Meteosat-8/9/10 Data Flow

  1. Data is transmitted from the Meteosat-8/9 (MSG-1/2) spacecraft down to Earth stations in Germany.
  2. That data is refined, compressed and encoded as HRIT and LRIT files.
  3. The HRIT and LRIT files are added to the EUMETCast service
  4. The EUMETCast data is sent up to the EUTELSAT-10A satellite in small packets of data.
  5. Other packets of data, such as Foreign Satellite Data (FSD), Rapid Scanning Service (RSS), ATOVS and EARS files, are also sent up to EUTELSAT-10A, but with different packet identifiers (PIDs).
  6. Your dish, LNB, and Ayecka/Novra hardware receive the packets of data as a UDP/IP stream at their network port.
  7. For the TBS card, the BDADataEx or TBS software turns the data packets into an internal UDP/IP stream, passing only the PIDs you have selected.
  8. The T-Systems TelliCast software recovers the files from the UDP/IP stream, looking only at the data channel names you have selected.
  9. The MSG Data Manager software turns the files into images.
  10. The MSG Animator software provides quick-look, real-time animations
  11. The GeoSatSignal software turns the images into multi-channel, false-colour, remapped animations.
     

My PC Configuration


Reception
PC
 		       
Processing
PC
 
TelliCast
software		             MSG Data
Manager software		        MSG Animator software        GeoSatSignal
Software
RAMdisk            


Windows
10 Pro		  
Windows
10 Pro
 		 Processes HRIT & LRIT files from reception PC into images Processes images into real-time animations Processes images into multi-channel, false-colour, rectified animations
Network
card		 Network
Card		   Network card
| |   |
 Dish LNB
DVB-S2 IP/Receiver		  Network Hub provides
1 Gbps connection 

 
What do the Ayecka and Novra receivers do?

These boxes take the DVB-S2 packets and decode them into a UDP/IP data stream, ready for sending over a standard Ethernet cable.  The data stream just looks as if it comes from a network node at a defined IP address (defined initially by talking to the Ayecka receiver over USB).  This network stream of data is then sent to a network card on the receiver (or the combined receiver/processing) PC.

What does the DVB card and its software do?

Based on tests we needed to do for Windows Vista, my understanding of what happens between the DVB card and the TelliCast software has increased a little.

There is a network device driver which provides the network interface.  As far as the operating system is concerned, this is a network driver and it is the device to which you assign the address 192.168.238.238.  It therefore appears capable of talking to other devices or networks connected to the virtual LAN adapter on that address.  The PC thinks it has two network cards, and needs to decide which one to use to talk to any external connection, and this has implications for Windows Vista.  

The software associated with the card or USB box you are using talks to the device driver, converting packets received from the satellite from DVB packets to Internet packets.  Each DVB packet has a packet identifier (PID), which associates it with a particular hardware origination address (the MAC address).  Within each PID, there can be one or more data streams (such as Metop data, HRIT data etc.)  By some process which I do not currently understand,  each stream will appear to originate from a particular fixed network address such as 224.223.222.223.  I guess this information is carried in the announcements of the data, and  the address of the announcement channel is defined in the TelliCast configuration files. 

So the job of the DVB software and network device driver is to turn a stream of DVB packets from a particular PID, into one or more IP data streams which appear to originate from a particular IP address.  This is just what the Ayecka/Novra IP receiver hardware does.

What does the TelliCast software do?

The TelliCast software has a number of functions, some of which I understand better than others!  First, in either the Ayecka and Novra hardware, or in the TBS or BDADataEx software:

  • As the DVB packets come in, the required PIDs are selected by the hardware in the DVB card or USB box.  This function is provided by the hardware in the Ayecka and Novra IP receivers.
  • Following that filtering, the packets are converted from DVB format to UDP/IP format, and given a particular source address - again a hardware function in the Ayecka and Novra IP receivers.

Now, in the TelliCast software:

  • When a new set of packets for a source address appears, TelliCast is given the chance to register an interest, and request a connection.
  • For each source address, if the TelliCast software has requested the data, the IP format packets are sent to the DVB network software.
  • The DVB network software makes the packets appear to have come from a real network adapter, and sends them to the operating system.
  • The TelliCast software picks up those packets from the operating system via standard network I/O calls.
  • TelliCast performs some error detection and correction.
  • TelliCast stores the file fragments in a local buffer, or on disk in the FSY file.
  • Finally, TelliCast assembles complete files from the incoming and/or saved packets.

In more detail:

  • When the TelliCast software starts, it must establish a connection to the DVB network software on 192.168.238.238.  While this connection is being established, the yellow icon is displayed.  If the connection fails, a red icon is displayed, and if it succeeds, a "pink" icon is displayed.  This requires the ability of the program to connect outwards, and a firewall entry may be required to allow this to happen.
  • Somehow the software registers an interest in UDP data from the DVB network.
  • It then needs to connect to the "Announcement" channel, which has an address of: 224.223.222.223:4711.  The name and address of this channel are defined in the cast-client.ini file.
  • When a new set of files are ready to be sent over EUMETCast, a message is sent to the announcement channel, and hence to the TelliCast software.  The TelliCast software will check whether the user wants this data (by checking the entries in the cast-client-channels.ini file), and whether the user is authorised for this data.  If the data is wanted and authorised, the TelliCast software will try and make a connection with the DVB network software so that the following UDP data is sent to the TelliCast application.

I am sure that a large part of this is setting up and using a standard UDP data transaction, but I still have to find a good description of that on the Internet.
 

More information and images

 

Automated system monitoring tools

 

 
Copyright © David Taylor, Edinburgh   Last modified: 2022 Mar 04 at 07:44