[SLS] [EXTERNAL] It is a smaller sandwich: [Sea-sa] Background materials for today's SEA-SA SCCS-ARD discussion

[Gian.Paolo.Calzolari at esa.int]

Dear Peter,
        a friend of mine uses to say that "if you ask for advice to a 
sufficient number of persons, at least one will eventually recommend you 
what you wanted to do".
In the same way, I am sure that looking around for sufficient time we will 
find the "One Thousand and One Arabian Layers" book by Shahrazad.

I think we shall ensure consistency in CCSDS and therefore I stick to 
CCSDS books.
BTW, I do not find fully correct stating that <in CCSDS we have “data 
link” == SDLP and C&S, and “physical” == RF & Mod and now optical>.
As the figures (in my original mail) show the OSI Data Link Layer is 
indeed split by CCSDS into two sublayer. Conversely the Physical Layer 
(1:1 correspondence between OSI and CCSDS) can be characterised in many 
ways: RF, Optical, Cable, etc.
In one case we have splitting, in the other one we have "characterization 
(according to physical characteristics)".

Can you please define what you call < “normal” CCSDS standards>?

It is true that in many CCSDS Standards (as e.g. the Space Data Link 
Protocols, but not only), in order to conserve bandwidth on the space 
link, some parameters associated with the given standard are handled by 
management rather than by inline communications protocol. 
Usually there is a mixing of managed and inline parameters. Just to 
mention an example, https://public.ccsds.org/Pubs/732x0b3e1.pdf uses in 
the Frame Header a Virtual Channel identifier and even a "Signaling 
Field".
Actually, USLP ( https://public.ccsds.org/Pubs/732x1b1.pdf ) goes further 
and - as you know - Greg proudly remarks that USLP increases the number of 
signalling fields.

Indeed the  diagrams I sent do not really reflect any of the details added 
by the "VCM family" because it was not the scope of those figures.
Other diagrams in the various standards clarify the details that have 
nothing to do with layering.

My conclusion is that all CCSDS Standards are "normal" CCSDS Standards and 
include both managed parameters and inline parameters.
Increasing the inline parameters - as USLP shows just to give an example 
outside coding and modulation fields - increases complexity but I am not 
aware of a CCSDS mandate for only keeping simple things  and/or stopping 
progress.
The increased complexity (in general) is a price to pay for modernity and 
efficiency and - luckily - a  price we can pay thanks to new technologies 
as e.g. LDPC codes -  invented by Gallager ( 
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Robert_G._Gallager ) in 1960  when their 
implementation was unrealistic for the technology available at that time - 
do show.

This closes my discussions on layering.
Otherwise I confirm my statement: I still need to digest all the aspects 
of your message, however I can ensure that SLS (with proper coordination) 
will try to provide some punctual technical comments on the individual 
items. 

Best regards

Gippo




From:   "Shames, Peter M (US 312B)" <peter.m.shames at jpl.nasa.gov>
To:     "Gian.Paolo.Calzolari at esa.int" <Gian.Paolo.Calzolari at esa.int>
Cc:     "SEA-SA" <sea-sa at mailman.ccsds.org>, "SLS - Space Link Services 
Area" <sls at mailman.ccsds.org>
Date:   03-03-21 23:08
Subject:        Re: [EXTERNAL] It is a smaller sandwich: [Sea-sa] 
Background materials for today's SEA-SA SCCS-ARD discussion



Hi Gippo,
 
We welcome the inputs from the SLS Area in ensuring that what gets 
reflected in the SCCS-ARD is accurate.  We use as sources for all of these 
materials the published standards (and the draft ones that are 
sufficiently mature, as noted).
 
As for “how many layers”, that sort of depends on how you count them.  We 
all know that the ISO BRM only lists “data link - layer 2” and “physical - 
layer 1”.  But in CCSDS we have “data link” == SDLP and C&S, and 
“physical” == RF & Mod and now optical.   The fact that C&S and RF&Mod 
both include an “and” reflects that these are themselves compound 
entities, with “sub-layers” of sorts.  And we are all aware that SDLP 
frame lengths get bound to C&S block lengths in special ways.
 
Furthermore, in all of the “normal” CCSDS standards the approach that has 
consistently been taken is to use “managed parameters” in many cases and 
thereby require that the two ends of the comm link, sender and receiver, 
coordinate ahead of time and choreograph communications assets for 
pointing as well as choreograph data rate changes and changes to 
“communications modes”, such as low rate, high rate, emergency mode, 
one-way, two-way, etc.  It all gets pre-planned and “baked in” to the 
communications pass.  There is no signaling aside from whatever gets 
transmitted.
 
But in the SCCC and DVB-S2, and now the VCM too, we introduce a new 
signaling mechanism, a new physical layer “framing” approach, and with ACM 
a feedback loop from receiver back to sender.  The diagrams you sent do 
not really reflect any of this added detail or complexity, which is why we 
produced the more detailed diagrams that show these features, which were 
extracted from the standards themselves.  It would be useful to have your 
team review these more accurate diagrams and make sure that they correctly 
reflect the all of the features, and their ordering and connections, that 
are present in these standards.  I find them to be much more useful than 
those block diagrams that leave out all of these details.
 
Is that something you can do?
 
We can argue over how many “layers”, relative to the ISO BRM, but it seems 
pretty clear that CCSDS has for years been treating L1 and L2 as having 
sub-layers.  And it seems pretty clear that these newer, more complicated, 
standards introduce even more sub-layers, as well as some new “cross 
layer” management and control “sub-layers” that live “on the side” and 
control behavior of these other sub-layers.
 
It would be good to get your feedback to make sure that we represent all 
of this accurately.
 
Thanks, Peter
 
 
From: Gian Paolo Calzolari <Gian.Paolo.Calzolari at esa.int>
Date: Wednesday, March 3, 2021 at 10:18 AM
To: Peter Shames <peter.m.shames at jpl.nasa.gov>
Cc: SEA-SA <sea-sa at mailman.ccsds.org>, SLS - Space Link Services Area 
<sls at mailman.ccsds.org>
Subject: [EXTERNAL] It is a smaller sandwich: [Sea-sa] Background 
materials for today's SEA-SA SCCS-ARD discussion
 
Dear Peter, 
        I must say that I am quite puzzled by this mail. 
I still need to digest all the aspects of your message, however I can 
ensure that SLS (with proper coordination) will try to provide some 
punctual technical comments on the individual items. 

Here, after a check with SLS colleagues, I want to comment on your 
statement about the “3-layer sandwich” . 
Indeed that sandwich is not so big as you claim. 

Actually all the following documents 
https://public.ccsds.org/Pubs/131x2b1e1.pdf 
https://public.ccsds.org/Pubs/131x3b1.pdf 
https://public.ccsds.org/Pubs/431x0b1.pdf 

clearly state that "This Recommended Standard covers the functions of both 
the Synchronization and Channel Coding Sublayer and the Physical Layer"; 
i.e. the layers combined are two (or let's say 1 and half as one layer and 
one sublayer are combined). 
They all also show this (even with some minor differences) in their 
"Figure 2-1: Relationship with OSI Layers" showing together the 
1) Synchronization and Channel Coding Sublayer that provides methods of 
synchronization and channel coding for transferring Transfer Frames over a 
space link and the 
2) Physical Layer that provides the RF and modulation methods for 
transferring a stream of bits over a space link in a single direction 

For reference the three figures are attached as snapshots. 

Best regards 

Gian Paolo 


  


From:        "Shames, Peter M\(US 312B\) via SEA-SA" 
<sea-sa at mailman.ccsds.org> 
To:        "SEA-SA" <sea-sa at mailman.ccsds.org> 
Date:        02-03-21 23:37 
Subject:        [Sea-sa] Background materials for today's SEA-SA SCCS-ARD 
discussion 
Sent by:        "SEA-SA" <sea-sa-bounces at mailman.ccsds.org> 



[attachment "431x1b0_CESG_Approval.pdf" deleted by Gian Paolo 
Calzolari/esoc/ESA] 
Dear SCCS-ARD sub-team,
 
During today’s SEA-SA SCCS-ARD discussion we spent quite a period of time 
discussing the challenges in create a reasonably compact, and also 
accurate, table that reflects the currently documented set of 
configurations that are made available by the suite of space data link, 
coding, synchronization, modulation, RF (and optical), and physical layer 
signaling standards.  There are many situations where there is no one, 
simple, statement, or even set of statements, that can be made.  We have 
had to resort to a tabular presentation, Table 6-8 in Sec 6 on protocols, 
to address this.   A copy of this table is attached, along with the “cheat 
sheet” of notes that encode the cells in this table.
 
Any standards that are expected to come into being within the next 6-12 
months, but that are not yet final, are highlighted in yellow.  We hope 
these are final before we publish this document, but all of those dates 
are still rather uncertain.
 
Note that uplink is separate from downlink, that RF coding and modulation 
is separate from optical coding and modulation, and that SCCC and DVB-S2 
(which both contain coding, modulation, and physical layer signaling in a 
single standard) are separated from the “normal” CCSDS standards that 
break these into three separate layers.  The new Variable Coding and 
Modulation (VCM) spec that is now in progress is also shown as a separate 
layer.  This VCM spec is related to the “bottom” parts of the DVB and SCCC 
specs, but it is different from them in distinct ways. 
 
It became clear during discussion that most of those on the call were 
unfamiliar with the details and complexities represented in this table. 
Furthermore, most are unfamiliar with the complexities inherent in the 
“3-layer sandwich” that SCCC and DVB present, and with how they compare 
with the “normal” CCSDS link layer, coding, synch, modulation, physical 
layer and RF stack.  I have attached a presentation that some of us 
constructed in order to make sure that we understood what those 
relationships are.  It is named “SEA high rate comm issue 1Mar21” and is 
attached here.  This is a statement of the recent issues and also a set of 
diagrams comparing these different protocol sets.  It does not address 
optical comm.
 
It should be noted that the “bottom” part of the DVB and SCCC specs 
includes a specialized set of physical layer signaling mechanisms.   These 
are not present in normal CCSDS protocol stacks, where any choices that 
are made for different coding, synchronization, and modulation 
combinations are made “by management”.  That phrase “by management” means 
that the mission manages these choices manually, outside of the protocols 
themselves, that the protocol layers contain no “signals” as to which 
choices were made, and that any changes to the coding and modulation must 
be agreed to and managed out of band, by pre-agreement. 
 
In the DVB and SCCC, and in the new draft CCSDS VCM spec (CCSDS 431.1-b-1) 
which is attached here as a CESG draft spec, a physical layer signaling 
mechanism is introduced.  VCM is defined as “variable coded modulation, 
VCM: A method to adapt the transmission scheme to channel conditions 
following a predetermined schedule. ”.  This includes two separate 
physical layer structures:  1) the “Pilot Symbols” and 2) the encoded and 
modulated data symbols.  The CCSDS 431.1 spec describes two different VCM 
“types”.  Type 1 uses the DVB-S2 VCM pilot symbol and data symbol length 
approach, Type 2 uses the SCCC VCM pilot symbol and data symbol length 
approach.  These pilot symbols are, in both cases, just short blocks of 7 
bits, protected by a linear code and BPSK modulation (see attached Table 
from Annex E).  Five of these bits are used to identify one of the 32 
possible sets of code and modulation pairs that are applied to the encoded 
and modulated symbols that follow the pilot. 
 
Where these DVB Type 1, SCCC Type 2, and CCSDS Type 1 or 2 schemes differ 
is in the length of the symbol strings and the sets of code/modulation 
pairs that are allowed. 
DVB-S2 has its own set shown in Table 3-4.  It allows different code 
rates, from 1 / 4 (0.25) up to 9 / 10 (0.9), different input lengths from 
2992 up to 58112 bits, different modulations (QPSK, 8-PSK, 16 & 32-APSK) 
and its own set of DVB-S2 codes that are patented. 
SCCC has its own set shown in Table 3-3.  It allows different code rates, 
from 0.36 up to 0.9, different input lengths from 5758 up to 43678 bits, 
the same set of modulations (QPSK, 8-PSK, 16 & 32-APSK) and its own set of 
SCCC codes that are patented. 
The CCSDS VCM has its own set shown in Table 3-2.  It allows different 
(CCSDS standard) code rates, from 1 / 6 (0.16) up to 223/255 (0.875), 
different (CCSDS standard) input lengths from 1748 up to 16384 bits, the 
same set of modulations plus BPSK (BPSK, QPSK, 8-PSK, 16 & 32-APSK) and 
the standard LDPC codes. 
 
You can see that these are similar, and that the modulation set largely 
overlaps, but they are different.  In all cases specialized equipment will 
be needed in the RF front ends to handle the pilot symbols and the 
continually changing coding and modulation .  The other difference is that 
the CCSDS VCM expects to signal a pre-planned set of code & modulation 
changes, but the SCCC and DVB-S2 also include adaptive coding and 
modulation (ACM), which uses signals sent back from the receiver to the 
sender.  To quote from SCCC, CCSDS 131x2b1d1, Sec 3.2.7: 
NOTE – 
Changes of the value of the information block size K are done by a system 
to adjust the modulation and coding schemes. This is achieved through, 
e.g., one of the following approaches: the ground receiver provides the 
signal quality estimation (or prediction) through a feedback channel 
(e.g., via telecommand) or the change of modulation and coding schemes is 
pre-scheduled for each satellite pass based on geometrical information 
(elevation angle). 
So the SCCC may use a feedback loop, but no specific protocol appears to 
be specified for this.  The DVB-S2 standard, as adapted for CCSDS, makes 
essentially the same statement.   The full ETSI DVB-S2 spec, however, 
defines an actual feedback protocol that is, in my opinion, only of use 
over a near Earth (or at least a “local”) communications path where the 
RTLT is sufficiently short to allow requests  for data rate changes to be 
responded to.  This is not appropriate for use in deep space where the 
RTLT may be measures in 10’s of minutes or tens of hours.  They also bring 
substantial added complexity which, in the general case, may not be worth 
the added cost of engineering, testing, etc unless the mission is a) in a 
near Earth orbit, and b) can make use of available commercial parts.
 
As I suggested during the webex, I think we must treat the following 
groups of standards separately, because to do otherwise will overly 
complicate the core of the CCSDS standard suite, that I estimate meets 95% 
of the users.
 
1.        The “CCSDS standard” suite of link layer, coding, 
synchronization, modulation, and RF standards
2.        A subsection on the Optical coding and modulation standards that 
slot in underneath the normal link layer protocols, along with a brief 
description
3.        A separate subsection on the VCM and the associated SCCC and 
DVB-S2 “omnibus” standards that replace the standard CCSDS coding, 
synchronization, modulation and add physical layer signaling.
 
If anyone has issues with this approach please bring them up now.  I think 
this is the only sensible way to handle this issue of these very different 
approaches to the lower layer protocols.
 
Thanks, Peter
 
 
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