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 / CTEIP has launched the integrated Network Enhanced Telemetry (iNET) project to foster advances in networking and telemetry technology to meet emerging needs of major test programs as well as within the Major Range and Test Facility Base’s. This paper describes one objective of the vNET concept demonstration to provide a test vehicle instrumentation network architecture that can support additional capabilities for data access to the test vehicle. Specifically, this paper addresses the expansion of the current concept demonstration with the incorporation of the IEEE- 1588 standard as the basis for a network time distribution mechanism. Near-term network-based data acquisition systems will likely consist of a mix of standard IRIG 106 timekeeping and IEEE- 1588 timekeeping; in this paper we will examine the ramifications of using the two approaches with the same test vehicle instrumentation system.

ITC/USA 2008 Conference Proceedings / The Forty-Fourth Annual International Telemetering Conference and Technical Exhibition / October 27-30, 2008 / Town and Country Resort & Convention Center, San Diego, California / The majority of currently operating flight test programs around the world utilize PCM-based airborne instrumentation systems. Most instrumentation engineers are very comfortable with PCM-based data acquisition systems, and feel uncomfortable when talking about network implementations and the adoption of iNET. In order for these engineers to embrace this new technology, migrating from a PCM to network topology must be done in an evolutionary manner that provides for the preservation of capital investment while introducing new system concepts that enhance current instrumentation systems. This paper describes hardware components that enable instrumentation engineers to migrate their existing PCM-based instrumentation system to a network-based system. Several of these components are discussed to illustrate how they provide a controlled migration path to a network-based system. These components include time distribution, gateways, network data selectors, network switches, transmitters, transceivers, and recorders.

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 / Digital data distribution systems are widely used in Aerospace and Defense products to allow devices to communicate with one another. In many cases it is desirable to monitor the data traffic flowing between two points in a copper or fiber based Operational or Onboard Network System (ONS) for Flight Test Instrumentation (FTI) purposes because these ONS systems may carry important data which can be used without duplicating/installing a specific FTI data acquisition system to receive this data. The two types of network taps that can be used are Inline Network Taps and network end-point taps. This paper examines the usage of Inline Network Taps for FTI applications and how they can support network access strategies and objectives. An Inline Network Tap is a hardware device which allows access to data flowing across a network. These devices are typically active/powered and have a number of ports: a first tap port, a second tap port, and one or more mirror ports. An in-line network tap inserted between the first and second tap port passes all data traffic through unimpeded but also copies that same data to one or more mirror ports. Some Inline Network Tap devices may also pass packets when the tap is not powered or a malfunction is detected on the device via an integrated by-pass function. If the Inline Network Tap device goes offline the unit automatically bypasses the tap connection and data traffic is directed through the bypass directly to network devices. This capability is crucial for inline usage on mission critical network segments that cannot afford the risk of losing the network connection. An in-line network tap can either be based on copper or fiber technology and as a "filterable" network tap can also provide advanced packet filtering capabilities. These filterable network taps can selectively pass data, e.g., based on VLAN ID or other parameters, to a mirror port for deep analysis, monitoring and recording. Another advanced tap function that is presented in this paper is the support for inserting time stamps at the tap level in monitored packets which provides a reference time when the data content of a given packet was generated at a data source. This capability is a significant feature for FTI applications as most ONS systems do not provide time stamped data.

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 / Today’s data acquisition systems are typically comprised of data collectors connected to multiplexers via serial, point-to-point links. Data flows upstream from the sensors or avionics buses to the data acquisition units, to the multiplexer and finally to the recorder or telemetry transmitter. In a networked data acquisition system, data is transported through the network “cloud”. At the core of the network “cloud” is the network switch. The switch is responsible for distributing and directing data within the network. Network switches are commonplace in the commercial realm. Many businesses today could not function without them. A network-based data acquisition system, however, places additional burdens on the network switch. As in a commercial network, the switch in a data acquisition system must be able to distribute data packets within the network. In addition, it must be able to perform in a harsh environment, occupy a minimal amount of space, operate with limited or no external cooling, be configurable, and deal with the distribution of time information. This paper describes the required features of a ruggedized network switch and the implementation challenges facing its design. As a core component of a network-based data acquisition system, an ideal switch must be capable of operating in a large number of configurations, transporting and aggregating data between data sources and data sinks, with a mixture of devices operating at rates ranging from a few thousand bits per second to several gigabits per second, over twisted pair or fiber optic links. To ensure time coherency, the switch must also facilitate a time distribution mechanism, e.g., IEEE-1588 Precision Time Protocol (PTP). The gigabit switch described here uses the PTP to implement an end-to-end clock synchronization, for distributed acquisition nodes, to within 300 nanoseconds.

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 / Airborne data acquisition systems have changed very little over the years. Their growth has primarily been in the area of digital filtering and the acquisition of new avionic busses. Communication between data acquisition units operating as a system still employs Time Division Multiplexing scheme. These schemes utilize command and data busses like CAIS and PCM. Although this approach is highly efficient, it has many drawbacks. These drawbacks have resulted in rigid system architecture, system bandwidth limitations, highly specialized recorders to acquire unique avionic busses that would otherwise overwhelm the system bandwidth, and unidirectional flow of data and control. This paper describes a network centric data acquisition system that is Ethernet based. Although Ethernet is known as an asynchronous bus, the paper will describe a deterministic time distribution over the bus per IEEE-1588 that allows the use of a packet network for airborne data acquisition. The acquisition unit within the network system is defined by its MIB (Management Information Base) and operates as a data source unit. Other network components may operate as a data sink unit, such as recorders, or as a data source and sink. The role of different units in the network system will be evaluated. The paper will also describe network gateways that allow the use of traditional PCM systems with a network-based system.

ITC/USA 2008 Conference Proceedings / The Forty-Fourth Annual International Telemetering Conference and Technical Exhibition / October 27-30, 2008 / Town and Country Resort & Convention Center, San Diego, California / A critical element of the proposed iNET architecture is the development of a telemetry network that provides two-way communication between multiple nodes on both the ground and in the air. Conventional airborne telemetry is based on IRIG-106 Chapter 4 and provides only a serial streaming data path from the aircraft to the ground. The network-centric architecture of iNET requires not only a duplex communication link between the ground and the test article, but also a communication link that provides higher bandwidth performance, higher spectrum efficiency, and a transport environment that is capable of fully packetized Internet Protocol. This paper describes the development path followed by TTC in the implementation of its nXCVR-2000G, an OFDM 802-11a-based iNET-ready IP transceiver.

ITC/USA 2008 Conference Proceedings / The Forty-Fourth Annual International Telemetering Conference and Technical Exhibition / October 27-30, 2008 / Town and Country Resort & Convention Center, San Diego, California / The current paradigm for data acquisition and recording systems for flight test applications does not meet today's demand for high reliability and timing performance. Such systems are better served through a network-based approach that can provide the capacity at which systems must acquire, record, process, and telemeter data. As with any complex system, this approach does have challenges. This paper describes the methods used to develop a network-centric flight test system, including simulators, IEEE 1588 time synchronization, network message protocols, and addresses the integration issues involved such as network topology and reliable latency-bounded throughput. Solutions used in overcoming these integration issues in previous system designs are also presented.

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 / iNET is a project tasked to foster advances in networking and telemetry technology to meet emerging needs. This paper describes one objective of the project, which is standardization and interoperability. It begins to explore issues for achieving a level of interoperability among differing vendor’s hardware such as data acquisition units, data recorders, video systems, transceivers, and network encryption. Specifically, this paper addresses the expansion of the current demonstration system with the addition of multiple vendor data acquisition units. It will also attempt to address the level of standardization necessary for achieving interoperability while still enabling vendors to add their value added contributions into their products.

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 / In modern flight test installations there is a continuing trend to move the data acquisition closer to the sensors. As a consequence the data acquisition chassis needs to be mounted in locations that are small, inaccessible and subject to harsh environmental conditions. On top of this there are an increasing number of measurements required for each new flight test campaign. This paper discusses the challenges of designing a small lightweight data acquisition chassis which can provide hundreds of channels of measurement capability while operating in tight spaces which are exposed to fluids, high vibration and extremes of temperature. The paper suggests ways of designing and installing the data acquisition chassis in order to optimize the available installation space while mitigating the effects of the harsh environmental conditions.

ITC/USA 2013 Conference Proceedings / The Forty-Ninth Annual International Telemetering Conference and Technical Exhibition / October 21-24, 2013 / Bally's Hotel & Convention Center, Las Vegas, NV / Network switches are a critical component in any networked FTI data acquisition system in order to allow the forwarding of data from the DAU to the target destination devices such as the network recorder, PCM gateways, or ground station. Larger configurations require one or more switch boxes to handle aggregation, routing, filtering and synchronization via the IEEE 1588 Precision Time Protocol. However, for smaller configurations where space and weight restrictions are more stringent, a separate switch box may not be practical This paper discusses how all the essential features of an FTI network, such as flexible forwarding and filtering and IEEE 1588 synchronization, can be maintained without the need for the separate switch box thus making significant savings on weight and size and reducing cost.