Signals Intelligence and Electronic Warfare
Reconfigurable Platforms for Rapid Deployments on Multiple Projects

Your signals intelligence (SIGINT)/electronic warfare (EW) systems require reliable, accurate, and high performance systems to detect, locate and counter hostile signals in the field. Our software reconfigurable signal processing platforms offer flexibility and upgradeability for different mission profiles:

• Wideband Spectral Analysis
• Spectral Monitoring with Multi-channel Direction Finding
• Channelized Receivers with Beam Forming
• Electronic Support (Detection, Direction Finding) and Electronic Attack (Interception, Deception, Jamming, Neutralization)

Spectrum's "IF to Ethernet" solutions with relevant source code illustrating data flows and system examples provide a starting point for application design (see functional architecture diagram on right). Spectrum's reconfigurable architecture allows reuse of common technology and pool of knowledge across multiple teams on different projects.
	Click to enlarge. Functional architectureof SIGINT/EW platform

Our platforms integrate easily with custom or 3rd party systems through standards-based interfaces for back-end processing for control and storage. Utilize our standards-based COTS products and modified COTS processes to bring you rapidly from development to prototype to deployment to future upgrades through technology insertion.

The flexComm Advantage for SIGINT/EW

Quickly detecting, locating, and identifying threat signals over a very wide bandwidth is critical for your signals intelligence/electronic warfare system. Our processing systems provide you with the ability to detect and track frequency agile signals using a fast follower approach. High performance transceive capabilities allow detection of these signals to perform quickly with agility.

• Modularity and scalablity to meet specific mission requirements
• Innovative schemes to reduce power consumption and dissipate heat
• Components that can be easily swapped or upgraded in the field to protect your development investment
• Provide high data rate communications via switched communications fabrics
• Allow re-configurable and redundant communications paths for each section of the receiver
• Provide high-speed, low latency, deterministic data and control paths between the processing elements, reducing response time from detection to action
• FPGA processing arrays support data rates in excess of 200 Mb/sec

Dynamic Configuration

Support for new waveforms and feature sets can be accommodated through real-time software reconfiguration of our platforms. Wideband spectral analysis supported by method of modulation, demodulation, and dynamic loading of algorithms. Use of delay buffers allow the detection engine to drive emitter processing resulting in a seamless architecture.

Multi-Channel Coherent Processing

• Support for multiple synchronous digital IF channels with the ability to accurately associate input channels with time of day or external events
• Use of switch fabric architecture and integrated synchronization schemes facilitate signal processing from different emitters at exactly the same time

High Channel Count

Reconfigurable wide and narrowband channelization technology can support a changing mix of hundreds of simultaneous wideband and/or narrowband receive channels, giving you the flexibility needed to capture large amounts of spectrum, extract the channels of interest, and quickly jam threat signals.

Application Notes and Articles

• SDR platform enables reconfigurable direction finding system (pdf)
  Published January 2005 CompactPCI and AdvancedTCA Systems
  Read how the SDR-3000 platform was used to implement a reconfigurable direction finding system. This article describes the intended data flow and data rate requirements of a typical DF system, maps the DF software components to the SDR platform, and demonstrates the availability of resources for more complex implementations.


• Electronic Counter Measures Application Note (pdf)
  Describes how Spectrum's XMC-3311 dual channel analog I/O module, ePMC-8120 Virtex II processing engine, and PRO-1900/1901 carriers support a generic Electronic Counter Measures system.


• A Reconfigurable Software Digital Architecture for Electronic Signal Interception, Identification, Communication, and Jamming (pdf)
  Published April 2002 COTS Journal
  Software programmable radios, such as those for use in JTRS, are best implemented by a balanced architecture using CPUs, FPGAs and a high-speed interconnect such as RapidIO.