UAV KLV Video Metadata Ingest (STANAG 4609 / MISB ST 0601)

Overview#

A defence operator receives full-motion video from an ISR drone with telemetry locked inside the STANAG 4609 transport stream, and pushes those KLV packets straight into the platform with a single call instead of standing up a bespoke demux pipeline.

The UAV KLV Video Metadata Ingest module accepts the Key-Length-Value (KLV) metadata embedded in unmanned aerial and ISR video, decodes the position, attitude, and pointing telemetry carried alongside each frame, and makes it immediately queryable per organisation and per stream. Sensor latitude and longitude, frame-centre coordinates, slant range, and platform heading, pitch, and roll become structured records the moment they arrive, ready for watch-floor displays, geocoding pipelines, and after-action track reconstruction.

By taking the raw KLV byte buffer directly, the platform removes the need for a separate telemetry datastore or proprietary middleware between the video receiver and the operational picture. Every ingested packet is written to durable storage, recorded in the interoperability audit trail, and surfaced as an operational sensor entity in the unified entity graph, so a drone's metadata feed reinforces the same common picture as every other sensor source.

Open Standards#

• STANAG 4609 (NATO Digital Motion Imagery Standard): The module ingests metadata from the NATO standard for UAV and ISR digital motion imagery, the format produced by most coalition full-motion video sensors and ground stations.
• MISB ST 0601.17 (UAS Datalink Local Set): KLV packets are matched against the ST 0601 Universal Label and decoded according to the Motion Imagery Standards Board UAS datalink local set, including the published tag scaling and engineering-unit conversions for each telemetry value.
• SMPTE 336M (KLV Data Encoding Protocol): Packet framing follows the SMPTE Key-Length-Value coding of metadata, with the 16-byte Universal Label key, Basic Encoding Rules (BER) length fields in both short and long form, and the local-set value payload.
• WGS 84 / EPSG:4326: All latitude and longitude values, including sensor position and frame-centre coordinates, are expressed in the WGS 84 geographic coordinate reference system, keeping decoded positions interoperable with the platform's mapping and geospatial modules.
• UNIX Epoch Microsecond Timestamp: The ST 0601 precision time stamp is preserved as a microsecond-resolution UNIX epoch value, giving each record an unambiguous, time-zone-independent acquisition time for correlation across sources.

Key Features#

• Single-Call KLV Ingest: A base64-encoded raw KLV byte buffer is accepted over one authenticated GraphQL operation, removing the need for operators to build and maintain a bespoke demultiplexing pipeline between the video receiver and the platform.

• Standards-Conformant Decoding: The decoder reads SMPTE 336M framing, scans the buffer for the MISB ST 0601 Universal Label sync word, and walks the local set using Basic Encoding Rules length fields, so it interoperates with conformant STANAG 4609 sources rather than a single vendor's output.

• Twelve Telemetry Tags Extracted: Each packet yields up to twelve decoded values: sensor latitude, longitude, and altitude; frame-centre latitude and longitude; slant range; platform heading, pitch, and roll; the precision timestamp; and sensor relative azimuth and elevation, each converted to engineering units.

• Multi-Packet Stream Handling: A single buffer may carry many KLV packets; the module iterates every packet in the stream, decodes each one independently, and persists a separate record per packet so no frame of telemetry is lost.

• Per-Organisation Isolation: Every decoded packet is stored against the calling organisation, and retrieval is bounded to that same organisation, keeping each operator's ISR telemetry strictly separated in a shared multi-tenant deployment.

• Stream-Scoped Retrieval: Stored records can be retrieved filtered by stream identifier, so an operator can pull back the full telemetry history of one specific video feed for replay, geocoding, or analysis.

• Unified Entity Publication: For each ingested packet the module publishes an operational entity of type sensor in the air domain into the unified entity graph, carrying the decoded sensor position so the drone's metadata appears on the same common picture as every other source.

• Built-In Audit Trail: Every ingested record emits an interoperability audit entry recording the source standard and stream, providing a complete, reviewable account of what telemetry entered the platform and when.

Use Cases#

Defence and ISR Operations#

• Full-Motion Video Watch Floors: Push the KLV telemetry from a live ISR feed into the platform so sensor position, frame-centre coordinates, and platform attitude drive a real-time watch-floor display without a separate telemetry datastore.
• Sensor Footprint Geocoding: Use frame-centre latitude and longitude together with slant range and sensor pointing to feed geocoding pipelines that place what the camera is looking at onto the operational map.
• After-Action Track Reconstruction: Retrieve the stored telemetry history for a stream to rebuild a platform's flight path and sensor coverage during post-mission review and battle damage assessment.

Public Safety and Border Operations#

• Aerial Patrol Awareness: Operators flying surveillance aircraft or drones over border, coastline, or disaster areas surface live sensor and frame-centre positions on the common operational picture for coordinating ground response.
• Incident Replay: Reconstruct exactly where an airborne camera was pointed at a given microsecond timestamp, supporting evidentiary review and inter-agency reporting.

Systems Integrators#

• Drop-In Telemetry Sink: Integrators connecting an existing STANAG 4609 receiver or ground station gain a standards-based endpoint that accepts KLV directly, replacing custom-built telemetry extraction and storage.

Integration#

• GraphQL Ingest and Retrieval: The module exposes two authenticated GraphQL operations. ingestKlvBase64 takes a stream identifier and a base64-encoded KLV byte buffer and returns the count of records stored and any decode errors. videoMetadataRecords returns the stored telemetry for the calling organisation, optionally filtered by stream identifier and bounded by record count.
• OAuth2 and JWT Authentication: Both operations require an authenticated principal. The calling identity establishes the organisation context that scopes every write and read, so credentials issued through the platform's OAuth2 and JWT flow are all an integrator needs to begin pushing telemetry.
• Normalised Telemetry Model: Decoded packets are stored in a consistent, named-field model (sensor and frame-centre coordinates, altitude, slant range, platform attitude, pointing angles, and timestamp), giving downstream consumers a stable shape regardless of the originating sensor.
• Unified Entity Graph: Each ingest publishes a sensor entity in the air domain with decoded position into the shared entity graph, so KLV telemetry plugs into the same common operational picture, mapping, and correlation modules as other sensor feeds with no extra wiring.
• Interoperability Audit Stream: Every stored record generates an audit entry tagged with the source standard and stream, which integrators can consume for compliance reporting and lineage tracking.

The customer plugs in a STANAG 4609 video receiver or ground station on one side and a standards-conformant GraphQL endpoint on the other; the benefit is that ISR telemetry becomes immediately queryable, mapped, and audited per organisation without a proprietary middleware layer.

Security & Compliance#

• Authentication Required: Every ingest and query operation is gated by an authentication permission check; unauthenticated requests are rejected before any decoding or storage occurs.
• Multi-Tenant Isolation: All writes are scoped to the calling organisation and all reads are bounded to that organisation, so one operator can never see another operator's ISR telemetry in a shared deployment.
• Clearance-Aware Retrieval: Record retrieval is bounded by the caller's clearance level, applying classification filtering to the telemetry returned.
• Complete Audit Coverage: Each ingested record is written to durable storage first and accompanied by an interoperability audit entry, producing a reviewable account of exactly which telemetry entered the platform, from which stream, and under which standard.
• Resilient Decoding: Malformed buffers, truncated packets, and unexpected tag lengths are handled defensively; the decoder skips what it cannot parse and reports an error count rather than failing the whole batch, so a single bad packet never blocks an otherwise valid stream.

Last Reviewed: 2026-05-26 Last Updated: 2026-05-26