[CESG] RE: re:Interest in forming a BoF to follow up on SDR standardisation?

Jean-luc Gerner jeanluc.gerner at yahoo.com
Wed Sep 15 11:01:21 EDT 2010


Adrian,
The various email exchanges show that, indeed, some thinking is needed to make 
up our mind as to what should be standardised (if any) by CCSDS. My own opinion 
is that, since CCSDS is dealing with cross-support, it might be worthwhile 
thinking of communications procedures and protocols and what benefits a 
flexible/in-flight programmable radio  can offer. The end product might be 
requirements on functionalities of onboard and onground radios.
Note that the current generation of European transponders and ESA ground Tx/Rx 
devices are already SDRs.
The role of a BOF being mostly to write a WG charter, I wonder to what extent a 
cross-areas SIG would not be more adequate at this stage.

Jean-Luc



________________________________
From: "Hooke, Adrian J (9000)" <adrian.j.hooke at jpl.nasa.gov>
To: "chris.taylor at esa.int" <chris.taylor at esa.int>
Cc: "Lyke, James C Civ USAF AFMC AFRL/RVSE" <james.lyke at kirtland.af.mil>; Larry 
Foore <lawrence.r.foore at nasa.gov>; CCSDS Engineering Steering Group - CESG Exec 
<cesg at mailman.ccsds.org>
Sent: Wed, September 15, 2010 4:30:03 PM
Subject: [CESG] RE: re:Interest in forming a BoF to follow up on SDR 
standardisation?


Chris: I agree that we should keep the scope focused on defining exactly what we 
would propose to internationally standardize in association with a 
software-defined spacecraft radio. Therefore, SOIS appears to be the right 
initial home for the activity. After we have understood this more narrow 
application (and whether or not there *is* value in a standard), we can then 
decide if the work should be expanded or should migrate to another Area (SLS 
also seems to be a possible candidate). We might also decide that CCSDS isn’t 
the right home. In order to get to those decisions, we need a much clearer 
picture of the problem and proposed solution. I have therefore asked Larry Foore 
to take up your SOIS hosting offer and to work with you to raise the BOF in 
London.
 
I am also pleased to see the renewed interest in moving forward on the 
plug-n-play work. We have literally zero NASA standards resources to apply to 
this problem but I agree that it offers a realistic way forward and I understand 
from Jim Lyke that the Air Force Research Lab is willing to shoulder some of the 
burden. Can we assume that – as Chair of the SOIS PnP BOF – Stuart will be 
calling a meeting in London?
 
By the way, the SpaceOps video on CCSDS and DTN just got posted to the NASA 
public website:
 
http://www.nasa.gov/multimedia/videogallery/index.html?media_id=16351503
 
///adrian
 
 
-----Original Message-----
From: chris.taylor at esa.int [mailto:chris.taylor at esa.int] 
Sent: Tuesday, September 14, 2010 4:09 AM
To: Shames, Peter M (313B)
Cc: Hooke, Adrian J (9000); CCSDS Engineering Steering Group - CESG Exec; 
Jean-Luc Gerner; Larry Foore
Subject: re:Interest in forming a BoF to follow up on SDR standardisation?
 
Dear all,, I haven't replied yet to the initial interest in this topic but I
have done a little background digging here and at ESA we would be interested
in investigating the original target of SDR.  I have no problem to host the
discussion in the SOIS area and would propose an agenda item on the Thursday
for which we will free an existing SOIS room.
 
If Peter wants to take on the more ambitious activity of a standardised
platform in SEA this is fine by me but this is a very large undertaking and
I'm not so sure we are in a position to proceed.
 
What we have been working on at ESA, to a large extent driven by CCSDS SOIS
but also as part of our SAVOIR coordination activity with industry,  is the
identification of avionics building blocks with well defined interfaces and
functions. A good example of this is a mass memory unit complying with SOIS
file and packet store services supported by ECSS defined protocols for
Milbus, CAN and SpaceWire. We are busy mapping this to the packet utilisation
standard (PUS) used over the space link in support of file based operations.
As part of our DTN/CFDP implementation activities we will use a prototype
mass memory implementation to further verify the setup.
 
After some delays, which have slowed the work in SOIS, we have just secured
funding for related activities on the use of electronic data sheets and plug
and play protocols, and I would suggest that this offers a more realistic way
forward in harmonising our onboard systems.
 
Lots to discuss I guess,
 
Regards,
//ct
 
 
If Peter
 
 
 
 
 
                                                                             
             "Shames, Peter M                                                
             (313B)"                                                         
             <peter.m.shames at jp                                           To 
             l.nasa.gov>                "Hooke, Adrian J (9000)"             
                                        <adrian.j.hooke at jpl.nasa.gov>,       
             13/09/2010 22:58           Jean-Luc Gerner                      
                                        <jeanluc.gerner at yahoo.com>, Chris    
                                        Taylor <Chris.Taylor at esa.int>        
                                                                          cc 
                                        Larry Foore                          
                                        <lawrence.r.foore at nasa.gov>, CCSDS   
                                        Engineering Steering Group - CESG    
                                        Exec <cesg at mailman.ccsds.org>        
                                                                     Subject 
                                        Re: Interest in forming a BoF to     
                                        follow up on SDR standardisation?    
                                                                             
                                                                             
                                                                             
                                                                             
                                                                             
                                                                             
 
 
 
 
I think it is time to take a serious look at this and cannot think of another
organization in which we could do it and produce a result that will be
meaningful to our civilian space agencies.  Since calling it “reconfigurable,
modular, interoperable communications platforms” sounds rather cross-cutting
and the product is likely to be a recommended practice or a reference
architecture rather than a single discrete protocol spec, I would consider
housing it in SEA.
 
Regardless of where it winds up it will be essential to include the
perspectives, and the experts, of other areas and other working groups.
 
Peter
 
 
 
On 9/13/10 1:33 PM, "Adrian Hooke" <Adrian.J.Hooke at jpl.nasa.gov> wrote:
 
      Jean-Luc, Chris, Peter: following lunch-time his talk at the Portsmouth
      meeting, Larry Foore of NASA-Glenn has been leading an activity over
      the summer to identify if there is potential interest in CCSDS in
      forming a BOF to study the possible standardization of “software
      defined radios”. I understand from Larry that as an outcome of these
      discussions it has been proposed to broaden the scope from SDRs to
      reconfigurable, modular, interoperable communications platforms in
      general.
 
      There has been considerably US interest in this subject but I
      understand from Larry that only one person from another Agency (ESA)
      became engaged over the summer (this may of course be because of the
      holiday period). We therefore need to decide whether to “raise a BOF”
      at the London meeting. If we do, we need to decide to which Area it
      would be attached. Do any of you have sufficient interest to call such
      a BOF? If not, we should drop the subject. Please indicate your
      interest:
 
 
      Best regards
      Adrian
 
 
      From: sois-wir-bounces at mailman.ccsds.org [
      mailto:sois-wir-bounces at mailman.ccsds.org] On Behalf Of Stuart Fowell
      Sent: Monday, July 12, 2010 10:28 AM
      To: sois at mailman.ccsds.org; sois-app at mailman.ccsds.org;
      sois-subnet at mailman.ccsds.org; sois-wir at mailman.ccsds.org
      Subject: [Sois-wir] Interest in forming a BoF to follow up on SDR
      standardisation
 
 
      Dear SOIS members,
 
 
 
      There is currently a proposal before the CCSDS Engineering Steering
      Group (CESG) to form a Birds-of-a-Feather group (BoF) looking into the
      interest in standardising on Software-Defined Radio (SDR) in the Space
      domain.
 
 
 
      If you have any interest in participating in such a BoF please could
      you let me know by the end of 13 July 2010 so I can report this back to
      the CESG.
 
 
 
      Regards,
 
      Stuart D. Fowell BEng MBCS
 
 
 
_______________________________________________________
 
Peter Shames
Manager - JPL Data Systems Standards Program
InterPlanetary Network Directorate
Jet Propulsion Laboratory, MS 301-490
California Institute of Technology
Pasadena, CA 91109 USA
 
Telephone: +1 818 354-5740,  Fax: +1 818 393-6871
 
Internet:  Peter.M.Shames at jpl.nasa.gov
________________________________________________________
"We shall not cease from exploration, and the end of all our exploring
will be to arrive at where we started, and know the place for the first time"
 
T.S. Eliot


      
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