Moving Towards an All-Digital Multi-Channel TM Receivers

Abstract

Test ranges support increasingly complex weapon system engagement, some involving more than 10 telemetry (TM) equipped vehicles flying at the same time. While tracking these simultaneous targets is possible duplicating parabolic antennas, a modern approach is to use Digital Beam Forming (DBF) antennas capable of collecting and digitizing TM channels from multiple vehicles at the same time. Today, the digital samples of those TM channels are reconstructed in the analog domain and transported to multiple TM receivers. The innovative concept proposed by SEMCO is to rely on an all-digital multi-channel TM receiver, capable of ingesting those digital samples produced by the DBF antenna and transported via a high-speed IP-based Ethernet link. Either collocated with the DBF antenna for a compact airborne solution or far away when used in a distributed range architecture, this concept will enable the Digital Transformation of the range while reusing range-certified demodulators and TM transport modules.