Military Communications for Harsh Environments
Rugged modem solutions for demanding deployments
Spectrum's off-the-shelf rugged wireless modems support
SCA and non-SCA enabled black-side processing
for military communication applications that need to be optimized
for size, weight and power limited deployments. This includes peer-to-peer and commander-to-warfighter
applications such as:
- Data Links
- Tactical Military Communications (MILCOM) including shipborne, airborne and vehicular deployments
- Military Communications Gateways
- Military Satellite Communications (MILSATCOM)
Spectrum's comprehensive solutions include signal processing engines,
integrated development systems, I/O and software development tools that support
a diverse range of military SDR applications for operation in harsh environments.
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.
The flexComm Advantage for Military Communications in Harsh Environments
Software Communications Architecture (SCA)
Spectrum's SDR platforms are compliant with the
SCA 2.2
released for the
Joint Tactical Radio System (JTRS) program.
Spectrum's SDR-4000 also offers optional early support for qualified
customers for the JTRS Modem
Hardware Abstraction Layer (MHAL) application programming programming interfaces (APIs) released 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 a 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
Rugged
To address the tactical military needs for operation in harsh environments, Spectrum
has designed products like the
SDR-4000 WML Wireless Modem Lite
from the "ground-up" to support
conduction-cooling, extended temperature range, and increased shock and vibration immunity.
This is achieved through the use of the following:
- Industrial-grade components
- Embedded stiffening and thermal mechanical structures including heat sinks and wedge locks
- Conformal coating with a sealant for protection against high levels of humidity and other environmental contaminants
- Software readable temperature sensors are included to monitor temperature on hot components
Reconfigurability
Our SDR platforms provide dynamic radio configuration and support heterogeneous
processing, including a mix of FPGAs, DSPs, and GPPs.
- Reconfigure the platform many times per second to allow radios to interoperate
in multiple networks simultaneously
- Multi-mode operation supports voice and data and a mix of wide
and narrowband waveforms
- Reconfigurable and redundant communications paths for each section
of the modem architecture allows support for both dedicated and shared
resource models. This also provides 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:
- Rugged to handle demanding deployment environments
- Modular and scalable architecture allows the platform to be tailored
to meet specific mission requirements
- Innovative schemes to reduce the power consumption and dissipate heat
- Configure with 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
3U CompactPCI for Quick Response C4ISR Systems (pdf)
The evolving nature of military operations often requires that the government
rapidly develop and deploy special-purpose wireless systems supporting mission-specific
applications. This article looks at the requirements for the technologies needed
to enable a quick response capability, suggest a solution for addressing these requirements,
and highlight a real world example.
Can the Military use Commercial Wireless Signal Processing Technologies
to Reduce Size, Weight and Power in Radio Devices? (pdf)
As a continuing column in the IEEE Communciations Magazine Quarterly Radio Supplement,
Spectrum's Chief Technology Officer Lee Pucker explores this question in the March 2007 issue.
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.
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