060912TBAUDSOP.doc

T-BAUD

OPERATING

PROCEDURES

Revised 12 September 2006

TROJAN NETWORK OPERATIONS CENTER

IAIM-TRJ-NC

CONTENTS

Section 1

INTRODUCTION

Section 2

REQUESTING SERVICE

Section 3

TBAUD CIRCUIT ASSIGNMENT PROCESS

Section 4

CIRCUIT ACTIVATION

Section 5

TROUBLE CALLS AND OUTAGE REPORTING

Section 6

OPERATIONS PROTOCOL

Appendix A

SATELLITE INFORMATION

Appendix B

CONTACT NUMBERS

Figure 1

AMC-09 SATELLITE EIRP CONTOUR MAP

Figure 2

AMC-04 SATELLITE EIRP CONTOUR MAP

Figure 3

SAMPLE CIRCUIT REQUEST FORM

SECTION 1

INTRODUCTION

In September 1996 the TROJAN program entered into an agreement with GE AMERICOM to lease bulk bandwidth and establish a process for performing link budget analysis, transmission plan management and circuit assignment within the TROJAN community. This provided the TROJAN program with the flexibility to configure the managed transponder bandwidth in response to the users’ needs rather than being limited to a number of predefined satellite circuits. The responsibility for management of T-BAUD resources is shared by the TROJAN NETWORK OPERATIONS CENTER and the USAISEC TROJAN Communications Engineering Office. The responsibilities are as follows:

INSCOM TROJAN NETWORK OPERATIONS CENTER:

· Serves as a clearing house for TROJAN user requirements

· Adjudicates priorities for available circuits as outline in Section 2.1 below.

· Establishes schedules and assigns users to available circuit resources

· Works with MACOMS to resolve priority issues with subordinate units

· Defines requirements to USAISEC for development of new transmission plans

USAISEC:

· Performs link analysis on requirements received from INSCOM

· Prepares transmission plans in support of INSCOM requirements

· Coordinates with the satellite service provider for approval of transmission plans

· Provides technical support to the TROJAN NETWORK OPERATIONS CENTER and the TROJAN terminal users on matters related to T-BAUD operations

SECTION 2

REQUESTING SERVICE

2.1 Although the implementation of the T-BAUD concept provided the TROJAN program with more efficient and flexible service, it is not without its limitations. 108 MHZ, distributed on three 36 MHZ transponders on two separate satellites, and 69 switch center satellite modems must be shared by numerous TROJAN fixed sites, TROJAN SPIRIT and CST terminals, and other users in CONUS, Alaska and Hawaii. Consequently a procedure for reserving and prioritizing circuits must be followed to ensure the satellite resources are used in the most efficient manner. This requires the user to plan circuit requests far enough in advance that they can be assured of receiving service when they need it. Even with prior planning, there will be periods where priority exercises, technical demonstrations or deployment related requirements may preempt a user with a lesser priority. It is the responsibility of the TROJAN NETWORK OPERATIONS CENTER and the user's MACOM to adjudicate the priorities for the circuit in such cases. Circuit prioritization is as follows:

· Real world (CST – TROJAN SPIRIT support)

· Large unit exercises for real world deployment

· Unit training for real world deployment

· Unit readiness alerts

· Unit exercises

· Maintenance and testing

· Proof of concepts

· Demonstrations

2.2 Plan ahead- Circuit assignments are performed on a monthly basis. With many users sharing a finite number of available circuits it is important to schedule circuit requirements several weeks in advance. It is not uncommon for the TROJAN NETWORK OPERATIONS CENTER to receive circuit requirements two or three months in advance of the current schedule. For routine circuit assignments, the request must be received no later than the fifth working day prior to the start of the month the service is desired.

2.3 It must be noted that TROJAN funded, or partially funded circuits are available for immediate entry in contingency situations, exercise and unit training support by all TROJAN users. These circuits are not intended to replace normal communications services. Those operations that demand a full time circuit must fully fund the requirement to the TROJAN program. Circuit requests for periods longer than one continuous week require the requesting unit provide the TROJAN NETWORK OPERATIONS CENTER command justification for the extended requirement. This justification must be submitted with the circuit request for each occurrence.

2.4 Submit request- Once the user has decided on a service date, they must submit a circuit request to TROJAN NETWORK OPERATIONS CENTER for action. The cut off date for submissions for the next month's T-BAUD schedule is five (5) duty days prior to the end of the current month. The request must contain the following data:

· KEYMAT Short Title

· Primary TNCC (Belvoir/Bragg)

· Terminal ID (ex., L623, T886, R709)

· Start Date / End Date

· Purpose

· Data Rate

· Operational location (city or geographic description)

· Special requirements

· POC name and phone number (in garrison)

· Email address

· POC name and phone number (deployed location)

· IAVA Compliance Information

· Date of last SSP submission

2.5 The information will be forwarded to the TROJAN NETWORK OPERATIONS CENTER via email, (TROJANNOC@MI.ARMY.MIL). Voice confirmation of the submission may be made by contacting the TROJAN NETWORK OPERATIONS CENTER, DSN 312 235 1063/1766/2061. The commercial prefix is 703 706 XXXX.

2.6 Failure of a unit to submit requests by the defined deadline each month may result in their requirement not being considered when the transmission plan is developed for the following month. Service may still be available on a space available basis so it is advisable to submit requirements even though the cut off date has been exceeded.

2.7 Users that require a circuit for emergency requirements must call the TROJAN NETWORK OPERATIONS CENTER at 703-706-1063/1766/2061 to obtain a circuit. Users must follow up the verbal request with a circuit request form at their earliest convenience. In the event that no circuits are available, the TNOC Watch Officer will take appropriate measures to clear a circuit for the emergency use. See section 2.1 for mission prioritization. The TROJAN G6 Duty Officer will be advised on these assignments if a system must be removed from operations to accommodate the emergency request.

SECTION 3

TBAUD CIRCUIT ASSIGNMENT PROCESS

3.1 Five duty days before the end of the current month, TROJAN NETWORK OPERATIONS CENTER personnel will compile the circuit requests for the following month. Upon completion of TBAUD assignments the TROJAN NETWORK OPERATIONS CENTER will e-mail circuit assignments to users (no later than the last working day of the month prior to the assignment date.)

3.2 TROJAN NETWORK OPERATIONS CENTER will respond to the T-BAUD circuit requester with the following information by email.

· Terminal Identification Number

· TBAUD Circuit Number

· Date of Assignment

SECTION 4 CIRCUIT ACTIVATION

SECTION 4 CIRCUIT ACTIVATION

4.1 Once proper coordination has been completed with TROJAN NETWORK OPERATIONS CENTER representatives and the circuit number has been provided to the requester, the user is cleared for activation of the required circuit on the day assigned (0001 hours, Eastern Standard /Daylight Time)

4.2 Coordinating with the TROJAN Network Operations Center (TNOC)- The TNOC should be contacted at DSN 312 235-1063 (703 706 1063 commercial) 24 hours in advance of the expected service date to coordinate issues related to encryption key materials and IP addresses for TDN1 and TDN3.

Immediately upon acquiring either the AMC4 or AMC9 satellite, and before calling the TNOC to come on the air, you are required to conduct a cross-pol isolation adjustment on your system. Following are the instructions for this procedure.

· Immediately after aligning your antenna to the respective satellite, Set your receive frequency to the Co-Pol Beacon Frequency (peak)

· Adjust the polarization angle of the feed horn assembly to maximize the Co-Pol beacon on the spectrum analyzer.

· For verification, set your receive frequency to the Cross-Pol Beacon Frequency (null) and verify the beacon is nulled out on the spectrum analyzer.

· Call your respective TNCC to request permission to access the network.

4.3 Contacting the Commercial Communication Provider- On the day of the service requirement, the user will contact the TNOC. The TNOC personnel will open a Circuit Activation Ticket and put the user in contact with the satellite service provider, currently AMERICOM Government Services. AGS will provide and or validate the following information with the user.

· TBAUD circuit number

· Frequencies

· Forward Error Correction (FEC) Code Rate (1/2,3/4,7/8)

· Modulation

· Azimuth/Elevation from the deployed location to the satellite

· Polarization

· Satellite and transponder number

AGS will assist the user, as necessary, with the following actions which must be completed with RF CARRIER OFF:

· Antenna aiming.

· Equipment tuned to correct frequency.

· Polarization optimized using spectrum analyzer.

· Transmitter warmed up with modem output disabled.

4.4 If problems exist in locating the satellite, AGS personnel should be contacted (through the TNCC) for assistance. The terminal operator will contact the TNCC and identify their terminal ID and identify the TBAUD to be accessed. AGS will verify the following:

· Terminal is scheduled

· Current contact information

· Terminal is configured for the correct transmit frequency, data rate and coding.

· Terminal is receiving Belvoir/Bragg Hub at a nominal Eb/No level

The AGS personnel will then conference the SES Americom Satellite Access Control Center (SACC). The terminal operator will only place the system in a transmitting state (CARRIER ON) at the direction of the SACC controllers. Failure to follow the directions of the SACC controllers could cause interference with other commercial customers on the satellite and ultimately result in liability assessed against the U.S. Government which will be passed to the offending unit for payment.

4.5 Performing the Access Procedure. During the access process DO NOT change power, frequency, polarization, or antenna aiming without prior direction from the SACC. If instructed to cease transmission the uplink operator must comply immediately. The SACC representative will direct the terminal operator through the following process during satellite access

When instructed by the SACC, the operator will provide a low power, un-modulated carrier at a power of approximately 5dB above the transponder's noise floor. The operator will confirm with the SACC director that this has been accomplished before modulating the carrier. At this point if the director cannot see the carrier on the SACC’s spectrum analyzer, the operator may be instructed to turn off the carrier immediately as this may indicate the terminal is on the wrong frequency, satellite, or polarization.

The operator will wait for further instructions while cross polarization isolation and frequency are checked by the SACC. When instructed, the operator will slowly increase power. The SACC will instruct the terminal operator to cease increasing power when the correct operating level has been reached (defined by link budgets and transmission plan in the SACC's database).

The SACC will confirm correct polarization settings on the spectrum analyzer.

The SACC director will clear the terminal for operation if all operational parameters are met (cross pole isolation, power level and frequency), then direct the terminal to modulate the transmit carrier.

4.6 Closing the link with the TNCC. Once terminal alignment has been completed, and the SACC has cleared the terminal for operation, the AGS Representative will verify the nominal Eb/No reading at Fort Belvoir or Fort Bragg. This will complete the commercial communications setup.

4.7 TNCC will be contacted at (Belvoir - DSN 312 656 5588/6142, 703 806 5588/6142 commercial; Bragg – DSN 312 236-2499, 910-396-2499 commercial), once the commercial communications service has been activated, to initiate the encryption equipment establishment process required to bring the service up in the red.

SECTION 5 TROUBLE CALLS AND OUTAGE REPORTING

5.1 Trouble calls- A satellite service provider representative is available 24/7 at the Ft Belvoir and Ft Bragg CCI rooms to assist T-BAUD subscribers in correcting conditions which have degraded their T-BAUD communications service. If the Terminal user detects a problem with the T-BAUD service they must first contact the TNOC to initiate the troubleshooting process. The TNOC will open a trouble ticket and verify the Terminal POC data. After this is completed, the TNOC will conference in the appropriate (Belvoir or Bragg) TNCC technical control representative who will assist the Terminal user in running a BLACK bit error (BER) test from the CCI patch panel at the TNCC to the BLACK patch panel in the terminal. This is a modem-to-modem test to isolate the problem to the commercial communications service and discount as much government owned equipment as possible. Prior testing will be accomplished before the TNCC technical control representative can pass the opened trouble ticket to the satellite service provider’s trouble desk. It is important to trouble shoot with TNCC technical control personnel and isolate the problem to the vendor’s equipment or space segment before a work order is submitted. If the problem is isolated to the satellite service provider’s equipment at the CCI room, or interference on the space segment, the trouble ticket will updated to reflect the problem is with the satellite service provider and the problem turned over to them for resolution. This work order number will be made available to the user for tracking purposes.

5.2 Outage reporting- Following a disciplined process of troubleshooting T-BAUD circuit problems with the TNCC ensures the government is not charged for erroneous trouble calls and provides a process for receiving credit from the satellite service provider for circuit outages that were traceable to the vendor’s equipment at Ft Belvoir/Ft Bragg. The REMEDY and satellite vendors trouble ticket numbers are the key to managing this system. The trouble ticket number should be used when requesting status of an on going circuit restoration action.

SECTION 6

OPERATIONS PROTOCOL

6.1 Operations Protocol refers to guidelines that if not followed by the satellite terminal operators can adversely impact on the order and discipline of the TROJAN network in general and T-BAUD operations in particular.

6.2 Transmit parameter changes- As described in SECTION 4, any actions taken by the satellite terminal operations personnel after the circuit has been activated which affect transmitter frequency, polarization, location of the terminal or power must be coordinated with the Ft Belvoir or Ft Bragg service provider’s representative. The service provider’s representative will coordinate with the NOC at Woodbine, MD (AMC-04) or Vernon Valley (AMC-09) to make the change.

6.3 Changes in assigned data rates must be coordinated through TROJAN NETWORK OPERATIONS CENTER. In some cases a T-BAUD circuit engineered for a lower power satellite EIRP contour ring may be assigned to a terminal operating in an EIRP contour ring requiring more power if the data rate is reduced accordingly. An example of this tradeoff is provided below.

EX: TB29C512E-04 is a T-BAUD circuit which roughly covers operation in an EIRP ring (with a relative power rating of 48 dB) that includes nearly all of CONUS. A unit at Schofield Barracks, HI wants to operate their terminal on this circuit but the EIRP ring Schofield Barracks resides in has a relative power rating of 45 dB. Consequently it takes 3 dB more transponder power to provide the same link performance at Schofield Barracks as it does the worst case location in CONUS at a given data rate. The satellite terminal could be operated at one half the circuit rate (256KBPS vs 512KBPS) at Schofield Barracks since reducing the data rate by one half reduces the satellite power requirement by one half also. This is acceptable to the commercial communications vendor as long as it is coordinated through the TROJAN NETWORK OPERATIONS CENTER and power does not exceed the assigned power levels and occupied bandwidth defined in the current transmission plan.

6.4 Terminating operations- The user is responsible to sign-off of the circuit prior to termination of operations. Prior to circuit de-activation, the user must contact the Ft Belvoir TNCC or the Ft Bragg TNCC to report that their carrier will be going down. This will alleviate speculation as to whether the user is having difficulties with their terminal or some local equipment malfunction has terminated the scheduled service. Failure to notify the TNCC may result in the denial of future circuit access. To maintain efficient utilization and management of the system strict adherence to this practice is required.

APPENDIX A

Satellite Information

SATELLITE DESIGNATOR:

AMC-09

CARRIER ID's

TB22 through TB55 POLARIZATION (Referenced from deployed Terminal):

Xmit:

Vertical Linear

Receive:

Horizontal Linear

MODULATION

QPSK

BEACON FREQUENCY

11702 MHZ

SATELLITE LOCATION:

85 Degrees West Longitude

TRANSPONDER NUMBER:

6K

SATELLITE DESIGNATOR:

AMC-09

TB57 through TB70

11702 MHZ

SATELLITE LOCATION:

85 Degrees West Longitude

TRANSPONDER NUMBER:

4K

SATELLITE DESIGNATOR:

AMC-4 (GE4)

TB01 through TB21

12.198GHZ

SATELLITE LOCATION:

101 Degrees West Longitude

TRANSPONDER NUMBER:

1N

APPENDIX B

Contact Numbers

TROJAN Network Operations Center

DSN 312 235-1063/1766/2061

(703-706-1063/1766/2061) Trojan Division INSCOM (G6)

DSN 312 235-1981/1475/1801

(703-706-1981/1475/1801)

Commercial Network Operations

Call TNOC ask for CCI Rm Center AMC04 (Woodbine, MD)

Commercial Network Operations

Call TNOC ask for CCI Rm Center AMC09 (Vernon Valley, NJ

Commercial Communications

Call TNOC ask for Belvoir CCI Rm Interface Room (Ft Belvoir)

Commercial Communications

Call TNOC ask for Bragg CCI Rm Interface Room (Ft Bragg)

TROJAN Network

DSN 312 656-5588 (703-806-5588)

Control Center (Ft Belvoir)

DSN 656-6142 (703-806-6142)

TROJAN Network

DSN 312 236-2499 (910-396-2499)

Control Center (Ft Bragg)

DSN 236-2521 (910-396-2521)

USAISEC TROJAN Office

DSN 312 879-3091/93 (520-538-3091/93)

(Transponder Engineering)

Ft Huachuca, AZ

AMC09

Figure 1

Transponder power values (dBW) to circuit numbers conversion.

51 A

50 B

49 C

48 D

AMC-4

Figure 2

Transponder power values (dBW) to circuit numbers conversion.

52 A

51 B

50 C

49 D

48 E

47 F

46 G

45 H

44 I

43 J

42 K

41 L

40 M

39 N

SAMPLE CIRCUIT REQUEST FORM

Figure 3