Emerging satellite communication (SATCOM) systems are envisioned to incorporate advanced capabilities for dynamically adapting link and network configurations to meet user performance needs. These advanced capabilities require an understanding of the operating environment as well as the potential outcomes of adaptation decisions. A SATCOM situational awareness and decision-making approach is needed that represents the cause and effect linkage of relevant phenomenology and operating conditions on link performance. Similarly, the model must enable a corresponding diagnostic capability that allows SATCOM payload managers to assess likely causes of observed effects. Prior work demonstrated the ability to use a probabilistic reasoning model for a SATCOM situational awareness model. It provided the theoretical basis and demonstrated the ability to realize such a model. This paper presents an analysis of the probabilistic reasoning approach in the context of its ability to be used for diagnostic purposes. A quantitative assessment is presented to demonstrate the impact of uncertainty on estimation accuracy for several key parameters. The paper also discusses how the results could be used by a higher-level reasoning process to evaluate likely causes of performance shortfalls such as atmospheric conditions, pointing errors, and jamming.

Date Published: 13 May 2016
PDF: 11 pages
Proc. SPIE 9838, Sensors and Systems for Space Applications IX, 98380S (13 May 2016); doi: 10.1117/12.2228472

Published in SPIE Proceedings Vol. 9838:
Sensors and Systems for Space Applications IX
Khanh D. Pham; Genshe Chen, Editor(s)