Multichannel Error Correction Code Decoder

NASA Lewis Research Center's Digital Systems Technology Branch has an ongoing program in modulation, coding, onboard processing, and switching. Recently, NASA completed a project to incorporate a time-shared decoder into the very-small-aperture terminal (VSAT) onboard-processing mesh architecture. The primary goal was to demonstrate a time-shared decoder for a regenerative satellite that uses asynchronous, frequency-division multiple access (FDMA) uplink channels, thereby identifying hardware and power requirements and fault-tolerant issues that would have to be addressed in a operational system. A secondary goal was to integrate and test, in a system environment, two NASA-sponsored, proof-of-concept hardware deliverables: the Harris Corp. high-speed Bose Chaudhuri-Hocquenghem (BCH) codec and the TRW multichannel demultiplexer/demodulator (MCDD). A beneficial byproduct of this project was the development of flexible, multichannel-uplink signal-generation equipment.