A CASE STUDY OF HIGH-VOLUME AUTOMATED TESTING WITHIN THE NASA SPACE NETWORK

Abstract

The NASA Space Network (SN), which consists of the geosynchronous Tracking and Data Relay Satellite (TDRS) constellation and its associated ground elements, is a critical national space asset that provides near-continuous, high-bandwidth telemetry, command, and communications services for numerous spacecraft and launch vehicles. SN sustainment activities frequently involve testing of the numerous interfaces within the SN ground segment. To reduce the cost and complexity of such testing, NASA commissioned the development of the External Bearer Interface Test Set (XBIT), which enables ground interface verification using a high-volume test automation framework. This paper considers the use of the XBIT as a case study of automated ground segment verification and validation. The paper discusses the trade-offs between automated, semiautomated, and interactive ground interface testing and presents comparative test execution metrics to quantify the relative efficiency of these approaches.