ITC/USA 2011 Conference Proceedings / The Forty-Seventh Annual International Telemetering Conference and Technical Exhibition / October 24-27, 2011 / Bally's Las Vegas, Las Vegas, Nevada / With the increasing demand on available frequencies used for Telemetry transmission, it is important for the test ranges to be good stewards of the spectrum. One method is a new use of Best Source Selection. This method consists of placing data-quality encapsulators at the output of each of the TM receivers used. This system works without the need to use pattern detect which allows for the use of Best Source Selection without the need for decrypting the data. In conjunction with new system architecture, this setup is how the Atlantic Test Range is using best source selection in the future.

International Telemetering Conference Proceedings / October 18-21, 2004 / Town & Country Resort, San Diego, California / Over the last year, the Telemetry Data Center at White Sands Missile Range has conducted extensive comparative testing between its’ 20 year old Best Source Selector and several “off the shelf” selectors currently available. This paper explores the concerns involved in the process of selecting a new Best Source Selector and examines the inherent problems and differences associated with the old and new selectors.

ITC/USA 2006 Conference Proceedings / The Forty-Second Annual International Telemetering Conference and Technical Exhibition / October 23-26, 2006 / Town and Country Resort & Convention Center, San Diego, California / The size of the range at White Sands means multiple acquisition sites are needed to properly cover a typical vehicle trajectory. As vehicle complexity increase, the need for robust acquisition grows. Multiple acquisition sites are needed to provide as complete coverage as practical. Space Diversity combining would provide a single composite source for all the displays and recording, but this is not practical due to the large distances between acquisition sites. Instead a composite is made from the various sites by correlation on non-encrypted (or decrypted) data. The previous best source selector, a frame synch histogrammer, could produce encrypted and decrypted composites. Some of our customers have missed the encrypted composites, hence the subject is revisited to encourage development. This paper reviews post decryption correlation and then focuses on correlating on encrypted data. The encryption serves to eliminate the ambiguities that are inherent in decrypted (nonencrypted) signals. So, it may be possible to accomplish this with a small correlator. The expected performance would be similar to that of correlated composites on decrypted or unencrypted data. The typical configuration would be considerably smaller as well since only two decrypters would be needed. One decrypter alone would be insufficient and could not resolve the case where only one site has data and the remaining sites have noise. When there is no correlation the correct site cannot be resolved. Testing these compositing methods is also discussed, as a good test method also provides insight on how the compositor should work.

ITC/USA 2009 Conference Proceedings / The Forty-Fifth Annual International Telemetering Conference and Technical Exhibition / October 26-29, 2009 / Riviera Hotel & Convention Center, Las Vegas, Nevada / Frequency selective multipath is a key performance limiter for aeronautical telemetry applications. Our research explores multipath mitigation techniques with ARTM Tier-1 waveforms using linear adaptive filters, multiple receive antennas and error-based best source selection. Single antenna adaptive equalization alone is unable to substantially improve performance under certain channel conditions. Analytical investigations demonstrate that nonlinear channel phase response is the principal cause of performance loss. In this adverse environment, spatial diversity with multiple receive antennas along with error-based best source selection are capable of improving bit error rate performance by 5dB for each additional antenna.

ITC/USA 2007 Conference Proceedings / The Forty-Third Annual International Telemetering Conference and Technical Exhibition / October 22-25, 2007 / Riviera Hotel & Convention Center, Las Vegas, Nevada / Since the 1970s PCM/FM has been the dominant modulation scheme used for RF telemetry. However more stringent spectrum availability as well as increasing data rates means that more advanced transmission methods are required to keep pace with industry demands. ARTM Tier-I and Tier-II are examples of how the PCM/FM link can be enhanced. However these techniques require a significant increase in the complexity of the receiver/detector for optimal recovery. This paper focuses on a quantitative approach to improving the rate and quality of data using existing PCM/FM links. In particular ACRA CONTROL and BAE SYSTEMS set themselves the goal of revisiting the pre-modulation filter, diversity combiner and bit-sync. By implementing programmable adaptive hardware, it was possible to explore the various tradeoffs offered by modifying pulse shapes and spectral occupancy, inclusion of forward error correction and smart source selection. This papers looks at the improvements achieved at each phase of the evaluation.

International Telemetering Conference Proceedings / October 23-26, 2000 / Town & Country Hotel and Conference Center, San Diego, California / The UTTR (Utah Test & Training Range) offers the largest over land test and training airspace in the continental United States. It provides excellent telemetry data processing capability through a number of TM (telemetry) sites. Selecting the best source of telemetry data for optimum coverage from these many sites can be very involved and challenging for ground station personnel. Computer-based best source selection automates this process, thereby increasing accuracy and efficiency. This paper discusses the capabilities of the BTSS (Best Telemetry Source Selector), its background, design and development, applications, and future at the UTTR.

ITC/USA 2005 Conference Proceedings / The Forty-First Annual International Telemetering Conference and Technical Exhibition / October 24-27, 2005 / Riviera Hotel & Convention Center, Las Vegas, Nevada / The Hyper-X program flew X-43A research vehicles to hypersonic speeds over the Pacific Ocean in March and November 2004 from the Western Aeronautical Test Range, NASA Dryden Flight Research Center, Edwards, California. The program required multiple telemetry ground stations to provide continuous coverage of the captive carry, launch, boost, experiment, and descent phases of these missions. An overview is provided of vehicle telemetry and distributed assets that supported telemetry acquisition, best-source selection, radar tracking, video tracking, flight termination systems, and voice communications. Real-time data display and processing are discussed, and postflight analysis and comparison of data acquired are presented.

ITC/USA 2005 Conference Proceedings / The Forty-First Annual International Telemetering Conference and Technical Exhibition / October 24-27, 2005 / Riviera Hotel & Convention Center, Las Vegas, Nevada / After years of tracing the evolution and solutions to finding the best data, I learned that it isn’t best source selection that we all want. What we need is best data selection.

International Telemetering Conference Proceedings / October 26-29, 1998 / Town & Country Resort Hotel and Convention Center, San Diego, California / The X-33 program requires the use of multiple telemetry ground stations to provide continuous coverage of the launch, ascent, re-entry and approach phases for flights from Edwards AFB, California, to landings at Dugway Proving Grounds, Utah, and Malmstrom AFB, Montana. This paper will discuss the X-33 telemetry requirements and design, including information on the fixed and mobile telemetry systems, automated best source selection system, processing/display support for range safety officers (RSO) and range engineers, and comparison of real-time data with simulated data using the Dynamic Ground Station Analysis model. Due to the use of multiple ground stations and short duration flights, the goal throughout the X-33 missions is to automatically provide the best telemetry source for critical vehicle performance monitoring. The X-33 program was initiated by National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) Cooperative Agreement No. NCC8-115 with Lockheed Martin Skunk Works (LMSW).

ITC/USA 2015 Conference Proceedings / The Fifty-First Annual International Telemetering Conference and Technical Exhibition / October 26-29, 2015 / Bally's Hotel & Convention Center, Las Vegas, NV / There is great potential in using Best Source Selectors (BSS) to improve link availability in aeronautical telemetry applications. While the general notion that diverse data sources can be used to construct a consolidated stream of "better" data is well founded, there is no standardized means of determining the quality of the data streams being merged together. Absent this uniform quality data, the BSS has no analytically sound way of knowing which streams are better, or best. This problem is further exacerbated when one imagines that multiple vendors are developing data quality estimation schemes, with no standard definition of how to measure data quality. In this paper, we present measured performance for a specific Data Quality Metric (DQM) implementation, demonstrating that the signals present in the demodulator can be used to quickly and accurately measure the data quality, and we propose test methods for calibrating DQM over a wide variety of channel impairments. We also propose an efficient means of encapsulating this DQM information with the data, to simplify processing by the BSS. This work leads toward a potential standardization that would allow data quality estimators and best source selectors from multiple vendors to interoperate.