Estimating the Downlink Data-Rate of a CCSDS File Delivery Protocol IP Core

The Consultative Committee for Space Data Systems File Delivery Protocol (CFDP) is a protocol designed for the transmission of files in space environment, characterized by frequent link disconnections and high transmission delay. This work presents the characterization of the CFDP IP Core included in the European Space Agency (ESA) IP portfolio in terms of downlink data-rate through a custom methodology. For the characterization of the acknowledged/unacknowledged transmission modes, the CFDP IP Core was implemented on board Virtex-5 and Virtex-6 Field Programmable Gate Arrays and tested by using the ESA Ground Segment CFDP reference software, acting as a secondary CFDP entity. The delivered CFDP packets were encapsulated in Unit Datagram Protocol (UDP) packets and transmitted through Ethernet protocol. Wireshark was used to measure the time for a file transmission. The presented methodology provides a way to estimate the IP Core maximum transmission throughput and to identify the architectural bottlenecks.