking advantage of the fiber glut that the US is currently experiencing along with opportunities for government-acquired assets to service the testing community. This approach provides the government the ability to fiber-optically create a virtual test range and provide full interconnectivity of all data. Second is to take advantage of the existing networks such as the Defense Research Engineering Network (DREN) to make efficient on-demand type connectivity where, otherwise, it would be cost prohibitive.
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IMPROVING REAL-TIME LATENCY PERFORMANCE ON COTS ARCHITECTURESTelemetry systems designed to support the current needs of mission-critical applications often have stringent real-time requirements. These systems must guarantee a maximum worst-case processing and response time when incoming data is received. These real-time tolerances continue to tighten as data rates increase. At the same time, end user requirements for COTS pricing efficiencies have forced many telemetry systems to now run on desktop operating systems like Windows or Unix. While these desktop operating systems offer advanced user interface capabilities, they cannot meet the realtime requirements of the many mission-critical telemetry applications. Furthermore, attempts to enhance desktop operating systems to support real-time constraints have met with only limited success. This paper presents a telemetry system architecture that offers real-time guarantees while at the same time extensively leveraging inexpensive COTS hardware and software components. This is accomplished by partitioning the telemetry system onto two processors. The first processor is a NetAcquire subsystem running a real-time operating system (RTOS). The second processor runs a desktop operating system running the user interface. The two processors are connected together with a high-speed Ethernet IP internetwork. This architecture affords an improvement of two orders of magnitude over the real-time performance of a standalone desktop operating system.
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APPLICATION OF DATA COMPRESSION TO FRAME AND PACKET TELEMETRYReduction of signal transmission is of paramount concern to many in the telemetry and wireless industry. One technique that is available is the compression of the data before transmission. With telemetry type data, there are many approaches that can be used to achieve compression. Data compression of the Advanced Range Telemetry (ARTM) PCM data sets in the frame and packet modes, and for the entire data file will be considered and compared. The technique of differencing data will also be applied to the data files by subtracting the previous major frame and then applying compression techniques. It will be demonstrated that telemetry compression is a viable option to reduce the amount of data to be transmitted, and hence the bandwidth. However, this compression produces variable-length data segments with implications for real-time data synchronization.
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BIT RATE AGILITY FOR EFFICIENT TELEMETRYThe Bit Rate Agile Onboard Telemetry Formatting (BRAOTF) system was developed by Killdeer Mountain Manufacturing to address increasing demands on the efficiency of telemetry systems. The BRAOTF thins and reorders data streams, adjusting the bit rate of a pulse code modulation (PCM) stream using a bit-locked loop to match the desired information rate exactly. The BRAOTF accomplishes the adjustment in hardware, synthesizing a clock whose operating frequency is derived from the actual timing of the input format. Its firmware manages initialization and error management. Testing has confirmed that the BRAOTF implementation meets its design goals.