6.2 Quality Management System
The Cospas-Sarsat Quality Management System monitors the performance of the entire System. Every LUT transmits all the solution data for a designated set of reference beacons to its associated MCC, which forwards it to the nodal MCC (as defined in section 5.4) for analysis and processing. This process assures an independent evaluation of the quality of the data generated by the System.
For the key Performance Parameters, the nodal MCC computes the performance statistics for each LUT and MCC in its Data Distribution Region. It reports the results on dedicated pages of the Cospas-Sarsat web site.
The MEOSAR QMS will provide a monitoring and reporting capability that is similar to the QMS that is in place for the LEOSAR and GEOSAR systems. Some of the performance indicators that are planned for MEOSAR are:
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Timely Alerting |
The ability of the System to receive, process, and deliver a MEOSAR incident alert message within the required time (of five minutes) |
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Beacon Location Accuracy (first alert) |
The ability of the MEOSAR system to produce a single-burst location that is within the five-kilometre accuracy required by the MEOLUT specifications |
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Beacon Location Accuracy (long term) |
The ability of the MEOSAR system to produce a location withthe accuracy required by the MEOLUT specifications: For an FGB, the solution after 30 minutes must be within five kilometres of the true location. For an SGB, the solution after ten minutes must be within one hundred metres of the true location |
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RLS Support |
The ability of the System to deliver the message from an RLS beacon to the Return Link Service Provider within the required 30‑minute interval for the complete end-to-end performance |
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Bit Error Rate |
The rate of errors detected in the beacon messages received through the MEOSAR system |
These performance parameters are being developed on the basis of the results that are observed during the MEOSAR Demonstration and Evaluation program, and they will be monitored (and updated as necessary) during the initial phases of MEOSAR system operations.
In addition to these key Performance Parameters, a set of MCC self-monitoring parameters will also be established, to enable the operators of MEOSAR systems to detect and quickly react to any anomalies in the operation of their equipment.