ENHANCING THE TELEMETRY ATTRIBUTES TRANSFER STANDARD (TMATS) TO INCLUDE INSTRUMENTATION DATA AND NEW DATA CONVERSION FORMATS

Abstract

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.