EUMETCast A Spot

EUMETCast Basic Service channels reorganisation - UPDATE

 

EUMETCast A Spot
EUMETCast A Spot

The EUMETCast Europe Basic Service channels will be reorganised in the first quarter of 2022.

Last Updated

06 July 2022

Published on

02 February 2022

This reorganisation aims to achieve the following:

  • Optimise the bandwidth usage on EUMETCast Europe First Transponder (E10A-C4) by reducing the capacity allocated to the Basic Service.
  • Simplify the DVB receivers/card setup by reducing the number of PIDs used; PIDs 300 and 301 will be emptied and channels moved to PIDs 100 and 500.
  • Simplify the Tellicast Client setup by reducing the number of channels, removing unused channels, and merging some channels.
  • Reorganise the dataset allocation to the channels for better harmonization with other EUMETCast services (Africa and Terrestrial).

As part of the reorganisation, channels will be renamed in a more meaningful way, following a specific convention indicating the transponder, the EUMETCast service the channel is active on, and the datasets that the channel is carrying — e.g. E1B-GEO-1, where:

  • E1: EUMETCast Europe Transponder 1.
  • B: Basic Service.
  • GEO-1: EUMETSAT Geostationary mission data (e.g. MSG) channel 1.

Note: some channels already follow this naming convention and will, therefore, keep their current names.

The table below provides more details about the migration from old to new channels.

Change implementation phases

In order to allow users to change their setup and migrate from the old to the new channels as smoothly as possible, the change will be implemented in three phases:

Phase 1 (3 weeks starting from 7 February 2022)

The new channels will be added without moving any data flow from the old channels, and dummy files will be disseminated on the new channels.

Phase 1 will consist of two sub-phases:

  • Sub-phase 1: from 7 February 10:00 UTC to 17 February 10:00 UTC
    The dummy files will be announced but never delivered to the target directory of the new channels. Users can check their log and see if they are receiving announcements on the new channels, e.g.
    • VRB:2022-02-01 07:15:45.658:Received filelist 6e61bfb600a4512e on channel `E1B-TPC-5'
    • VRB:2022-02-01 07:15:45.659:Deleted filelist 6e61bfb600a4512e
    • MSG:2022-02-01 07:15:46.862:File transmission 6e61bfb600a4512e ended: filelist missing/incomplete
  • Sub-phase 2: from 17 February 10:00 UTC to 24 February 10:00 UTC
    The dummy files will be delivered to the target directory of the new channels. If the dummy files mentioned below could be an issue for any processing tools running on the reception station the user can change the target directory for the new channel under cast-client-channels_bas.ini (or the equivalent file) to a different location.
    The dummy files will be disseminated on each of the new channels every 10 minutes, with the following file naming:
    _YYYYMMDDTHHMM00_DUMMY.FILE.CHA (~10 Bytes)
    Example: E1B-GEO-1_20220201T120000_DUMMY.FILE.CHA
    This will demonstrate that the channels are working and will give users the time to implement the changes needed to receive the new channels and test them.

Users will be given access only to the dummy flows on those channels where they have active subscriptions, e.g. a user subscribed to 0° High Rate SEVIRI on EUMETSAT Data Channel 2 will be subscribed to the dummy flow on E1B-GEO-3 and in the sub-phase 2 above (17-24 February) will receive dummy files on the target directory defined in channels.ini.

In Phase 1, users will keep receiving the data on the old channels.

User-side configuration changes

  • Users need to make sure that PID 500 is enabled on their DVB receivers/cards, in case this PID is not already enabled.
  • Scripts allowing users to implement the needed changes on the Tellicast configuration (cast-client-channels_bas.ini) are provided at the bottom of this page, with a few instructions. The target directory that is already defined in the cast-client-channels_bas.ini will also be used by the new channels.
  • Users are requested to check the cast-client-channels_bas.ini file after executing the script, and if the dummy files mentioned above could be an issue for any processing tools running on their station, to change the target directory for the new channel to a different location by commenting the target_directory line and adding new line below it with another location.

Phase 2 (3 weeks starting from 1 March 2022 10:00 UTC)

All datasets will be moved to the new channels, except EARS and MSG mission data.

Note: The MSG 6-hourly products will be moved to the new channels.

Users who have changed the target directory for new channel(s) in their channels_bas.ini in Phase 1 (sub-phase 2) above, must set it back to the initial value in order to start receiving the data on the right target directories.

Phase 3 (22 March 2022)

The remaining data (MSG and EARS) will be moved to the new channels and dissemination will stop on the old ones.

Note: Please be aware that for some of the old channels, the datasets are migrated to more than one new channel, in particular data currently disseminated on EUMETSAT Data Channel 12 will be migrated to E1B-TPC-6, E1B-TPG-1 and E1B-TPL-1. Also, in some cases old channels are merged into one new channel, e.g. EUMETSAT Data Channel 3 and EUMETSAT Data Channel 4 are migrated to E1B-GEO-4.

Basic Service old v new channels

Old channel New channel Old PID New PID New multicast address Max multicast data rate (kbps) Datasets
Alert-1 removed 300        
DWDSAT E1B-DWDSAT 500 500 224.223.222.25 3300 DWDSAT service
E1B-Charter-1 E1B-Charter-1 500 500 224.223.222.3 23362 Disaster Charter data
E1B-GEO-1 E1B-GEO-1 301 500 224.223.222.27 2000 IODC High Rate SEVIRI
E1B-GEO-2 E1B-GEO-2 301 500 224.223.222.27 1000 IODC Meteorological Products
E1B-SAF-1 E1B-SAF-1 500 500 224.223.222.28 2750 OSI SAF data
E1B-SAF-2 E1B-SAF-2 500 500 224.223.222.28 2000 LSA SAF data
E1B-SAF-3 E1B-SAF-3 500 500 224.223.222.28 1250 AC SAF data
E1B-SAF-4 E1B-SAF-4 500 500 224.223.222.28 150 CM SAF data
E1B-SAF-5 E1B-SAF-5 500 500 224.223.222.28 1500 H SAF data
E1B-SAF-6 E1B-SAF-6 500 500 224.223.222.28 150 ROM SAF data
E1B-TPC-6 E1B-TPC-6 301 100 224.223.222.36 500 Third Party data for Africa
E1B-TPG-1 E1B-TPG-1 500 500 224.223.222.27 8000 Third Party GEO Europe
E1B-TPL-1 E1B-TPL-1 500 500 224.223.222.27 12000 Third Party LEO Europe
E1B-TRN E1B-TRN 500 500 224.223.222.3 20 Training data
EPS-1 E1B-EPS-1 500 500 224.223.222.230 740 Metop Multi Sensor
EPS-10 E1B-EPS-10 500 500 224.223.222.239 13140 Metop AVHRR
EPS-11 E1B-EPS-11 500 500 224.223.222.240 13140 Metop IASI
EPS-12 removed 500        
EPS-13 E1B-EPS-N-13 500 500 224.223.222.230 18 NOAA AMSU-A
EPS-15 E1B-EPS-N-15 500 500 224.223.222.230 686 NOAA AVHRR
EPS-16 E1B-EPS-N-16 500 500 224.223.222.230 34 NOAA HIRS
EPS-17 E1B-EPS-N-17 500 500 224.223.222.230 49 NOAA MHS
EPS-18 removed 500        
EPS-19 removed 500        
EPS-2 E1B-EPS-2 500 500 224.223.222.230 24 Metop AMSU-A
EPS-3 E1B-EPS-3 500 500 224.223.222.230 1100 Metop ASCAT
EPS-5 E1B-EPS-5 500 500 224.223.222.234 13140 Metop GOME
EPS-6 E1B-EPS-6 500 500 224.223.222.230 5700 Metop GRAS
EPS-7 removed 500        
EPS-8 E1B-EPS-8 500 500 224.223.222.230 154 Metop MHS
EPS-9 removed 500        
EPS-Global E1B-EPS-N-14 300 500 224.223.222.230 60 EPS Global data (NOAA ATOV L2)
EUMETSAT Data Channel 1 E1B-RDS-1 500 500 224.223.222.1 11600 EARS service
EUMETSAT Data Channel 10 E1B-SRL 300 100 224.223.222.36 273 SARAL data
EUMETSAT Data Channel 12 E1B-TPC-6 301 100 224.223.222.36 500 AEMET and products from the Moroccan NMS 3
EUMETSAT Data Channel 12 E1B-TPG-1 500 500 224.223.222.27 8000 FY2 1
EUMETSAT Data Channel 12 E1B-TPL-1 500 500 224.223.222.27 12000 VIIRS Fire 2
EUMETSAT Data Channel 14 E1B-TPC-6 301 100 224.223.222.36 500 Multi-service for Africa
EUMETSAT Data Channel 15 E1B-MSG-PAR 500 500 224.223.222.3 2823 MSG commissioning
EUMETSAT Data Channel 2 E1B-GEO-3 300 500 224.223.222.27 2000 0° High Rate SEVIRI
EUMETSAT Data Channel 3 E1B-GEO-4 301 500 224.223.222.27 7100 0° Meteorological Products 5
EUMETSAT Data Channel 4 E1B-GEO-4 500 500 224.223.222.27 7100 0° High Volume Meteorological Products 6
EUMETSAT Data Channel 5 E1B-GEO-5 500 500 224.223.222.29 1619 RSS High Rate SEVIRI
EUMETSAT Data Channel 6 E1B-GEO-6 500 500 224.223.222.30 387 RSS Meteorological Products
EUMETSAT Data Channel 8 E1B-TPC-6 300 100 224.223.222.36 500 Ocean MODIS 4
EUMETSAT Data Channel 9 E1B-DCP-1 301 100 224.223.222.36 46 DCP data
Info-Channel-1 E1B-Info-Channel-1 100 100 224.223.222.34 400 General info, updates
Info-Channel-2 E1B-Info-Channel-2 100 100 224.223.222.36 900 Daily logs, training, demonstration data
JAS-3 E1B-JAS-3 300 100 224.223.222.36 273 Jason-3 data
NPP-1 E1B-TPL-1 500 500 224.223.222.27 12000 NPP GDS VIIRS EDR
NPP-2 E1B-RDS-2 500 500 224.223.222.2 13675 JPSS regional data
TPC-1 E1B-TPC-1 301 100 224.223.222.36 228 FP-7 products
TPC-2 removed 301        
TPC-3 E1B-TPC-3 301 100 224.223.222.36 300 Copernicus Global Land
TPC-5 E1B-TPC-5 301 100 224.223.222.36 500 Copernicus Global Land
WMO-RA-I E1B-WMO-RA-I 301 500 224.223.222.22 1200 MDD RA-I data
WMO-RA-VI E1B-WMO-RA-VI 500 500 224.223.222.22 400 BMD RA-VI data
WWW-Channel WWW-Channel 100 100 224.223.222.40 400 WWW content
TSL Announcement Channel TSL Announcement Channel 100 100 224.223.222.223:4711 400 Announcement channel

Notes:
(1) If E1B-TPG-1 is predefined in channels_bas.ini then FY2 will be delivered in the target_directory of E1B-TPG-1, otherwise in the target directory of EUMETSAT Data Channel 12.
(2) If E1B-TPL-1 is predefined then data is delivered in its target directory otherwise in the target directory of EUMETSAT Data Channel 12.
(3) If E1B-TPC-6 is predefined then data is delivered in its target directory, otherwise in the target directory of EUMETSAT Data Channel 12.
(4) If E1B-TPC-6 is predefined then data is delivered in its target directory otherwise in the target directory of EUMETSAT Data Channel 8.
(5) If EUMETSAT Data Channel 3 is predefined then data is delivered in its target directory otherwise in the target directory of EUMETSAT Data Channel 3.
(6) If EUMETSAT Data Channel 4 is defined then data is delivered under its target directory otherwise in the target directory of EUMETSAT Data Channel 4
.

For more information, contact our User Service Helpdesk.