Engineering topics

Hall, Charles S.

Publications and source records attributed to Hall, Charles S..

6 records

NASA NTRS2020

Space Telecommunications Radio System (STRS) Architecture, Tutorial Part 1 - Overview

Space Telecommunications Radio System (STRS) Architecture Standard provides a NASA standard forsoftware-defined radio. The STRS architecture has been demonstrated in the Space Communications and Navigation(SCaN) Testbed on the International Space Station as well as associated ground station radios. The STRS ArchitectureTutorial Overview presents a general introduction to the STRS architecture standard developed at the NASA GlennResearch Center (GRC), describes some of the main elements for STRS compliance, and addresses some frequentlyasked questions.. The STRS architecture should be used as a base for many of NASA s future telecommunicationstechnologies. The presentation will provide a basic understanding of STRS.

Handler, Louis M.↗

NASA NTRS2016

Future Standardization of Space Telecommunications Radio System with Core Flight System

NASA Glenn Research Center (GRC) is integrating the NASA Space Telecommunications Radio System (STRS) Standard with the Core Flight System (cFS), an avionics software operating environment. The STRS standard provides a common, consistent framework to develop, qualify, operate and maintain complex, reconfigurable and reprogrammable radio systems. The cFS is a flexible, open architecture that features a plugand- play software executive called the Core Flight Executive (cFE), a reusable library of software components for flight and space missions and an integrated tool suite. Together, STRS and cFS create a development environment that allows for STRS compliant applications to reference the STRS application programmer interfaces (APIs) that use the cFS infrastructure. These APIs are used to standardize the communication protocols on NASAs space SDRs. The cFS-STRS Operating Environment (OE) is a portable cFS library, which adds the ability to run STRS applications on existing cFS platforms. The purpose of this paper is to discuss the cFS-STRS OE prototype, preliminary experimental results performed using the Advanced Space Radio Platform (ASRP), the GRC S‑ band Ground Station and the SCaN (Space Communication and Navigation) Testbed currently flying onboard the International Space Station (ISS). Additionally, this paper presents a demonstration of the Consultative Committee for Space Data Systems (CCSDS) Spacecraft Onboard Interface Services (SOIS) using electronic data sheets (EDS) inside cFE. This configuration allows for the data sheets to specify binary formats for data exchange between STRS applications. The integration of STRS with cFS leverages mission-proven platform functions and mitigates barriers to integration with future missions. This reduces flight software development time and the costs of software-defined radio (SDR) platforms. Furthermore, the combined benefits of STRS standardization with the flexibility of cFS provide an effective, reliable and modular framework to minimize software development efforts for spaceflight missions.

space communications↗

NASA NTRS2008

Space Telecommunications Radio System (STRS) Definitions and Acronyms

Software-defined radio is a relatively new technology area, and industry consensus on terminology is not always consistent. Confusion exists when the various organizations and standards bodies define different radio terms associated with the actual amount of reconfigurability of the radios. The Space Telecommunications Radio System (STRS) Definitions and Acronyms Document provides the readers of the STRS documents a common understanding of the terminology used and how they will be applied to the STRS architecture.

Briones, Janette C.↗

NASA NTRS2008

Space Telecommunications Radio System Software Architecture Concepts and Analysis

The Space Telecommunications Radio System (STRS) project investigated various Software Defined Radio (SDR) architectures for Space. An STRS architecture has been selected that separates the STRS operating environment from its various waveforms and also abstracts any specialized hardware to limit its effect on the operating environment. The design supports software evolution where new functionality is incorporated into the radio. Radio hardware functionality has been moving from hardware based ASICs into firmware and software based processors such as FPGAs, DSPs and General Purpose Processors (GPPs). Use cases capture the requirements of a system by describing how the system should interact with the users or other systems (the actors) to achieve a specific goal. The Unified Modeling Language (UML) is used to illustrate the Use Cases in a variety of ways. The Top Level Use Case diagram shows groupings of the use cases and how the actors are involved. The state diagrams depict the various states that a system or object may be in and the transitions between those states. The sequence diagrams show the main flow of activity as described in the use cases.

Handler, Louis M.↗

NASA NTRS2008

Open Architecture Standard for NASA's Software-Defined Space Telecommunications Radio Systems

NASA is developing an architecture standard for software-defined radios used in space- and ground-based platforms to enable commonality among radio developments to enhance capability and services while reducing mission and programmatic risk. Transceivers (or transponders) with functionality primarily defined in software (e.g., firmware) have the ability to change their functional behavior through software alone. This radio architecture standard offers value by employing common waveform software interfaces, method of instantiation, operation, and testing among different compliant hardware and software products. These common interfaces within the architecture abstract application software from the underlying hardware to enable technology insertion independently at either the software or hardware layer. This paper presents the initial Space Telecommunications Radio System (STRS) Architecture for NASA missions to provide the desired software abstraction and flexibility while minimizing the resources necessary to support the architecture.

Reinhart, Richard C.↗

NASA NTRS2008

Updates to the NASA Space Telecommunications Radio System (STRS) Architecture

This paper describes an update of the Space Telecommunications Radio System (STRS) open architecture for NASA space based radios. The STRS architecture has been defined as a framework for the design, development, operation and upgrade of space based software defined radios, where processing resources are constrained. The architecture has been updated based upon reviews by NASA missions, radio providers, and component vendors. The STRS Standard prescribes the architectural relationship between the software elements used in software execution and defines the Application Programmer Interface (API) between the operating environment and the waveform application. Modeling tools have been adopted to present the architecture. The paper will present a description of the updated API, configuration files, and constraints. Minimum compliance is discussed for early implementations. The paper then closes with a summary of the changes made and discussion of the relevant alignment with the Object Management Group (OMG) SWRadio specification, and enhancements to the specialized signal processing abstraction.

Kacpura, Thomas J.↗