N092-106 TITLE: Analog to Information (A2I) Sensing for Software Defined Receivers

TECHNOLOGY AREAS: Information Systems, Sensors

ACQUISITION PROGRAM: PMA-272; Tactical Aircraft Protection Systems

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: Develop high speed wideband digital sensing capability for digital RF receivers.

DESCRIPTION: Performance of current software defined radios (SDRs) is limited by the speed of analog to digital converters (ADCs). While ADC speeds are increasing very rapidly, the amount of data being generated by fast digitization is huge. Being able to process the data at the sensor would allow for a dramatic increase in the capability of a receiver by allowing processors to be utilized for detecting longer term patterns in the data. Electronic Attack (EA) is moving to smaller platforms like Unmanned Aerial Systems (UAS) and other portable packages. At the same time threats are becoming more sophisticated. We must therefore develop expanded capabilities that are lighter, use less power, yet remain flexible. This technology could play an important part in reaching these goals. The result of this effort is expected to be prototype hardware (perhaps FPGA based) or a high fidelity end to end simulation, or some combination thereof.

The Shannon/Nyquist theorems tell us that the sampling frequency of the sensor (ADC) must be at least twice the frequency of the signal for complete reconstruction. However the theory of Compressive Sensing (CS) or Analog to Information (A2I) relies on the fact that most signals are very compressible. For example, a pulsed Doppler radar signal can be described as a list of voltages sampled at a regular interval (a lot of data). Or, it can be described using a pulse data word (PDW) which states only frequency, pulse width and repetition interval (three pieces of data). Thus, the signal is compressible. Recent work provides a theoretical basis for this sensing and suggests that the hardware can be built.

Note: The prospective contractor(s) must be U.S. Owned and Operated with no Foreign Influence as defined by DOD 5220.22-M, National Industrial Security Program Operating Manual, unless acceptable mitigating procedures can and have been be implemented and approved by the Defense Security Service (DSS). The selected contractor and/or subcontractor must be able to acquire and maintain a secret level facility and Personnel Security Clearances, in order to perform on advanced phases of this contract as set forth by DSS and NAVAIR in order to gain access to classified information pertaining to the national defense of the United States and its allies; this will be an inherent requirement. The selected company will be required to safeguard classified material IAW DoD 5220.22-M during the advance phases of this contract.

PHASE I: Develop a concept for receiving pulsed Doppler radar signals. Prove feasibility of the proposed concept and include a detailed description of the limits of this technology, and quantify any tradeoffs between resolution and bandwidth.

PHASE II: Design and develop a standalone prototype system capable of detecting multiple signals widely separated by frequency in a lab environment. Test the technology against an existing receiver. Demonstrate the bandwidth improvement and document the overall system performance. While the initial part of this work may be unclassified, final demonstration on electronic warfare (EW) radar signals may be classified.

PHASE III: Integrate the developed technology with an Electronic Warfare (EW) platform to produce a stand-alone receiver set that can be demonstrated alongside existing receiver technology.

PRIVATE SECTOR COMMERCIAL POTENTIAL/DUAL-USE APPLICATIONS: The developed technology applied to digital receivers could be useful in commercial digital wireless communications applications.

REFERENCES:
1. Richard Baraniuk, "Compressive sensing". IEEE Signal Processing Magazine, 24(4), pp. 118-121, July 2007; http://www.dsp.ece.rice.edu/cs/CS_notes.pdf

2. Sami Kirolos, et. al., "Analog-to-Information Conversion via Random Demodulation", Proceedings of the IEEE Dallas Circuits and Systems Workshop, Dallas, TX, 2006.

KEYWORDS: Software Defined Radio; Analog to Digital Converter (ADC); Electronic Attack (EA); Analog to Information (A2I); Wideband Receivers; Sub-Nyquist sampling

** TOPIC AUTHOR (TPOC) **

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