LINUX POWERED TELEMETRY PROCESSING

Abstract

Since its debut, the Linux operating system has garnered much attention in the software development community. This paper discusses the open source operating system, Linux, and it’s application as the operating system powering a commercial off-the-shelf telemetry processing system. The paper begins by discussing what are the real-time requirements of the operating system in a telemetry processing system. A discussion to the Linux system is then presented. Soft real-time features of Linux are discussed which allow it to meet the telemetry processing requirements. Linux is compared with the more traditional operating system products and points are made as to why open source software is just as capable, if not preferable, of handling mission critical applications. The paper also presents the authors’ view of future of Linux and open source software in the telemetry marketplace. The paper concludes with a summary of products available for Linux that support telemetry processing and the data acquisition environment.