A HIGH DATA RATE TELEMETRY PROCESSING SYSTEM FOR THE HIGH SPEED TEST TRACK AT HOLLOMAN AFB

Abstract

The system covered in this paper is the Telemetry Processing System (TPS) designed and installed for processing data acquired from high speed test sleds at Holloman AFB, NM. Because this facility operates as a test range, testing sleds from many different agencies for a variety of different purposes, prior knowledge is not always available concerning the instrumentation on the test sled to be used and therefore the type of data retrieval and processing required. The TPS must then be capable of acquiring and processing multiple data types including PAM and PDM, multiple FM streams (72 channels) and high speed PCM (4 channels) . Additionally, the requirement has been imposed for 3.2 Msample/sec analog-to-digital conversion capability for high resolution measurement of certain analog data (10 channels). When the above data are multiplexed with three time sources, eight channels of sled positional information and operated at maximum rate, the raw data exceed 15 Mbytes/sec. Depending on the scheme used to tag the samples, time stamp the data, and convert the data to engineering units, the processed data rate could have exceeded 100 Mbytes/sec and therefore the reasonable limit of existing telemetry processing technology. The TPS requires not only the capability to acquire and record this very high rate data, but also the realtime display of selected measurements. Further, the acquired data must be readily available immediately after the test for quick look evaluation, and for data selection for archival storage. This paper will explore the design process that allows the system to meet these requirements using mostly off-the-shelf or only slightly modified equipment by making clever compromises and effective use of stream separation. The paper will explore the hardware and software considerations which were examined and the solutions implemented in the final design. Development and integration of this system are currently underway, with delivery scheduled for later this year.