Distributed Satellite Communications (SATCOM) On-the-Move (OTM) Aperture

Toyon Research Corporation proposes to (1) design a wideband digital distributed-aperture SATCOM on-the-move (SOTM) combiner system for use on Navy ships and (2) demonstrate a modem-to-modem digital RF-over-fiber link using direct sampling and reconstruction of the analog L-band signal. The combiner system will combine the downlink and uplink SATCOM signals from multiple SATCOM antennas used with systems such as the Navy Multiband Terminal (NMT). The system will achieve close to the theoretical 3-dB signal-to-noise (S/N) improvement when two apertures have unblocked views to the satellite despite changes in heading, platform vibration, and/or platform attitude and will eliminate signal dropouts due to traditional antenna handover switching. The fundamental system design will extend from Toyons prior Phase II SBIR combiner technology that has been demonstrated to efficiently combine downlink signals received from multiple separated SATCOM antennas on a moving ground vehicle.