...RT Logic subsidiary has launched two innovative new products for building cost-effective satellite control centers: The Software Front End Processor (FEP) and the Software Gateway. Both are based upon a more economical "software only" architecture that replaces the hardware/software appliances used in the industry today.

RT Logic's Software FEP and Software Gateway products can run either on a customer's own servers or blade-server systems, or on servers provided by RT Logic. In a satellite ground network control center, RT Logic's Software FEP connects the Command & Control system to an encryption/decryption (COMSEC) device, and the Software Gateway connects the COMSEC to a wide area network (WAN). The FEP and the Gateway work together to transmit commands to, and receive telemetry from, a remote ground station communicating with a satellite.

Legacy control center architectures from the days before wide use of Internet Protocol (IP) required semi-custom hardware system solutions tailored to the custom serial interfaces of a particular COMSEC device. This resulted in ground segments dominated by physical racks of equipment. Newer COMSEC devices, such as the Air Forces' KS-252 End Cryptographic Unit (ECU), support ubiquitous, standard Ethernet electrical interfaces and IP protocols. RT Logic's Software FEP and Software Gateway products support the KS-252 and similar ground operating equipment, helping to reduce the cost, size and complexity of satellite control centers.

RT Logic's Software FEP and Software Gateway support virtual machine environments, and their small memory footprint allows for more efficient use of system resources. In addition, they achieve platform independence by eliminating custom drivers, firmware and hardware cards. Both products are scalable and support blade-server architectures, enabling them to match the expanding requirements of satellite constellations as they grow over time.

RT Logic continues to support the standard Ground Equipment Monitoring Service (GEMS) interface, allowing for backwards compatibility with its industry-leading T501 FEP and T500GT Gateway product lines and enabling a smooth transition to the newer IP-based ground system networks. RT Logic's Software Front End Processor and Software Gateway solutions will be demonstrated in the Kratos booth # 408 at the National Space Symposium 2013, April 8-11, 2013, in Colorado Springs, Colorado.