8.1 - Integrated Network Enhanced Telemetry (iNET): Impact to the Telemetry Community for the ettc2018
- Event
- ettc2018 - European Test and Telemetry Conference
2018-06-26 - 2018-06-28
Nürnberg, Germany - Chapter
- 8. Spectrum Efficiency
- Author(s)
- T. Young - USAF Air Force Test Center, CA. (USA)
- Pages
- 155 - 161
- DOI
- 10.5162/ettc2018/8.1
- ISBN
- 978-3-9816876-7-5
- Price
- free
Abstract
The enormous increase in the complexity of modern aircraft, coupled with the Department of Defense’s (DoD) spectrum reductions, has created a growing gap in DoD’s ability to collect all the data needed from a flight test in real-time. Over the past 50 years, aircraft flight test performance has been monitored using a unidirectional telemetry link for the test article to the ground, sending only preplanned data to Mission Control. iNET will provide the capability to access and transmit onboard data in a packetized [Internet Protocol (IP)-based] format. This will enable flight test engineers to access aircraft data in an on-demand fashion using a duplex datalink. Without iNET, DoD ranges will be unable to meet near-term rapidly expanding test data throughput requirements, in the face of increased competition for limited radio frequency (RF) spectrum/bandwidth. Initial deployment will be at Edwards Air Force Base, California USA, and Naval Air Station (NAS) Patuxent River, Maryland USA. This capability will provide to the test community unprecedented control from the ground over the instrumentation system on board the test article, in real-time. Based on the architecture of the system and its intended implementation, the ability to share spectrum over the radio frequency network is one of iNET’s key features in support of spectral efficiency. While spectrum efficiency is a primary driver for the next generation telemetry capability, additional benefits will be realized with a two-way RF link. These benefits might initially be described as data efficiencies, however under the surface the impacts to spectrum efficiency will be extensive due to the enabling architecture. The ability to control the airborne instrumentation system from the ground, provides access not only to the data recorder but the data acquisition unit that controls data format and sample rates. This ability for dynamic real-time adjustment of information flow to the ground will change the face of flight testing in the very near future.