NASA Langley Research Center, Industry Assistance Office, MS 144 Hampton, Va. 23681-0001

58 -- WAKE VORTEX RADAR DATA AND CONTROL SYSTEM COMPONENTS AND SUBSYSTEMS POC Taumi S. Daniels, (804) 864-4659 or Linda P. Fitzgerald, (804) 864- 2461. In order that potential participants may learn of the interest in specific requirements, an advanced notice is publicized here. Langley Research Center is hereby soliciting information for potential sources for design, fabrication and delivery of a Radar Data and Control System (RDCS). The RDCS is a digital system for signal processing, display generation, data storage control, data storage, and radar system control of a high resolution, millimeter wave Doppler radar designed to detect small scale atmospheric structures in fog and rain. See a description in the companion notice entitled DESIGN, FABRICATION AND DELIVERY OF MILLIMETER WAVE DOPPLER RADAR previously synopsized in the CBD under Sources Sought No. SS254, dated March 7, 1996 and posted on the internet on March 5, 1996. As envisioned, the overall wake vortex radar data and control system comprises multiple subsystems residing on a common bus such as the Versa Module Eurocard (VME) bus (although alternate configurations will be considered). Subsystems include signal processing, data processing and display, data storage control, data storage, and radar control. Data sampling will be designed to achieve 5 meter resolution with pulse compression techniques likely to be employed. One or more of these subsystems might be combined if the projected processing load permits or other system constraints allow. This system will receive the radar data as 12-bit digitized in-phase and quadrature (I/Q) samples for 256 range bins per pulse with a pulse repetition frequency (PRF) ranging from a minimum of 18,000 pulses/sec to 50,000 pulses/sec. The resulting raw data rate will be from 20 to 40 megabytes per second (MBPS). Additional channels of lower rate data comprising automatic gain control (AGC), radar state and time stamp information, and possibly environmental data, will be processed with the raw I/Q data. Raw and processed radar data will be passed via system buses, but custom data paths with suitable interfaces might be required to accommodate the high-rate radar data. Functions of the RDCS include: enable user to set radar operational parameters, verify that operation of the radar is as commanded, process and display in real time characteristics (parameters) of the radar data that are indicative of atmospheric structure, (e.g., reflectivity, and velocity spectra), display either live data from the radar or previously recorded data, provide an interface to record either raw I/Q data or selected processed data. The processed data may comprise 16 or fewer parameters per range bin extracted from an input of 256 pulse returns. The system architecture will allow raw or processed data to be passed to the data storage subsystem. In addition to raw and/or processed data, the radar state data (radar control system status information, AGC data, any available environmental data, and global positioning system (GPS) time and position data) will be stored. Plug-to-plug compatibility between subsystems or components is desirable but not essential. Incompatibilities will be resolved by custom interfaces produced at the time of system integration. Software development is expected to be performed on Sun Microsystems workstations or Pentium-PC computers utilizing good software development practices. Any required compilers, libraries, operating systems, source code, makefiles or scripts to compile code, test data sets, utility programs, etc. developed for or required by the RDCS will be delivered with the hardware. The system includes the following subsystems: (1) SIGNAL PROCESSOR SUBSYSTEM - The signal processor subsystem will perform the high-rate, spectral calculations on the radar I/Q data necessary for Doppler processing and, optionally, to perform spectral averaging to reduce the data rate and capacity requirements of the data storage system. Desirable features include a hardware FFT capability for optimizing throughput and a programming capability that will allow this system to be adapted to other radars in the future. The signal processing capability shall be sufficient to perform pulse compression processing, calculate spectral characteristics for each range bin in 256-pulse frames and perform clutter-removal filtering. It should have adequate program development support to allow development and testing of new processing algorithms. The signal processor should be capable of passing data out via the system bus and over an independent parallel port so that the high-rate data stream passed from the signal processor to the recorder does not load the system bus. It is expected that the specific data produced by the processing will change as wake vortex signatures become better defined and detection algorithms are developed, (2) DATA PROCESSING AND DISPLAY SUBSYSTEM - The data processing and display subsystem will be capable of generating standard radar displays e.g., plan position indicator (PPI), range height indicator (RHI), and line plots of calculated radar parameters e.g., received power, reflectivity, velocity, spectral width. This subsystem will be programmable so that new display formats or displays of new parameters can be readily developed. The display performance shall be sufficient to allow multiple, high resolution displays to be generated in real time (e.g., four PPI displays with 0.5 degree azimuth resolution and 256 range bins with an antenna scan rate of 12 (degrees/sec). The data processing and display subsystem will enable the user to select from a menu of options including the display format, signal processing algorithms, data storage options, and the capability to add new options. The host for data processing and display is expected to be a single board computer running a real-time UNIX operating system, in conjunction with on-board or external high performance graphics. Development environments for DSP, signal processing, display, and radar control should be able to run on this subsystem. The display will be a 16 inch or larger high resolution color monitor, (3) DATA STORAGE SUBSYSTEM CONTROL SUBSYSTEM - Data storage subsystem control includes both the physical control of the tape system during both record and playback, and the integration of radar state and other auxiliary data into the data stream. Specific requirements will depend on the selection of the data storage system but it is anticipated that control will be via a common interface such as SCSI, (4) DATA STORAGE SUBSYSTEM - The data storage subsystem will be used to record multiple occurrences of continuous data approximately 5 minutes in duration, with 3 minute intervals of non-recording. The preferred storage medium is magnetic tape in cassette format. A minimum storage time per storage medium is at least 20 minutes. This subsystem will record two channels of 12-bit parallel real-time data, each channel at 13 million samples per second. The combined rate will be at least 38 MBPS. Rapid access to any data recorded on the tape is considered desirable. A fast search mechanism based on a recorded time track or other frame ID is desirable for positioning the medium for playback of selected portions of the data. The system will be rack-mountable and have a bit error rate of less than 1 in 1E10. This subsystem will have a reliability of at least 2,000 hours mean time between failures, and (5) RADAR CONTROL SUBSYSTEM - The radar control subsystem acts as a bi-directional interface to the radar. It supplies all command information to the radar based on operator input, and retrieves all status information from the radar for status monitoring and incorporation into the recorded data stream. The details of this interface design cannot be defined until the radar and its control interface are defined, but for preliminary configuration of the control system it may be assumed that the radar control will be performed via a bi-directional data link that conveys command information to the radar and passes back status information. A user friendly interface will be provided for operator control of the radar. Hardware controls might be required for certain user input to satisfy safety constraints. The control subsystem will enable the user to change the radar hardware configuration and its operating parameters. This subsystem will accept time information from a separate GPS receiver, radar antenna position information, radar state information, and user inputs to configure the radar and recording subsystems. As envisioned, this subsystem may be a single board computer with dedicated monitor, keyboard, hard drive storage, input/output (I/O) ports, etc. running a real time operating system. Command information will include the following: PRF, pulse width (if adjustable), antenna scan parameters (azimuth and elevation center and range, scan speed, scan pattern), transmit/standby, system gain, range window position, and other parameters required for the radar selected for this experiment. Status information returned from the radar will include the following: current antenna position, radar system confirmation to user commanded inputs, transmit power level, receiver gain (for each range bin), and other parameters necessary for monitoring performance of the radar system. Vendors may respond with information on the RDCS in whole or on any of its subsystems. Of particular interest is commercial equipment and software which would require little or no modification to meet listed requirements, and the listed requirements may be slightly modified to accommodate the use of commercial equipment and software. Vendors having the capabilities necessary to meet or exceed the stated specifications are invited to submit appropriate documentation, literature, brochures, and references. This synopsis is for information and planning purposes and is not to be construed as a commitment by the Government nor will the Government pay for information solicited. Respondents will not be notified of the results of the evaluation. Respondents deemed fully qualified will be considered in any resulting solicitation for the requirement. Firms responding should indicate whether they are a socially or economically disadvantaged business firm, an 8(a) firm or a small business, and/or woman-owned business. The Government reserves the right to consider a small business or an 8(a) set-aside based on responses hereto. Expressions of interest should be directed to Taumi S. Daniels, (804) 864-4659. Closing date for submission of responses is 15 business days from date of publication. In responding reference SS258. (0108)

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