A high level satellite system planning tool

Vega have been awarded a contract to develop a software based high level planning tool for the UK Defence Research Agency. The first phase of this development was to produce an interactive simulation and model of the UK Military Satellite Communications System (UKMSCS) encompassing several different satellites, a multiplicity of different earth terminals and a core backbone of terrestrial data links. A major feature of the system is its user interface which makes full use of the Windows/4GL graphical environment to provide ease of use. The paper describes how the model used within the planning tool was developed both in terms of the constituent elements of the satellite system and the signals passing between those elements. Only those aspects of the model reflecting access planning between modems, at different earth stations are described. The facility for apportioning a cost to each access, enabling optimisation to be performed, is illustrated, as are some of the simplifying assumptions that enable the software to give a realistic representation of the performance of a complex multiple satellite network in real time. An example of the system performance is presented, along with a discussion of the application of such an approach to other areas