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Courtesy Photo
Large equipment, like the serial adapter systems seen here, were used to transfer data between modern computers and the old modem based systems. By migrating the range’s instruments over to a standard network system, much of this equipment can be eliminated. |
White Sands Missile Range’s test infrastructure has been upgraded to make testing easier, faster and more reliable.
The series of modems originally installed to operate test instruments like radar and optics systems has been replaced with modern internet protocol based systems. Replacing the racks of slow modems, small commercially available servers have been set up to support the same functions while supporting modern software and eliminating the need for convertors between newer systems and the old modems. With each modem taking up more than four times the space of modern networking hardware, the amount of space saved alone will make range control rooms look different. “These racks (filled with modems) can go away, and all the wires and cables that support it can go… and the support equipment in the field can go. Everything with a modem or slower speed (connection) can be migrated to the new system,” said Michael Garcia, chief of data processing for the Data Sciences Directorate.
Switching to the IP based systems also means easier compatibility, and faster mission support. The new servers are able to run modern operating systems like windows, linux and unix, so software compatibility issues are reduced, and the system can adjust to new mission requirements faster, reducing the downtime between missions. “We’ve run back to back missions without the modems, all TSN/IP, without a hitch,” Garcia said.
The system will soon be able to support more missions as more equipment is added and software solutions refined that will allow for the new system to process classified and unclassified data. “The radars and optics are ready, and the (other systems) are close,” Garcia said.
The migration away from the modems took time as budget constraints and technological advancement made upgrades challenging. One of the primary reasons for keeping the modems so long is that they worked, and were already present in almost all range equipment, which includes dozens of sites and instruments on White Sands as well as mobile assets. “The instrumentation system at WSMR is so huge, it’s very hard to migrate something all at once,” Garcia said. Garcia explained that there was an attempt to upgrade the system in the past using a telephone style system, but budget and test schedules made the migration nearly impossible and with the advent of modern networking, the system would have been obsolete before it was even completed.
Customers will be able to benefit from the upgrade in the coming years as well. Data Sciences is working on making test data and results easier to read by formatting it in a similar to the World Wide Web.
The success of digital network migration, which includes the modem replacement effort, is an excellent example of cooperation and coordination between the Systems Engineering, Range Operations and Data Sciences directorates. Each organization played a vital role in designing, developing, integrating and fielding these improvements, without affecting current customer operations.
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