Reconnaissance Satellite Sub-System
Introduction
Mirabilis Design Inc.’s customer is a manufacturer of avionics and airplane engines with a multibillion
dollar turnover. It is also a leading producer of auxiliary power units (APUs) and other aeronautics
products.
The customer needed a new design for a reconnaissance satellite that processed and routed thetraffic to other satellites, aircraft, and ground stations. It was to function as a compute server androuter in the sky.
The government had mandated that the prototype be simulated first and all use cases tested before
beginning the actual physical development of the satellite. Consequently, the customer required acomprehensive simulation environment.
The customer faced the following challenges:
1. The existing simulator was inadequate; a more advanced and broader simulator was required,with better support.
2. Seamless integration of the simulator into their software environment was needed.
Mirabilis Design stepped in and with its extensive IP library, the actual simulation was createdsuccessfully and all use cases tested. It also helped that the customer was already familiar with
Mirabilis Design and its flagship product VisualSim.

Custom hardware designs were expensive and time consuming todevelop.

The Simulation
Challenge theCustomer Faced
Before Mirabilis
Design andVisualSim

The customer needed to establish a new standard that would help
them to mitigate payloads design costs and reduced development
time through common standards.
Their existing product did not have all the required features, and theyalso needed to build a much larger system than what was current.
The simulator that had been in use till then, was not being supported
any more. Therefore a more sophisticated simulator was required.
Eventually their objectives were refined to:•Develop a virtual system prototype•
Deliver test systems (test models)•Evaluate selected system configurations

The customer was familiar with Mirabilis Design’s methodology.
Students recruited from the university were already familiar withVisualSim.

Why the Customer
Chose Mirabilis
Design andVisualSim

The customer saw that VisualSim was fully protected, it had all thelibraries, and the simulation was faster. VisualSim successfully replaced
a competitor product.
The technical support provided by Mirabilis Design was a majormotivation.
The methodology deployed by Mirabilis Design was also very similar tothe customer’s previous generation product (the simulator in the bus)that was in use.
Working closely with our applications engineer ensured constantcollaboration and customer support. Consequently the project wasexecuted very fast.

VisualSim was used for the following:•How the customer
used VisualSim•••

Building Virtual Prototypes based on Fundamental Architect
blocksDeveloping testing features within the models
Measuring performance levels
Appropriately use abstraction levels

The role of VisualSim:••••••

Estimating processing time, read data and write data size
Scheduled tasks across different slots of the ARINC653 andran simulations with dynamic variations of data
Simulated 100 days of satellite behavior within two days ofreal-time
Aided in measuring peak and cumulative power consumed byhardware devices
Computed the heat generated and the cooling capacity
VisualSim model diagnostic ensured the task complete within
the specified deadline in case of failure.

The Results
VisualSim Architect was deployed and the project was successfully completed.
•Accurate virtual prototype of the required I2C bus was built•
Operation of the bus in various use cases were tested•
Protocols specifications were validated
The success ensured the planning of the future project with an expanded scope:•••••

Optimize 1553 interface model
SpaceWire interface
Model Serial RapidIO
Model of scalable backplane
VITA 65 (open VPX), VITA 46 (VPX) integrating data, control, management and power plane

The customer built a team around VisualSim and influenced universities to use VisualSim.

With Mirabilis Design’s comprehensive IP library, the actual simulation and use cases werecreated and tested respectively, before the physical development of the prototype.
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