3.

2
TELEMETRY
TRACKING
CONTROL

TT&C
• 3 related communications functions:
– telemetry: measuring, collecting and
transmitting vital data on board of
spacecraft
– tracking, ranging: position determination,
distance, radial speed measurement
– control: commands to spacecraft from
ground
• TTC&R: telemetry, tracking, control & ranging

1
TT&C
• Same calculations for link budgets apply
as for communications payload
(transponder)
• lower data rates: few kbit/s
• antenna patterns and link budget must
be adequate for both transfer orbit and
final orbit
• INDEPENDENT package, highly
reliable

FREQUENCIES
• VHF (old)
– 136 - 138 MHz uplink
– 148 - 149.9 MHz downlink
– ranging accuracy: 20 - 140 m
• S-band (SOS- space operations
services):
– 2025 - 2120 MHz uplink
– 2200 - 2300 MHz downlink
– ranging accuracy: 5 - 175 m

2
FREQUENCIES
• Only 100 MHz: therefore S-band only
during maneuvers
• Segment of the communications band
for TT&C services (FSS- fixed satellite
services)
• in orbit TT&C rerouted to FSS band
• in case of weak signal or loss:
automatically routed to S-band

TT&C
• beacon: for finding satellite, antenna
tracking
• modulated beacon: carrying telemetry

3
ANTENNA
• S-band antenna omni-directional
• FSS band antenna highly directional
• same as transponder

MODULATION, CODING
• FM analog systems obsolete
• PSK standard
• data acquisition system: A/D conversion
of analog data
• PCM
• time division multiplexing
• powerful forward error-correction coding
• encryption

4
REDUNDANCY
• replicated systems
• usually several S-band antennas to be
able to receive and transmit signals
under all possible conditions and
orientations of satellite

COMMAND LINKS (TC)

• modulated on subcarrier
• bit stream: NRZ format
• data rates: several 100 bit/s…several
kbit/s
• commands to adjust a parameter (e.g.
helix current of a TWT)
• load registers in on-board computer

5
EXECUTION
• immediately after reception
• stored in memory, executed on
reception of a specific command
• stored in memory and executed at a
defined time, handled by on-board time
management system

SECURITY
• absolutely vital for survival of spacecraft
• repetition of commands for ensuring
integrity
• protection of link by
– FEC
– encryption methods

6
 SECURITY
• system insensitive to signals by
intruders, interference
– narrow- band reception
– input limiters
– non-standard signals blocked
– spread-spectrum links (efficient use of
limited spectrum resource)
• deferred execution of commands

commands

command
RX DECODER storage
and processing
RX
antenna

command
“twice around
verification
signal processing”
sensor
TX data
antenna
command
TX ENCODER processor

7
TELEMETRY LINKS (TM)
• modulated on subcarrier
• bit stream: NRZ format
• data rates: several 100 bit/s…several
kbit/s
• analog data (A/D converted)
• digital data
• directly from equipment to encoder
• from on-board data handling unit

STANDARDS
• PCM standard, published in 1970s
• CCSDS standard (Consultative
Committee for Space Data Systems)

8
 PCM STANDARD
• 96 bit frame
• data words of 8 bits may be extended
by 4 bit FEC
mode data data data
addr mode data data data
select 1 2 3
sync select 1 2 3
rep. rep rep rep

16 4 4 12 12 12 12 12 12

CCSDS
• international standard
• launched in 1980ies
• recommendations
– radio frequencies
– modulation
– packet telemetry
– channel coding
– packet tele-command

9
COMMAND
• Increased complexity of spacecraft
• more autonomy
• higher data throughput
• higher efficiency
• layered structure
– exchange of information
– standardized protocols
– defined data structures

COMMAND DATA FORMATS

• User data packets (TC packets)
• TC transport frame
– reliable transfer of TC packets
• command link transmission unit (CLTU)
– encapsulation of channel-coded transfer
4
frames

10
PACKET TELEMETRY
• Layered structure to allow multiplexing
of different data into single RF channel
• 2 data structures
– SOURCE PACKET
– TRANSFER FRAME

SOURCE PACKET
• encapsulates block of data
• including ancillary data
• interpreted by ground user processor
• packet header to route packet to
destination
• length
• sequence

11
 PACKET
PACKET PRIMARY HEADER PACKET
DATA
PACKET PACKET SOURCE FIELD
IDENTIFICATION CONTROL

version type applic. group source

hdr data packet source
no. flag process ing seq sec. data
length
000 0 ident flag count header

3 1 1 11 2 14 16 var. var.

1, if 01 first 1…65,536 octets

secondary 00 cont.
header 10 last
present 11 no

MULTIPLEXING
• virtual channelization
• virtual channel: sequence of frames,
assigned a common identification code
• various sources have exclusive access
to physical channel
• channel capacity assigned on a frame-
by-frame basis

12
ADVANCED ORBIT
SYSTEMS
• including manned space-flight
• multiple classes of data
– asynchronous
– synchronous
– isochronous
• video and audio data included

SCPS
• Space Communications Protocol
Specification
• compatibility with terrestrial networks
• IP de-facto standard
• slight modifications to accommodate
space environment

13
 SATELLITE GROUND

Application Application
ftp ftp

TCP TCP

IP IP

Link layer Link layer

physical physical

SPACE/GROUND LINK

ON-BOARD DATA
HANDLING (OBDH)
• Command processing
– decoding
– validation
– acknowledgement and execution,
immediately or deferred
• Acquisition, compression, coding,
formatting

14
OBDH
• Processing and storage
– processing of data relating to on-board
management subsystem
– demand from satellite sub-system
– storage of telemetry data
• Synchronization
– on-board time management
– distributing time and clock
– dating of events

OBDH
• Monitoring and control
– acquisition & analysis of monitored and
diagnostic parameters
– decision taking
– generation & execution of commands

15
OBDH
• First satellites had few telemetry
channels, ~10
• 4400 telemetry channels on INTELSAT-
VI

• more powerful and reliable processors

ARCHITECTURES
• Centralized
• Modular

16
CENTRALIZED
ARCHITECTURE
• Processing of commands
– decoding
– validation
– execution
• Telemetry signals
– acquisition
– formatting
– dating

CENTRALIZED
ARCHITECTURE
• Command decoder
– synchronization
– separates various formats (address, mode
from data)
– validates
– transmits execution commands after
demultiplexing to various equipment
channels

17
CENTRALIZED
ARCHITECTURE
• Telemetry encoder
– A/D conversion of analog signals
– multiplexing of different channels
– generation of data formats (ident., sync.
bits,…)
– modulates subcarrier

SPACECRAFT DESIGN
• Larger satellites
• more complex
• more channels
• electrical signals separately routed to
TT&C system
• bulky cabling: 13 km, 160 kg on
INTELSAT VI

18
MODULAR ARCHITECTURE
• decentralized control
• communications bus
• command decoder
• central terminal unit (CTU)
• data bus
• remote terminal units (RTU)

COMMAND DECODER
• data demultiplexed in order of priority,
transmitted directly
• data processed by central terminal unit
(CTU)

19
CTU
• handling of command data, distribution
to equipment via bus
• handling of data traffic on bus
• generating terminal interrogation for
acquisition of telemetry data
• multiplexing of data
• modulation of subcarrier

DATA BUS
• Data, clock signals
• sometimes also power to activate relays
• data exchange is governed by protocols

20
BUS STANDARDS
• MIL-1553-B
• ESA OBDH

MIL-1553-B
• half-duplex
• single shielded twisted pair
• path between bus controller and all
remote terminals (RTs)
• only one station transmitting, bus
monitors

21
MIL-1553-B
• asynchronous transmission
• single-wire half-duplex
• 3 types of units:
– bus controller
– remote terminal
– bus monitors
• up to 31 users
• data rate up to 1 Mbit/s
• Manchester-coded data

OBDH STANDRD
• 2 wire, full-duplex
• up to 31 users
• no interruption of CTU by users, polling
bus management
• response time: < 140 µs
• data rate: up to 500 kbit/s

22
TRACKING
• Distance measurement (ranging)
• Measurement of radial velocity (range
rate)

METHODS
• tone: commonly used
• variable frequency
• pseudo-random code

23
DISTANCE MEASUREMENT
• tone method
• specific subcarriers of telecommand
carrier
• coherently demodulated on board
• modulate telemetry carrier on board
• comparison on ground of phase of
transmitted signal and received
telemetry subcarrier

RX

compare
phase

SATELLITE

TX

24
PROBLEM

• ambiguity
• phase shift measured modulo 2π

2πf (2 R )
∆Φ = 2R… roundtrip
distance
c

AMBIGUITY

f 100 20 4 0.008
[kHz]

∆R 1.5 7.5 37.5 18,750

[km]

25
CONFLICT
• high frequency necessary to achieve
accurate phase measurement

• low frequency advantageous to avoid

phase ambiguity

• 8 Hz max. for GEO satellite to avoid

ambiguity

SOLUTION
• two-tone method
• major tone: 100 kHz
• minor tone: 20 kHz (divide by 5)
• reception: minor tone compared with 5
signals separated by 2π/5, derived from
received major tone (divide by 5)
• only one of them is in phase with 20
kHz minor tone
• keep this one, discard other ones

26
STEP 2
• Replica of received minor tone
obtained, but with accuracy of 100 kHz
tone
• create 4 kHz (divide by 5) and transmit
as new minor tone
• on reception: derive 5 signals separated
by 2π/5, derived from received major
tone (divide by 5)

STEP 2
• compare phase
• maintain in-phase tone
• discard others

• divide by 5: 800 Hz as new minor tone

27
CONTINUE
• repeat for 160, 32 Hz
• finally divide by 4: 8 Hz
• phase comparison with 8 Hz minor tone
• accuracy of 100 kHz tone

• 100 kHz tone keeps transmitting to

maintain reference

DIGITAL METHOD
• continuous PR sequence transmitted
– measure time to arrival of code sequence
– correlation

• send pulse, measure time to arrival

– known data sequence, unique word

28
RADIAL VELOCITY
• measurement of Doppler shift
• necessary to maintain frequency and
phase coherence between up- and
downlink

 v
f = f 1 + 
*

 c

29