Notes from South Pole TDRSS Relay (SPTR) Mtg/Telcon held on 7/15/97

Participants:   GSFC (530, NISN, Eng Team, SN Security, Mike Comberiate)
                WSC (Richard Von Wolff, Carin Corbett, Erik Starman)
                SP User Rep at GSFC (Troy Ames)
                NSF (Pat Smith)
                MSFC (Rusty Morphew)
                UofChi (Bob Loewenstein)


SECURITY (Tom Buchanan)

The Vulnerability Risk Assessment Statement will be sent to Jim Gavura and
Pete Colwell at WSC by the end of the week.


HIGHLIGHTS OF NSF/ASA/ATSC TELCON ON 7/14 (Pat Smith, Kevin Culin)

- NSF (Pat Smith) reported that the SP SPTR equipment will be located in
the Elevated Dorm, Room 204 with the antennas (2ea-4 ft dishes) put on the
roof. This should receive final approval at NSF mtg on 7/16.

- SPTR Room 204 will be heated to no less than 45F. Kevin stated that all
SPTR equip should be able to operable down to 0C.

- The GOES-3 equipment is also located in the Elevated Dorm with their
paraclipse 14.5 foot reflector also located on the roof. The SPTR/GOES
antennas will be on opposite ends of the dorm and point away from each
other (GOES-105 AZ/SPTR-49 AZ). In-Dorm EMI/RFI were discussed and should
not be a problem. Pat Smith will discuss further with Paul Eden the
concerns of possible GOES antenna back lobe emissions impacting the SPTR SB
receiver and the controllability of GOES SB Tx On/Off should that be
required.

- NSF will run new Fiber (12 pair multi-mode) for SPTR into Room 204 for
router connection. The existing "Cargo" subnet for use by SPTR, that was
discussed previously, was deemed inadequate for SPTR needs. Trenching
should be no problem and there is fiber available at McMurdo for use.

- NSF provide (e-mail) SPTR router prices from another source. Stan Rubin
(NISN) will decide on the source selection and make the purchase
arrangements.


RADIATION HAZARD

- Dave Israel has providing SPTR antenna pattern graphs on the SPTR web
site for everyone's review.

- Dave has also provided some initial calculations via e-mail of RADHAZ
distances in the vicinity of the roof top and S-Band EMI flux density
predictions within the dark sector (22 off-point, 1 KM away). He requested
that NSF/ASA/ATSC and Bob Loewenstein (UofChi) take a look as his initial
calculations and provide feedback.


SP ENGINEERING TEAM TRAVEL PLANS

- SPTR Eng Team plans are to depart for McMurdo on 13 Nov and be on the
pole 1-19 December. NSF will pay team travel and SPTR Project will pay
equip shipping. Advanced shipping voucher paper work is needed for New
Zealand customs to expedite handling.


SPTR CONNECTIVITY AT WSC/SP

- Rusty Morphew (MSFC), in earlier discussions with Ed Blain (ASA),
reported that a spare Ethernet slot is available in the Malabar SP Router
(Ginkgo) for the SPTR router to interfaced (vice SPTR router directly
connected to the SP LAN). This will simplify the SP IP addressing scheme.

- NSF (Pat Smith) reported he had discussions with UofMiami PI's (Dr. Ottis
Brown, Dr. Bob Evans) about integrating SPTR and Malabar SP traffic and
that Rusty Morphew should contact Ralph Lee (UofM) to work the router
interface specifics of the NSI/UUNet/BBN configuration. There was a
restriction of no more than 100KB "sustained" traffic flow requested by
UofM that is not fully understood as to what the impact may be. This
requires further discussion to clarify.

- NSF mentioned that the UofM interface to Malabar NLT December from a 56KB
to T1 (1.5MB) capacity.

- Rusty requested whether the SPTR Internet routers will receive any type
of immediate indication of SPTR availability/non-availability (i.e., some
type of carrier up/down flag via the v.35 I/F) to expedite traffic
switching to alternate routers. If not, the internal router method for
monitoring lack of traffic flow could possibly take up to 900 seconds to
recognize. Dave I. felt that the SP satellite modems (SF2800) should
probably have this via its v.35 interface to the SP router, but he would
have to discuss with WSC further on what might be available from the
LRDS/TDI interface that could be used by the v.35 interface to the WSC
Internet router.

- There will be three IP addresses for SPTR at the South Pole. One for the
router, one for the SPTR fileserver (SPFS) and one for the SPTR Monitor &
Control System (MCS). There will initially be two IP addresses for SPTR at
WSC, one for the WSGTU router and one for the WSGTU fileserver (WSFS).

- NSF (Pat Smith) accepted an action to discuss with Paul Eden (Malabar)
the feasibility of routing any SP-bound VAX traffic to WSC that could be
transmitted via TDRSS SPTR when its available.


WSC SPTR IMPLEMENTATION

- WSC requested that the SPTR LI equipment be shipped with racks (one for
each GT) for expedience of installation. The PTP computers should be
interfaced to the bottom IO panel of the racks.

- The Internet routers can be shipped to WSC separately. Preliminary router
placement is in the PSCNI rack (at STGT) and the IFL rack (at WSGTU). The
SPTR LI racks will be placed near these GT racks. A CCR will be written by
WSC on the installation of the Internet Routers.

- WSC has requested SPTR Project reimbursement of cable parts needed to
interface the SPTR LI's at WSC.

- Best projection on the SPTR LI TDI being shipped to WSC is 30 October
after checkout at GSFC. There would appear to be no time at this point to
checkout the SPTR mock up at GSFC using TDRS-1 with WSGTU because of time
and equipment availability at the proper locations.


SPTR TESTING/ANALYSIS AT GSFC

- GSFC is assessing the information provided on the possibly of using a 1.7
meter antenna offered by Bob Loewenstein. The two 4 foot SPTR dishes have
been purchased.

- A S-Band diplexer found here at GSFC is being tested for SPTR suitability.

- A SPTR K-Band transmit filter is being considered/assessed for possible
purchase to minimize 2nd harmonic (30 GHz) concerns.

- Bob Loewenstein requested NSF/ASA SP M&O assistance to perform Dark
Sector RFI impact tests once SPTR is installed at South Pole. The SPTR
SB/KB Tx's should have local On/Off control capability to allow local
testing during non-SPTR use periods. Dave I. also mentioned that SPTR S/W
automated control will have a logging capability of actual TX On&Off times.

- ATSC (Kevin Culin) will submit today the sole source justification to RSC
for the SPTR UC/DC/LNA/SSPA.


SPTR DOCUMENTATION

- It is intended that SPTR O&M procedures be documented in a single
document for use at GSFC, WSC and the South Pole. NSF requested that the SP
portion be placed in a separate Appendix for SP O&M use. Sarah Leung (ATSC)
at GSFC (Sarah.W.Leung.1@gsfc.nasa.gov) will be writing this document.

- It was recognized that additional discussions are needed with NSF/ASA on
anticipated responsibilities for M&O of SPTR equipment at the SP. The GSFC
SPTR Engineering team will working this as actual SPTR hardware/software
becomes integrated and the procedural requirements are better understood.


SPTR OPS CONCEPT

- The final version of the SPTR Ops Concept has been e-mail'ed out. Those
items TBD'ed/TDR'ed in the concept will be worked in the weekly SPTR
telcons until information is provided/ problems resolved and then it will
be documented as needed in the SPTR O&M Document.

- Dick Schonbachler will setup a telecon(s) with WSC next week to discuss
data loss metrics for TDRSS performance during SPTR Proof-Of-Concept, and
WSC M&O of SPTR LI equipment.


******* NEXT REGULAR SPTR MEETING/TELCON **********

On Tuesday, 7/22/97 at 1000 local (EDT) in B12/E200.