OpenSource based Voice Communication for Mission Control

Abstract

Voice communication is a critical service within Mission Control Rooms, as voice communication is the most practical and precise way to transmit information between human beings. It is used in any control room environment for space mission support to enable collaboration within the room and to external connected entities. Today’s systems are highly specialized turnkey-based vendor solutions, which are inflexible in terms of adaptability and extension capabilities. These systems are based on vendor related proprietary protocols and are built on top of voice distribution technologies. In this paper we describe the core of a Voice Communication System (VoCS), which directly integrates the special requirements needed for Mission Control Room environments. Our solution will enable an overall system design with component-based implementations and interoperability between different vendors for different parts of the system. In addition our definition of the VoCS core will allow different levels of integration into existing infrastructures, as well as client implementations in the range from fully dedicated hardware-based infrastructures up to the provision of VoCS functionality within Web-based implementations. We will describe the idea using a prototype implementation based on FreeSWITCH, an Open Source media backend with a carrier grade cross-platform multi-protocol soft-switch, and the most differentiating client solution to common VoCS clients, a full virtual Web-based client.