Military Communications
Semi-Rugged SDR modem solutions for benign environments
Spectrum's COTS software defined radio (SDR) modems provide the black-side signal
processing for a diverse range of military software defined radio applications
including:
- Strategic and Tactical Military Communications (MILCOM) including gateway and teleport systems in controlled environments, such as shipborne and wide-body aircraft deployments
- Military Satellite Communications (MILSATCOM)
- Common Data Link Backbones to interface with the Global Information Grid (GIG)
- Rapid Prototyping
- Verification and Validation Systems
The flexComm Advantage for Military Communications
Software Communications Architecture (SCA)
Spectrum's SDR platforms are compliant with the
SCA 2.2
for the
Joint Tactical Radio System (JTRS) program.
Spectrum's SDR-4000 now comes with optional early support for qualified customers for the JTRS Modem
Hardware Abstraction Layer (MHAL) application programming programming interfaces (APIs), released by the JPEO in
June 2007.
In 2003, the JTRS Program Office (JPO, since replaced by the JPEO) selected Spectrum's
SDR-3000 software defined radio platform
as JTRS representative hardware set with the intention to use
the SDR-3000 for independent verification and validation of JTRS waveforms
for the following purposes:
- Software Communications Architecture (SCA) acceptance and compliance testing of
JTRS waveforms
- Providing growth capabilities for the acceptance and compliance testing
of future JTRS waveforms
- Ultimately advancing the development and deployment of the
SCA through rapid prototyping
Spectrum's applications engineering services
are experts in SDR application and waveform development for systems supporting the Software
Communications Architecture (SCA). Utilize their extensive knowledge and solid history of experience
to ease your system design, development, integration and other project work.
Reconfigurability
Our SDR platforms provide dynamic radio configuration and support heterogeneous
processing, including a mix of FPGAs, DSPs, and GPPs.
- Reconfigure the platforms many times per second to allow radios to interoperate
in multiple networks simultaneously
- Provide multi-mode operation to support voice and data and a mix of wide
and narrowband waveforms
- Allow reconfigurable and redundant communications paths for each section
of the modem architecture allowing support for both dedicated and shared
resource models. This also provide high-speed, low latency, deterministic
data and control paths between the processing elements
Scalability, Upgradeability, Reliability
Spectrum's SDR platforms can get you from development to deployment:
- Can be ruggedized to handle demanding deployment environments
- Modular and scalable architecture allows the platform to be tailored
to meet specific mission requirements
- Have innovative schemes to reduce power consumption and dissipate heat
- Use components that can be easily swapped or upgraded as a Field Replaceable Unit (FRU)
High Data Rate Support for Waveform Applications
Our platforms use FPGA processing arrays to support wideband applications allowing waveform data
rates in excess of 200 Mb/sec per channel.
Channel Count
Our software defined radio platforms can support hundreds of simultaneous
transmit and receive channels
giving users the high channel counts needed for current MILSATCOM and Military
Communications Infrastructure systems.
Articles
Mapping waveforms to systems: What would a wideband networking waveform system require? (pdf)
When building a Joint Tactical Radio System (JTRS) modem that must support a wide variety of disparate
waveforms, it can be very challenging to assess the overall system requirements. A pragmatic process exists
that can be employed to evaluate the requirements of a wideband waveform and to map these requirements to a
hardware platform.
Extending the SCA Core Framework Inside the Modem Architecture of a Software Defined Radio (pdf)
Illustrates the application of the SCA core framework for SDR modem architectures, including aggregating
devices in support of direct hardware interconnects between components and the incorporation of a
switched fabric communications infrastructure within the overall modem architecture.
Finding MIMO: A Proposed Model for Incorporating Multiple Input, Multiple Output
Technology into Software Defined Radios (pdf)
This paper explores how Multiple Input, Multiple Output (MIMO) capabilities can be inserted into radio systems
in a cost affective manner after those radios are already in service. This paper also proposes
a model using software defined radio technology as a key enabler in allowing today's emerging
wireless systems to support the future insertion of MIMO technology while minimizing overall capital investment.
How to Achieve Application Software Portability (pdf)
Developing military embedded application software that is portable between platforms,
and will remain portable throughout its life cycle, can be a tricky process. Maximum benefits
will be obtained by taking care to develop coding rules for portable software, creating a system
that can build for all platforms from a single build specification, and writing tools to examine the
software in the version control system to detect any violations of the portability rules.
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