Interference Mitigation and Anti-Jamming for UAS Using Spiral Modulation

Astrapi proposes to apply a fundamentally new physical-layer communication innovation (spiral modulation, SM) to address several key challenges for Air Force Unmanned Aerial Systems (UAS). SM has the potential to dramatically increase spectral efficiency, enabling Size, Weight and Power (SWaP) wins such as smaller antennas and reduced signal power for the same communication performance. SM-based higher spectral efficiency can improve anti-jamming performance by forcing adversaries to provide significantly more power to achieve signal degradation. Additionally, SM enables a new class of interference-mitigation techniques based on polynomial coefficient rotation. SM can address anti-intercept requirements by using higher spectral efficiency to support more encryption for the same payload data performance; by reducing signal power to make signals more difficult to detect; and my using the very extensive SM waveform design space to make signals difficult to recognize and interpret. The proposed project will identify the best first UAS project to address in Phase I and proceed toward product development in Phase II.