METHOD AND APPARATUS FOR TESTING RF PERFORMANCE OF A SATELLITE WIRING HARNESS AND SIGNAL PROCESSING UNITS

The invention relates to a method and apparatus for testing RF performance of a satellite wiring harness and signal processing units. A method of testing a design of a satellite payload transponder with modules of radio frequency (RF) communications circuitry includes executing a modeling application for establishing a modeling environment for generating a virtual satellite payload transponder andvirtual test equipment. The virtual satellite payload transponder has virtual modules of RF communications circuitry, with functionality equivalent to that of the satellite payload transponder with modules of RF communications circuitry. The virtual test equipment has functionality equivalent to that of physical test equipment in conjunction with modular test system software. The modeling environment establishes an executable block diagram for performing a simulation of executed satellite payload transponder command, RF signal performance and telemetry response testing, utilizing a given version of the modular test s