SWAN

New concept of monitoring and controlling systems for ESOC

Project duration: 2010 to 2011

Project manager: Helena Kalenská

The SWAN activity was related to the new ESA concept of the Common Monitoring and Control Platform (CMCP) for both the Mission Control System (MCS) and the Ground Station Monitoring & Control system (GSMC). The idea is to extend existing SCOS-2000 MCS software with a number of features needed for the Ground Station Monitoring & Control system.

Monitoring and control of ground stations is performed either locally - i.e. directly at the ground stations, or remotely - i.e. from operator workstations located at European Space Operations Centre (ESOC) in Darmstadt, Germany. For that reason the remote interfaces of the ground station software have to be optimised to cope with restricted bandwidth between the ground stations and ESOC, and also with respect to expected communication delays (maximum round trip delay for a ground station in Kourou).

The goal of the SWAN study was to identify the current design limitations of SCOS-2000 related to the remote client/server processing, propose interface and architectural changes, and demonstrate that there is a solution suitable for WAN deployment.

Beside the general findings and recommendations on communication over WAN for the concept of CMCP, two SCOS-2000 based software prototypes were developed, successfully proving that the optimized telemetry parameter and event distribution mechanism can satisfy strict requirements for the GSMC.

ANF DATA

established in 1992, is a daughter company of Siemens AG Austria.

ANF DATA offers complex IT services – development of software solutions, system integration, system support, HW deliveries, consulting and training. It provides solutions both on the local and international market in various fields, e.g. industry, energy, communications, ground segment of the space industry, and inventory management.

The ANF DATA Space department was established in 1998 and since that time has cooperated with Siemens Austria on development of various software solutions for the European Space Agency (ESA), German Space Agency (DLR), European navigation system Galileo, and for leading satellite operators.

What would you name as main benefits of the project to you and your company?

Project Manager Helena Kalenská: ”Technology studies in general are a very good way how to gain and enhance know-how, especially in the case of such complex software systems like SCOS-2000 and Ground Station Monitoring and Control. We expect that our experience from SWAN will increase our chances on possible future cooperation with ESA in the field of Ground Segment software.“