Implementing the CCSDS Service Management Interface at GSOC – Challenges, Obstacles and Considerations

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Abstract

A good plan is indispensable for successful space operations. This applies to the mission as a whole as well as the mundane things like the scheduling of ground station contacts. The planning of the ground station is an ancillary task that is carried out by any organization possessing antenna assets. Depending on antenna usage, number of assets and also even simple things like (missing) resources, each of these systems are different, yet they do their job. Interoperability between these operational systems can at best be described as difficult, as it suffers from many different interfaces and in the end reminds one of earlier times when non-standardized data protocols for telemetry exchange were an issue. In many cases, scheduling interoperability is achieved simply through human interaction, primarily by sharing of all necessary information via e-mail. However, e-mail is not perfect, especially with hybrid solutions. An organization that has an operationally automated system and communicates with another organization that is still planning on a human basis often has problems bringing these two worlds together. The CCSDS recognized the problem long ago and published the first issue of “Service Management” in 2009. However, the complexity of the issue and the solution presented prevented the actual implementation in most organizations. CCSDS has therefore re-started the project and is now working on “Extensible Service Management”, which publishes recommended standards in slices that allow agencies and institutions to implement them more easily. Due to the fact that DLR is actively involved in this CCSDS activity, and the growing need for a new ground station planning system in general, we started a few years ago to redevelop our own system, which inherently supports new concepts that will be implemented in parallel to the development of CCSDS standards. Since no one is yet actively using the CCSDS interface, we decided to implement all legacy interfaces, one after the other, to facilitate integration into the operational environment in the coming months. Now that we are in the alpha phase of the software, we are forging some of these interfaces and, not really to our surprise, we are seeing many inconsistencies. Certain strategies, that seem to work internally for a single organization where software procedures are complemented by human interaction, do not comply with full automation and upcoming CCSDS standards, making it difficult to bridge the gap between new standards and the old world. The decisions that have to be made for things to work are not just a matter of software. They often have very profound operational implications and are deeply tied to all aspects of the mission. In our paper we present this new development at a high level and use it here as a basis for the analysis of current issues caused by what we call “interface matching”. We show which inconsistencies we have been confronted with, which solutions or workarounds we want to implement, and we dedicate some attention to their effects on operations. Finally, we will discuss in generic terms several challenges and proposed solutions for the development of the modern ground station scheduling system, meant to remain maintainable for at least the next decade.

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