Ground Segment (Supervision and Management)

TCPsi has a wide knowledge of the main software technologies related to the monitoring and control systems for satellite ground stations. Specifically, our expertise is focused on C and C++ languages running on Linux, Windows NT, Windows 2000, and Windows CE platforms, real-time operating systems (RTOS) on UNIX (QNX), and graphical user interfaces on Java, J2ME, X-Windows, Motif, and Photon.

Throughout our extensive experience in the field of monitoring and control, TCPsi has developed a generic tool suite for M&C (GMCT, Generic Monitoring and Control Tools). The GMCT suite has been developed under different contracts with the European Space Agency (ESA), which allows the implementation of scalable and distributed systems from the controller of a simple device up to the supervision, control and maintenance of a network of production lines, facilities, stations and building with different geographical allocations.

In order to respond to the most critical requirements for supervision and control, the applications based on GMCT run on a standard PC platform over a hard real-time UNIX operating systems (QNX), which has been specially developed for a PC architecture. Its genuine microkernel architecture with independent priority processes ensures the stability and respond time required by events and command execution.

GMCT applications provide the following sets of Basic functionalities:

• Real-time supervision

• Real-time control functions

• Data management and data handling functions

• System management functions

This suite is fundamental base of our most successful monitoring and control applications, which are deployed through the ESTRACK network (ESA satellite tracking ground stations):

• Front End Controller (FEC)

• Central Station Monitoring and Control (CSMC)

• Power Plant Interface Unit (PPIU)

• Supervisory Data Acquisition Systems (SDAS)