Development of a TM/TC Front-End for Satellite Communication with Real-Time Data Processing as an Open Source Solution

As part of the ERWIN project, SeeSat e.V. in cooperation with students from the DHBW Ravensburg is developing a CubeSat along with its corresponding ground station located at the Friedrichshafen campus. The main objective is to establish a fully operational satellite communication infrastructure directly at the university site. A core element of this infrastructure is the design of a telemetry and telecommand front-end, which is intended to process satellite data in real time in compliance with the international Consultative Committee for Space Data Systems (CCSDS) standard. On the receiving side, these front-end extracts the payload data from digitized radio signals, while on the transmitting side, it prepares data streams according to defined communication protocols. The system is based on an AMD Zynq 7000 system-on-chip, combining an ARM processor with field-programmable gate array (FPGA) technology to achieve powerful real-time processing capabilities. It is designed as an modular component with defined network interfaces. Received data is sequentially decoded using convolutional decoding followed by Reed-Solomon decoding. Furthermore, received data is archived at all protocol levels using a RAID 5 storage system, ensuring reliability and traceability. Future developments include the integration of a graphical user interface to provide intuitive monitoring and analysis of satellite data. The overall aim is to make both the software and hardware design openly available, thereby lowering the entry barrier for research institutions to communicate with CCSDS-compliant satellites and supporting further innovation in satellite communication.