Protecting the CCSDS 123.0-B-2 compression algorithm against single-event upsets for space applications

Abstract

Hyperspectral imaging is an excellent tool to remotely analyze the Earth from in-orbit devices. Satellites capture these images containing vast information about the ground pixels. To optimize storage and transmission speeds, compression is often performed onboard the satellite. To that end, algorithms such as the CCSDS 123.0-B-2 are implemented on FPGAs, enabling this process in an efficient and fast manner. Single-Event Upsets (SEU) are commonplace in this scenario, e.g. bit flips in the FPGA’s configuration memory which can catastrophically alter the algorithm’s output. In this paper, we propose a fault tolerance technique for this specific case. The compression core is checked periodically by running a golden model designed to excite the full internal datapath based on a synthetic image. A failure in this check will trigger a reconfiguration of the compression core. Results show better detection rates than Dual Modular Redundancy (DMR) at a fraction of the resource cost, proving this technique as a viable alternative. Furthermore, other algorithms with similar processing flows might benefit as well from this technique.