TECHNOLOGY AREAS: Information Systems, Sensors

ACQUISITION PROGRAM: Joint Porgram Executive Office Joint Tactical Radio System, ACAT I

The technology within this topic is restricted under the International Traffic in Arms Regulation (ITAR), which controls the export and import of defense-related material and services. Offerors must disclose any proposed use of foreign nationals, their country of origin, and what tasks each would accomplish in the statement of work in accordance with section 3.5.b.(7) of the solicitation.

OBJECTIVE: To develop and demonstrate a scalable and extensible consumer/commercial/military universal multi-channel Software Defined Radio (SDR) architecture and platform that is capable of bridging wireless communications networks operating at different radio frequency bands, physical layers, data/voice protocols, vocoders, and encryption methods. Fundamentally, the architecture of this system must be such that inexpensive realizations are possible with minimal capabilities suitable for consumer products and expendable sensors, and it must also be scalable and extensible to encompass high-performance military and commercial applications.

DESCRIPTION: A versatile Software Defined Radio (SDR) platform is required that can be implemented as an inexpensive single-function, single channel radio suitable for expendable or consumer use or scaled-upward to be a high-performance multi-application, multi-channel communications system. When configured as a multi-channel system, a gateway capability will be possible that will enable real-time bridging among a broad variety of legacy, current, and emerging radio frequency communications standards. For example, the gateway could bridge a military aircraft network with a military ship/ground network, a US military network with a coalition network, or an 802.11 WiFi network with emergency services VHF radios. The Joint Tactical Radio System (JTRS) multi-channel radio products can provide these types of capabilities, but the cost of the systems limits their immediate use outside of military applications. A system architecture is needed that is less expensive to implement, meets a subset of JTRS requirements, and can be scaled in nearly all aspects to enable the production of SDR radios that can be produced as commodity or as high-performance/high-end products –all utilizing a common pool of portable software. The approach would enable portability of communications applications among consumer/commercial/military SDR radios to ensure interoperability, provide affordable SDR application development platforms for small businesses and academia maximize maintainability at minimal cost, and enable rapid changes of communications waveform characteristics in response to hostilities. In addition, this approach would build an industrial base of hardware (e.g., chipsets) that would result in an order-of-magnitude reduction in the cost of SDRs and improve interoperability through organized or ad hoc standardization.

PHASE I: Document requirements for the SDR radio described above, encompassing military, commercial, emergency services, and consumer applications. Develop a scalable architecture that is applicable to all identified requirements. Using modeling and simulation, generate evidence that the proposed architecture can be implemented using available hardware technology. Propose a two-channel multi-band radio with gateway capability to design and demonstrate in Phase II (e.g., 802.11/VHF emergency services)

PHASE II: Complete the design of the radio hardware and software proposed in Phase I. Use modeling and simulation as required to minimize design risk. Fabricate a brassboard suitable for demonstration. (If the proposed design relies upon a custom chip set to reduce production costs, use a surrogate implementation for this breadboard.) Demonstrate communications and gateway capabilities of the radio system in field-testing. Propose implementations of the architecture into military, emergency services, and consumer radio products.

PHASE III: Develop a prototype VHF/UHF small form factor tactical radio with line-of-sight, MUOS satellite communications, and Type I encryption capability that can be integrated into expendable devices (e.g., sonobuoys, submarine-launched sensors and communications buoys, deployed sensors), UAVs, aircraft radios, and handheld radios. Document the hardware architecture, interfaces, APIs, specifications, and all other aspects required to define this standard.

PRIVATE SECTOR COMMERCIAL POTENTIAL/DUAL-USE APPLICATIONS: An immediate need for affordable SDRs exists in the Emergency Services market. Major emergencies such as large-scale forest fires require the combined efforts of the firefighting forces of many communities. Often, the radio communications equipment used by these forces is not interoperable. By providing the leader of an organization with an SDR radios, he can load the applications that he needs to speak to the leaders of partner organizations. By using the gateway functionality of a multiple-channel system, it would be possible to bridge the communication networks of each community and enable firefighter-to-firefighter communications within a given repeater zone. Clearly these same capabilities would also be of value to certain police forces and municipal/state homeland security operations.

It is also possible that this technology will have direct application in consumer communications devices. If true SDR functionality can be built into a consumer radio, then it would be possible for manufacturers to build international, WiFi, walkie-talkie, and another communication modes into extremely small phones, since the multi-functionality capability is enabled with software rather than with additional chips.

REFERENCES:
1. Tuttlebee, Walter H. W. (Editor) Software Defined Radio: Enabling Technologies, (Wiley, 2002), ISBN: 978-0-470-84318-5

2. Reed, Jeffrey H., Software Radio: A Modern Approach to Radio Engineering, (Prentice Hall, 2002), ISBN: 978-0130811585

3. Software Defined Radio (SDR) Forum: http://www.sdrforum.org/

4. JPEO JTRS: http://jpeojtrs.mil/

KEYWORDS: radio; SDR; JTRS; software defined; wireless; communications

TPOC: Alan Sweeney
Phone: (619)524-0022
Fax:
Email: alan.sweeney@navy.mil
2nd TPOC: Raj Samuel
Phone: (619)767-4156
Fax:
Email: raj.samuel@navy.mil
3rd TPOC: Paul Haggard
Phone: (619)553-9979
Fax:
Email: paul.haggard@navy.mil Questions may also be submitted through DoD SBIR/STTR SITIS website.