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 / One of the core philosophies of the integrated Network Enhanced Telemetry (iNET) project is to leverage standard networking technologies whenever possible to both reduce development cost and to allow standard networking applications to function. This paper presents decisions about the system's behavioral design and other decisions affecting the selection and design of system components. The TmNS is a network of networks that must be integrated into existing range processes. An overall guiding tenet for the TmNS is enhancement rather than replacement. As such, this enhancement is melded with pre-existing devices, approaches, and technologies. Overall, the pre-existing Pulse Code Modulation (PCM) data delivery mechanism is augmented with bi-directional, reliable, TmNS-provided communication.

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 / The integrated Network-Enhanced Telemetry (iNET) project working groups have developed standards for Telemetry Network Systems (TmNS). In order for the standards to mature, the functionality of the standards will be demonstrated. To achieve this, efforts have been undertaken to simulate (and at times emulate) the key interfaces and to assess performance. To facilitate this work, a common network test bed has been developed. This test bed allows for validation of the iNET standards' performance characteristics.

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 / IP-telemetry radios are being connected to existing ground networks, thereby integrating the air and ground. While this provides full connection to Test Article (TA) networks, the mobility of TAs and the transient nature of test missions leave the overall experience feeling less than "real" networks. We describe a toolset that extends the capabilities of integrated IP-telemetry and range networks through specialized routing techniques focused on mission-based data delivery needs. The toolset provides a configurable capability enabling packet-based best source selection, firewalling, multicasting, and QoS enforcement across the range on a per program basis. The building blocks of the toolset allow for the creation of virtualized network components that are mission-based rather than infrastructure and enables seamless network operation with network telemetry, giving mission personnel the ability to specialize the network for their needs without depending upon the range IT department.

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 / Over the last few years, PCM based data acquisition systems have become known as "Traditional PCM" systems. This terminology modification is a sign of the evolution of the next generation of telemetry/data acquisition systems based on network topologies. This has come about due to users clamoring for functionality that has not been available in the traditional systems, such as supporting increased data rates, providing access to onboard archived data, supporting on-the-fly reconfiguration, and simplifying data distribution and delivery. The iNET standard is using standard network technology to improve device interoperability and data acquisition. To minimize impact on existing data acquisition system devices, the initial effort of this approach has included the transmission of "Traditional" fixed PCM frames within a network message based structure. This approach, however, squanders network bandwidth, as a PCM frame includes all samples of all channels, and requires significant processing power for even simple tasks. Delivering on the promise of a more flexible transmission method requires a change in how data is acquired in the data acquisition devices. The iNET standard defines such a packet based transport system, which supports channel based packet formats besides "Traditional PCM" to efficiently deliver data products. This paper will provide background on the benefits of these methods and an overview of methods by which these formats can be implemented.

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 to enhance telemetry systems for the twenty-first century. A foundational component of these standards is the Metadata Description Language (MDL). MDL is an eXtensible Markup Language (XML)-based language for describing requirements, design choices, and configuration parameters of a Telemetry Network System (TmNS). Within a TmNS, MDL guides the exchange of information between applications and the configuration of network devices. Recent initial evaluations assessed MDL in terms of the expressive power of the language and the level of effort in developing applications that utilize MDL Instance Documents. Performing these initial evaluations required the generation of MDL Instance Documents to describe scenarios representative of both near-term and future telemetry systems that express different levels of iNET interoperability. These initial evaluations determined quantitative metrics such as file size, memory requirements, and required parsing time for MDL Instance Documents, and further evaluations judged the efficacy and complexity of MDL for describing and configuring a TmNS.

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 integration of standard networking technologies into the test range allows for more capable and complex systems. As System Management provides the capability for dynamic allocation of resources, it is critical to support the level of network flexibility envisioned by the integrated Network-Enhanced Telemetry (iNET) project. This paper investigates the practical performance of managing the Telemetry Network System (TmNS) using the Simple Network Management Protocol (SNMP). It discusses the impacts and benefits of System Management as the size of the TmNS scales from small to large and as distributed and centralized management styles are applied. To support dynamic network states, it is necessary to be able to both collect the current status of the network and command (or modify the configuration of) the network. The management data needs to travel both ways over the telemetry link (in limited bandwidth) without interfering with critical data streams. It is important that the TmNS's status is collected in a timely manner so that the engineers are aware of any equipment failures or other problems; it is also imperative that System Management does not adversely affect the real-time delivery of data. This paper discusses measurements of SNMP traffic under various loading conditions. Statistics considered will include the performance of SNMP commands, queries, and events under various test article and telemetry network loads and the bandwidth consumed by SNMP commands, queries, and events under various conditions (e.g., pre-configuration, normal operation, and device error).

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 / This paper discusses channel simulation using OPNET Modeler in support of iNET. It shows how wireless communication is simulated, how to simulate the special aeronautical channel of iNET, and how to deliver the aeronautical channel, test article, and ground station as reusable components for future simulation. Network simulation is a critical tool for iNET and it enables design decisions that cannot be made analytically due to the complexity of the problem. This work addresses the incorporation of the aeronautical channel into the OPNET Modeler tool set as this piece of iNET is unique and is not available in OPNET Modeler.

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 / In order to help manage the complexity in designing and configuring network-based telemetry systems, and to promote interoperability between equipment from multiple vendors, the integrated Network-Enhanced Telemetry (iNET) Metadata Standards Working Group (MDSWG) has developed a standard language for describing and configuring these systems. This paper will provide the community with an overview of Metadata Description Language (MDL), and describe how MDL can support the description of the requirements, design choices, and the configuration of devices that make up the Telemetry Network System (TmNS). MDL, an eXtensible Markup Language (XML) based language that describes a TmNS from various aspects, is embodied by an XML schema along with additional rules and constraints. Example MDL instance documents will be presented to illustrate how MDL can be used to capture requirements, describe the design, and configure the equipment that makes up a TmNS. Various scenarios for how MDL can be used will be discussed.

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 / The System Management Standard Working Group (SMSWG) of the integrated Network- Enhanced Telemetry (iNET) project has developed a standard for the management of the Telemetry Network System (TmNS). The introduction of Internet Protocol (IP) networks on test ranges has created the potential for greater flexibility and improved usability in the telemetry environment. This paper will discuss how to apply the TmNS System Management Standard to best take advantage of the new networking paradigm. Some of the benefits include the ability to monitor or change resource allocations (such as data subscriptions and network routes), detect fault conditions, or change configuration during any phase of a test. An example of a common test scenario will illustrate one example of how the Simple Network Management Protocol (SNMP) commands, queries, and events included in the System Management Standard may be used to extend the capabilities of the TmNS. The discussion topics will include discovering devices, monitoring status variables, receiving device events, performing configuration, and performing control from the TmNS Management Information Base (MIB). This scenario gives guidance to ranges and test conductors in selecting and using System Management capabilities.

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 iNET project was launched to foster network based instrumentation and telemetry. The program is currently implementing an operational demonstration. The operational demonstration will involve installing and using a network based instrumentation system on an H-60, helicopter. This demonstration will be used as a learning exercise for the implementation of network technologies. Specifically this paper will explore the operational challenges that are expected to be encountered while performing the installation and in the use of the network based instrumentation and telemetry system.