European Space Agency
European Space Agency
The Calvera project contains product development on the MDM6100 Broadcast Satellite Modem, on the MCX7000 Multi-Carrier Satellite Gateway and on the USS0202 Universal Redundancy Switch.
Project objectives are
A real life over satellite use case on satellite bonding has been added to the project objectives.
The new features require software developments on existing platforms, except for the introduction of a new ‘monitor and control’ board for the redundancy switches and a hardware upgrade for replacement of an obsolete DAC.
The aim is to
Higher bandwidth efficiency is an important factor in any business case as it brings lower OPEX; Equalink 3 predistortion, tight spectrum shaping and channel bonding make a difference.
Customers want to spend as little as possible time and energy in integrating third party equipment in their systems. The availability of unidirectional in-band management is a must for the DTT receive equipment in the towers.
The switch from ASI to IP is taken up in most systems now all over the world. This implies that the modulators should be compatible with all types of IP network configurations, e.g. including VLANs. On top of this, redundancy switching can be based upon a large number of input stream quality indicators.
USS02x2 products are based upon a 10-year old platform and the processor is becoming obsolete.
M(DM)6100 hardware, also needs an upgrade for an obsolete DAC component.
Features on MCX7000 R2.1 & R2.2:
Features on M(DM)6100 R2.9:
Features on MCX7000 R2.4:
Features on MCX7000 R2.3:
Features on M(DM)6100 R2.10 & 2.11:
Features on USS0202/USS0212 R2.4/R3.4:
The MCX7000 block diagram is shown here:
The main board provides processor and FPGA hardware and has one modulator on-board. Three optional slots can be populated with three add-on modulators. The main board FPGA interfaces with the add-on modulators via a packetized TS bus.
The project consisted of two major releases of the products. The following development schedule was executed:
The project is completed in September 2019.
The project objectives as presented above have been achieved and a successful introduction on the satcom broadcast market is ongoing in parallel.
