Projects

Overview
Project Title	VCM green book
Approval	Draft
Document Number	to be assigned
Charter	5.02 Space Link Coding and Synchronization Working Group
Document Type	Green
Description of Document	The objective of this activity is to issue a Green Book that will pair the Variable Coded Modulation Protocol Blue Book (431.1). The novel green book will provide first a general description about the benefits of using VCM at communication system level, especially for LEO missions with high data return. Then, it will include numerical results (obtained by means of software simulations or testing on a HW prototype) that can be adopted by CCSDS users as reference for trading-off the use of VCM in future missions. Results will be provided for all possible VCM formats (known as Type), as described by the 131.2-B (SCCC), 131.3-B (DVB-S2), and 431.1 (LDPC).
Applicable Patents
Patent Comments
Survey of Similar Standards Documents or Projects Undertaken in Other Bodies and elsewhere in CCSDS	The WG identified the following books as related: -131.11-G, for SCCC, that focuses exclusively on the physical layer performance; -131.12-G, for DVB-S2, that focuses on physical layer performance, but also provides some insights about the use of VCM in satellite communication systems; The novel green book will instead focus exclusively at satellite communication system level, thus complementing the two green books. For sake of harmonization, at the end of this project, a comparison of the novel green book content will be done with the other two books. Possible changes will be carried out by means of dedicated projects or editorial updates.
Resources
Book Editor	TBD
Book Editor Resources	6 mm, Book editor TBD
Prototype 1	ESA
Prototype 1 Resources	8 mm. ESA will made available a prototype for HW testing, although not required by CCSDS. The rationale is to derive results that are more representative of actual satellite missions, rather than those derived by means of SW simulations.
Prototype 2
Prototype 2 Resources
Prototype 3
Prototype 3 Resources
Contribute	ESA, NASA
Monitor Only
Resource Comments	Currently ESA/ESTEC people of the WG, contributing to this project, are having a shortage of manpower for CCSDS. Namely, ESTEC allocated just 0.3 mm for the full year for all CCSDS activities inside the WG. For this reason, project schedule has been put longer than usual.

Schedule

Legend for Schedule Milestones = Required for Orange Books = Required for Green Books = Required for Magenta Books = Required for Blue Books Note - Red Books are Draft Blue/Magenta Books Schedule Milestones	Original Completion Date (Date in M/D/YYYY format.)	Comments (Date in M/D/YYYY format.)
Project Approved
Project Start Date
Internal WG Review
First Draft Circulated to WG		for Spring 2025
First Draft Comments Due
Second draft circulated to WG
Second Draft Comments Due
Final WB Submitted to AD for Further Processing
External Milestones
Secretariat Document Processing
First Agency Review
RID Resolution
Secretariat Document Processing 2
Final Agency Review
RID Resolution
First Prototype Development
Second Prototype Development
CMC Approval
Total Time to Complete (in months)	0