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 / The TmNS system employs a novel channel access approach to achieve efficient use of the available spectrum while still providing a reliable bi-directional telemetry link. At the heart of this process is the Link Manager which performs real time adjustments to the transmission windows of radios as it senses changes in network connectivity, transmit queue loading, and network management input. Dynamic network capacity control based on radio queue loading is presented as an example of an operation to be verified by modeling and simulation.

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 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 / As the integrated Network Enhanced Telemetry (iNET) program moves forward in resolving systems engineering design and architecture definition, critical technology “gaps” and a migration path to realizing the integration of this technology are needed to insure a smooth transition from the current legacy point to point telemetry links to a network oriented telemetry system. Specifically identified by the DoD aeronautical telemetry community is the need for a migration to a network solution for command, control, and transfer of test data by optimizing the physical, data link, and network layers. In this paper, we present a network centric telemetry preliminary architecture approach based on variants of 802.11 that leverages the open standards as well as the previous Advanced Range Telemetry (ARTM) work on the physical layer waveform. We present a burst modem approach based on the recent AOFDM 802.11a work, a TDMA-like MAC layer based on 802.11e, and then add additional MAC layer features to allow for the multi-hop aeronautical environment using a variant of the current working standard of 802.11s. The combined benefits of the variants obtained from 802.11a, 802.11e, and 802.11s address the needs for both spectrum efficiency in the aeronautical environment and the iNET program.

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 / Research at Morgan State University shows a means of enabling both a mobile ad-hoc network (MANET) and a cellular network to operate simultaneously in the same spectrum. This enhanced frequency efficiency would facilitate the creation of a hybrid or Mixed Cellular/MANET network (MCMN) in which each of the MCMN sub-networks would have access to the entire allotted spectrum. Interference rejection and excision have been identified as a means of distinguishing between and isolating the two different kinds of signals. This paper shows the promising performance of such techniques within the MCMN environment as a part of the integrated Network Enhanced Telemetry (iNET) project.

ITC/USA 2010 Conference Proceedings / The Forty-Sixth Annual International Telemetering Conference and Technical Exhibition / October 25-28, 2010 / Town and Country Resort & Convention Center, San Diego, California / The integrated Network Enhanced Telemetry (iNET) project was launched by the Central Test and Evaluation Investment Program (CTEIP) to foster network enhanced instrumentation and telemetry. The iNET program is preparing for the TmNS system demonstration. The goal of the demonstration is to prove that the proposed TmNS will meet the Test Capability Requirements Document (TCRD) and validate the iNET standards. One aspect of the preparation is looking at the IA issues and making decisions to ensure that the system will be certified and accredited, meet user needs, and be secure. This paper will explore a few of these considerations.

ITC/USA 2010 Conference Proceedings / The Forty-Sixth Annual International Telemetering Conference and Technical Exhibition / October 25-28, 2010 / Town and Country Resort & Convention Center, San Diego, California / The integrated Network-Enhanced Telemetry (iNET) project has developed standards for network-based telemetry systems. While these standards are based largely on the existing body of commercial networking protocols, the Telemetry Network System (TmNS) has more stringent performance requirements in the areas of latency, throughput, operation over constrained links, and quality of service (QoS) than typical networked applications. A variety of initial evaluations were undertaken to exercise the interfaces of the current standards and determine real-world performance. The core end-to-end performance initial evaluations focus collectively on the movement of telemetry data through the TmNS. These initial evaluations addressed two areas: end-to-end data delivery and parametric data extraction. This paper presents the approach taken by these ongoing efforts and provides initial results. The latest results will be presented at ITC 2010.

ITC/USA 2010 Conference Proceedings / The Forty-Sixth Annual International Telemetering Conference and Technical Exhibition / October 25-28, 2010 / Town and Country Resort & Convention Center, San Diego, California / The direction of future data acquisition systems is rapidly moving toward a network-based architecture. There is a handful of these network-based flight test systems already operating, and the current trend is catching on all over the flight test community. As vendors are churning out a whole new product line for networking capabilities, system engineers are left asking, "What do I do with all of this non-networked, legacy equipment?" Before overhauling an entire test system, one should look for a way to incorporate the legacy system components into the modern network architecture. Finding a way to integrate the two generations of systems can provide substantial savings in both cost and application development time. This paper discusses the advantages of integrating legacy equipment into a network-based architecture with examples from systems where this approach was utilized.

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 / As part of the iNET Team’s plan to demonstrate to the validity and benefits of adding a network connection to a test vehicle, Wyle Laboratories Telemetry and Data Systems is developing a network-based command structure that allows ground-based users to request data previously archived on-board a test article in response to real-time data monitoring. This synthesis of real-time telemetry monitoring with traditional ground-based post-test data analysis provides flight test engineers with near real-time, error free data while the aircraft is on station. Additionally, this approach maximizes the use of available telemetry bandwidth by allowing users to dynamically request different data sets for downloading. This paper addresses the command structure of the interface; the utilization of IRIG 106 Chapter 10 data structures in a network environment, and provides performance metrics of the test case.

International Telemetering Conference Proceedings / October 18-21, 2004 / Town & Country Resort, San Diego, California / Flight Test instrumentation control units have traditionally been low-technology units with mechanical switches, readouts, and perhaps an RS232 interface. As the complexity of Flight Test Instrumentation systems and operational requirements increase, and as cockpit space becomes scarce, these control units are no longer sufficient. These control units need to provide capabilities commensurate with the complexity of the instrumentation systems they control. This paper describes an instrumentation control system that uses a Boeing Integrated Defense Systems (IDS) Flight Test Instrumentation designed Instrumentation Control Unit (ICU). The ICU communicates with the avionics system to allow pilot control via existing aircraft displays. By taking advantage of a relatively simple protocol to interface with the avionics system, the substantial cost of reprogramming the avionics software is avoided, and software control is shifted to the Flight Test group, thus allowing a tremendous increase in system flexibility at reasonable cost. Functions of the unit can be changed relatively quickly and inexpensively. This promises a wide range of future applications, such as in-flight monitoring of flight-critical instrumentation parameters by the pilot, control of the instrumentation system via uplink (with pilot override), and real-time in-flight selection of telemetered data streams and parameters. This paper describes the baseline instrumentation control system and requirements to be used on the EA-18G Flight Test Program, plus additional future capabilities.

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 / Morgan State University's iNET effort is aimed at improving existing telemetry networks by developing more efficient operation and cost effectiveness. This paper develops an enhanced security architecture for the iNET environment in order to protect the network from both inside and outside adversaries. This proposed architecture addresses the key security components of confidentiality, integrity and authentication. The security design for iNET is complicated by the unique features of the telemetry application. The addition of encryption is complicated by the need for robust synchronization needed for real time operation in a high error environment.