ITC/USA 2012 Conference Proceedings / The Forty-Eighth Annual International Telemetering Conference and Technical Exhibition / October 22-25, 2012 / Town and Country Resort & Convention Center, San Diego, California / The approach to recording data during Test & Evaluation has evolved dramatically over the decades. A simple, traditional approach is to pull all data into a PCM format and record that. A common current approach is to record data in an IRIG 106 Chapter 10 compliant format that records different forms of data (bus, discrete, video, etc.) in different channels of the recorder or exported data file. With network telemetry on the horizon, in the form of the integrated Network Enhanced Telemetry (iNET) standards, much of the data will be transported in iNET messages via Ethernet frames. These messages can potentially carry any type of data from any source. How do we record this data? Ultimately, no matter how the data is stored, it must be translated into a form that can be used for data analysis. Data storage forms that are conducive to this analysis are not necessarily the same that are conducive to real time recording. This paper discusses options and tradeoffs of different approaches to incorporating iNET data structures into the existing T&E architecture.

The Range Commanders Council has been attempting to standardize Telemetry over IP (TMoIP) for many years now. While the attempt has been valiant, the outcome to date has not been very successful. As a result, many vendors have implemented their own proprietary methods for sending PCM data over IP networks resulting in a lack of interoperability. As telemetry ground stations are finally making the move toward network centric architectures, it is worth considering the lessons learned over the previous 10 years of designing, installing, troubleshooting and optimizing telemetry data distribution over IP networks. This paper describes a proposed revision to IRIG 218 based on these real life experiences. It discusses the critical decisions and architectural decisions to be made and some of the pitfalls to be avoid.

When communicating with spacecrafts, the international standard is to use the protocols defined by CCSDS. In this study, the Space Packet Protocol from CCSDS is converted to the Digital Recording Standard used in aviation. The goal of the study is to find out in what way such a conversion can be made, as well as analyzing the efficiency of different packing methods for the Digital Recording Standard. An application is developed in order to perform the conversion, and the performance of said application is profiled using different packet sizes. In the end the results are evaluated and an optimal packet size is found in terms of runtime and memory usage. In the end we conclude that a packet size of 216 bytes is best when prioritizing speed, and a packet size of 219 bytes is best when prioritizing memory.

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 IRIG 106 Chapter 10 Standard has evolved significantly since its inception. This paper covers the background, technology, status, users, supporting vendors and future considerations such as ground-based recording and archiving. Also covered are samples of toolsets available for troubleshooting, validation, data processing and display of Chapter 10 data

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 / For the last 30 years Magnetic Tape Systems have been the primary means of recording data from airborne instrumentation systems. Increasing data rates and harsh environmental requirements have often exceeded the ability of tape-based systems to keep pace with technology. This paper examines operational and data reduction benefits when employing the IRIG 106 Chapter 10 Solid State Recorder Standard introduced by the Range Commanders Council (RCC) Telemetry Group (TG). This paper provides method of installation and retrofit of legacy recorders in F16, F15, A-10, and B-52 aircraft.

International Telemetering Conference Proceedings / October 21, 2002 / Town & Country Hotel and Conference Center, San Diego, California / As stated in IRIG 106-93/96/99/00, the purpose of the Telemetry Attributes Transfer Standard (TMATS) is; “... provides a common format for the transfer of information between the user and a test range or between ranges. This format will minimize the 'station unique' activities that are necessary to support any test item. In addition, it is intended to relieve the labor intensive process currently required to reformat the information by providing the information on computer compatible media, thus reducing errors and requiring less preparation time for test support.” However, it is well known that TMATS does not support “Instrumentation” data. Also, TMATS does not include many current data conversion formats, or have a way to easily include new formats as they are adopted. We believe that such changes will help TMATS reach its full potential and become more closely aligned with its stated objectives. It is the hope of the authors that this paper will generate support for IRIG to revise TMATS to include these important amendments.

International Telemetering Conference Proceedings / October 21, 2002 / Town & Country Hotel and Conference Center, San Diego, California / This paper examines two rules for data acquisition that have advantages for today's Flight Test Instrumentation (FTI) systems where: • Data is acquired from physically separate test equipment • Deterministic (IRIG-106 (Ch. 4)) and non-deterministic networks co-exist • Data Acquisition Units (DAUs) from multiple vendors are required • Signal lists and sampling rates change rapidly • A time-coherent sampling strategy (even for smart sensors) is required These rules may aid not only in the selection of the data acquisition equipment but also the definition of the sampling, transmission, storage and analysis strategies.

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 / High speed digital recorders have revolutionized the way Major Range and Test Facility Bases collect instrumentation data. One challenge facing these organizations is the need for a validated process for the separation of specific data channels and/or data from multiplexed recordings. Several organizations within Eglin Air Force Base have joined forces to establish the requirements and validate a software process compliant with the IRIG-106 Chapter 10 Digital Recording Standard (which defines allowable media access, data packetization, and error controls mechanics). This paper describes a roadmap to standardizing the process to produce this software process, Data Overwriting and Filtering Application (DOFA).

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 / The Joint Strike Fighter program is the largest DOD contract ever awarded. There are three F-35 Lightning II variations, each intended to meet the specific needs of the Air Force, Navy, Marine Corps, and U.S. Allies. The Data System required for this flight test program challenged the conventional ways used in instrumenting test aircraft. Typical data systems available today don’t provide the level of hardware and software integration required for today’s complex applications. For example, cockpit control panels, recording systems, TM transmitters, data acquisition systems and avionic bus interface units are all independent systems. Additionally, avionic bus catalogs, ground-based systems, and flight setup software have historically been independent components. This paper will describe the hardware and software components used by the F-35 flight test program to provide an integrated system. A special emphasis will be given to the methods used to accommodate rapid changes to the IEEE-1394B avionic bus catalog including the acquisition of that data, and the use of an IRIG-106 Chapter 10 distributed multiplexer / recorder system, which is being used simultaneously as a data acquisition system.

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 / An rfNET solution based on IEEE 802.11 wireless network is presented to perform one-way remote transmission of airborne instrumentation data and multi-channel video images in flight test by modifying the wireless network bridge and UDP protocol. Its architecture and structure is introduced briefly and the results of ground transmission test and flight demonstration transmission are provided. It also points out the major problems of this solution for engineering application and their solutions.