FPGA implementation of the CCSDS 1.2.3 standard for real-time hyperspectral lossless compression

Abstract

Hyperspectral images taken by satellites pose a challenge for data transmission. Communication with Earth’s antennas is usually time restricted and bandwidth is very limited. The CCSDS 1.2.3 algorithm mitigates this issue by defining a lossless compression standard for this kind of data, allowing more efficient usage of the transmission link. Reconfigurable field-programmable gate arrays (FPGAs) are promising platforms that provide powerful on-board computing capabilities and flexibility at the same time. In this paper, we present an FPGA implementation for the CCSDS 1.2.3 algorithm. The proposed method has been implemented on the Virtex-4 XC2VFX60 FPGA (the commercial equivalent of the space-qualified Virtex-4QV XQR4VF60 FPGA) and on the Virtex-7 XC7VX690T, and tested using real hyperspectral data collected by NASA’s airborne visible infra-red imaging spectrometer (AVIRIS) and two procedurally generated synthetic images. Our design, occupying a mere third of the Virtex-4 XC2VFX60FPGA, has a very low power consumption and achieves real-time compression for hyperspectral imaging devices such as NASA’s NG-AVIRIS. For this, we use the board’s memory as a cache for input data, which allows us to process images as streams of data, completely eliminating storage needs. All these factors make it a great option for on-satellite compression.