GPS Receiver Testing and Evaluation Support Using the Smart Buffer Box

Albert S. Washco, Alan D. Fesnak, and David W. Slomeana

Abstract:	The Smart Buffer Box (SBB) has been developed to support GPS receiver testing and evaluation at Naval Air Development Center (NAVAIRDEVCEN). The primary objective of this PC based card and applications software package is collecting high rate instrumentation port data during performance testing. The SBB also has demonstrated high reliability aiding test engineers to monitor the receiver during the real-time simulations and analysts to evaluate receiver performance following testing. The GPS receiver instrumentation port is a valuable source of information for test engineers and GPS system integrators. The SBB system collects data from a variety of GPS receiver instrumentation ports. The data can be logged to a number of different devices; i.e., Cipher g-track tapes, optical disks, hard disks, and floppy disks. Data can also be transferred to other computer systems via TCP/IP Ethernet communications or IEEE-488 communications. In addition to collecting data, the SBB can display data in engineering units on real-time display screens and can transmit any message to the receiver through built-in message packages or user built messages. Finally, the user has complete control of the SBB during GPS receiver testing by accessing teh user menu functions that are available at all times. The functionality of the SBB has given test engineers the ability to monitor receiver performance and control the GPS receiver in realtime. Also, the data collection capability allows analysts to perform post-test processign on data collected directly from teh receiver during a test. Specialized software enables the collection and processing of the satellite alamanac, which has proven to be very important during GPS receiver testing.
Published in:	Proceedings of the 4th International Technical Meeting of the Satellite Division of The Institute of Navigation (ION GPS 1991) September 11 - 13, 1991 Albuquerque, NM
Pages:	171 - 178
Cite this article:	Washco, Albert S., Fesnak, Alan D., Slomeana, David W., "GPS Receiver Testing and Evaluation Support Using the Smart Buffer Box," Proceedings of the 4th International Technical Meeting of the Satellite Division of The Institute of Navigation (ION GPS 1991), Albuquerque, NM, September 1991, pp. 171-178.
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