[Sis-ams] status of AMS WG

[Burleigh, Scott C (313B)]

Sorry, everybody, I am grievously late in posting a state-of-the-WG message as of the conclusion of the spring CCSDS working meetings in Berlin.  Here's where we are, in a nutshell.

Goals of the AMS WG meeting: 
    Review results of supplementary interoperability testing, to enable publication of the AMS Blue Book as a Recommended Standard.
    Review final revisions to AMS Blue Book draft.

Working Group status:
    Interoperability testing is completed.  Test report is being prepared.
    Note that the AMS specification now needs two additional updates: a patent declaration and a SANA section.

Other remarks:
    Most of the AMS WG meeting was devoted to a review of AMS capability from the perspective of potential users in standardized telerobotics.  The WG noted that there is a strong desire for a detailed study comparing and contrasting potential middleware technologies for standardized telerobotics: AMS, OMG RTPS (DDS), and U. of Colorado BioNet.  Performance of this study might be a charter item for the proposed new Telerobotics Working Group.
    The WG also noted that an AMS configuration visualization and debugging tool would be highly useful.  One option for developing such a tool would be to construct AMS plug-ins for the open-source Wireshark system.
    We had a joint meeting with the SM&C WG, organized by RASIG, to considered proposed text for a position paper explaining terminology alignment between AMS and SM&C MAL.  We seemed to be fairly close to consensus on that position, and in fact we may have gotten a bit closer in a follow-up telecon we held this morning.  The notion is to insert this alignment statement into both the AMS and MAL specifications as an informative Annex, to provide some guidance to future MAL developers who might want to use AMS to implement the MAL functions.

Current Working Group plan:
    Deliver final Interoperability Test Report Yellow Book draft and final AMS Blue Book draft to the SIS Area Director in July 2011, with intent to enable a final CESG poll in August.

Scott