CNES Ground Network Renewal: Challenges to Increase Capacity and to Reduce Costs

Abstract

The 26 years old TT&C Ground Network of CNES needs some refurbishments and extensions. A project called « Cormoran » was recently decided to replace the eldest TT&C stations, to expand services to data reception (in X-band) and to increase interoperability and automation. Beyond the usual technical and performance challenges which are derived from the satellite mission requirements, high level objectives of enhanced capacity and reduced costs were assigned to this project by the CNES Management. In fact, the workload of the GN is expected to be multiplied by 3 to 4, in the next 5 years. This increase is considered beyond what can be covered at a reasonable cost with the support of an external GN (e.g.: commercial GN). Therefore, it is a real challenge for the project to propose innovative and efficient solutions to cope with the extra load and to maintain the running costs under their current level. This paper will first introduce the context of the CNES GN and the rationale for its evolutions. It will then describe the components of the "CORMORAN" project and will detail how each of them will contribute to the high level objectives: the features of the new systems will be presented, among which the automation of the network operations center, the modernized stations and their automated maintenance and the original data distribution system intended to reduce the bandwidth requirements on communication lines. Finally, the paper will conclude with a summary of the awaited outcomes of the ongoing developments, in quantified terms of increased GN capacity and stable running costs. -IntroductionThe French Space Agency, CNES, has been operating an S-band Ground Stations Network (GSN) for more than 26 years. This is a multi-mission asset that provides Tracking, Telemetry and Command (TT&C) services to all CNES satellite missions (currently 17 in flight satellites) in Launch and Early Orbit Phase (LEOP), in mission phase and in the End Of Life operations (EOL). On occasions, the spare capacity of the network may be used to provide same services to satellites of other space agencies in the frame of cross supports or to launchers, on a non interference basis. Also, supports to satellite of other organizations are possible, always for short duration operations and under special conditions: the main rule here is that CNES will not compete with commercial providers of same services in open calls for tender; the exceptions to the rules are when the risks for a first mission must preferably be assumed by an Agency, when the support is requested to CNES under an inter-government umbrella or when the CNES assets are the only ones capable of providing the required services (e.g.: technical features or geographical location of the antennas).In this context, the main challenges for CNES are to guarantee the availability of the required services to all users and to provide high quality services at a reasonable cost. This must be true whether the users are CNES missions or external missions. It must also remain true along the evoluti...