Tenders Are Invited For All-Digital Ground Station

Tenders are invited for GT17-883GS- All-Digital Ground Station Price Range : > 500 KEURO The signal processing approach of satellite ground station back-ends is undergoing a major conceptual changeworldwide: instead of processing the signal in the back-end in the classical way with a dedicated up-/ downlinkchain, there is the more flexible approachof sampling the signal directly before transmission / after reception. Thisstep also includes the up- and down-conversion. Thereafter the data is transferred via the network using theDigital Intermediate Frequency Interoperability (DIFI) protocol and processed on a Software Defined Radio (SDR)platform (instead of a classical modem). Commercialisation of this concept is on-going on both sides: the classicalmodem/back-end providers and the providers of commercial satellite ground station services. For the latter one,the high flexibility, the easy scalability and the interoperability are only some of the key advantages. For all sidesadvantageous isthe high degree of modularity, that can be achieved with an all-digital ground station. This allows,to program dedicated modules for dedicated satellite missions, which can then be plugged into any ground station,without changing hardware components, just simply by a software update. The use of the open DIFI standardinstead of other proprietary protocols also helps avoid vendor lock-in by allowing systems from different vendorsto communicate with each other. The open DIFI standard can also be a door-opener for new andexisting vendorsto offer COTS components with the option to include custom developments according to customer requests.Furthermore, the signal digitisation right at the beginning allows for much more flexibility in terms of processing.For example, the processing could even be split between a COTS SDR and a custom developed SDR part (e.g.for a dedicated mission need(s)). This allows to take profit of low-cost COTS developments, while still maintainingall the dedicated custom developed functionalities in a separate SDRsystem. Moreover, the given flexibility of anall-digital ground station is much larger than only this and this activity will assess additional possibilities which anall-digital ground station could provide. Additionally, it will also show in which areas there are still limitations toovercome.This activity is complementary to the TDE activity, T712-703GS - Ground Station Backend Architecture with High-Rate Sampling and Software Defined Radio, for a very limited all digital ground station. Read less Tender Link : https://esastar-publication-ext.sso.esa.int/ESATenderActions/filter/open