Real-time architecture for reed-solomon error correction

Abstract

The Macintosh Telemetry and Command Workstation (MacTAC) was developed by Clemson University in cooperation with NASA's Gadded Space Flight Center to meet the needs of scientists requiring low-cost, high performance telemetry workstations. Among its many functions, the MacTAC system employs Reed Solomon(255,223) error correction as recommended by the Consultative Committee for Space Data Systems (CCSDS) [1] in a pipelined hardware platform. Presented here is an improved Reed-Solomon (RS) architecture to provide real time correction of CCSDS frames at a sustained rate of 5 megabits per second (Mbps).