Error-Correcting Codes for Reliable Communications in Microgravity Platforms

TL;DR

This paper proposes a hybrid error-correcting scheme combining digital fountain codes and Reed-Solomon codes to improve telemetry data recovery in microgravity rocket platforms, especially during reentry.

Contribution

It introduces a novel combination of fountain and block codes tailored for microgravity communication channels, supported by a channel model and simulation results.

Findings

Nearly all telemetry data recovered in simulations

Effective protection against long and short burst errors

Improved data integrity during reentry period

Abstract

The PAANDA experiment was conceived to characterize the acceleration ambient of a rocket launched microgravity platform, specially the microgravity phase. The recorded data was transmitted to ground stations, leading to loss of telemetry information sent during the reentry period. Traditionally, an error-correcting code for this channel consists of a block code with very large block size to protect against long periods of data loss. Instead, we propose the use of digital fountain codes along with conventional Reed-Solomon block codes to protect against long and short burst error periods, respectively. Aiming to use this approach for a second version of PAANDA to prevent data corruption, we propose a model for the communication channel based on information extracted from Cum\~a II's telemetry data, and simulate the performance of our proposed error-correcting code under this channel model. Simulation results show that nearly all telemetry data can be recovered, including data from the reentry period.