Mode 5 Identification Friend or Foe (IFF) simulation and subsequent RF injection

Mode 5 IFF is an aircraft identification system designed for command and control. New Mode 5 interrogators and transponders have been in development for the past few years and there is a need for comprehensive testing for the new systems and test support equipment prior to widespread deployment. This testing must be done at scale with a large number of multiple aircraft systems generating signals for the live interrogator/receiver to ensure that the IFF system can operate in several high air traffic conditions. In this SBIR proposal, we present M5WTB, a simulation based testing solution that will reduce costs for scalability testing of Mode 5 receivers. In M5WTB, an existinghigh fidelity Mode 5 simulation model will be tightly coupled with encryption and software defined radio hardware for injecting secure transmissions from 1000s of simulated tactical aircrafts at the 1090Mhz radio frequency in order to realistically stimulate Mode 5 receiver hardware. In Phase 1 of the SBIR effort, the Scalable team will undertake a study to define the concepts of operations and use cases for M5WTB along with further in-depth investigation of technical approaches that will make up the overall solution.