Protection of DoD Satellite Communications Against RF Interferences and Personal Mobile Telecommunications

ABSTRACT: The United States relies heavily on force multiplying, space-based navigation, communications and intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance (ISR) capabilities. These satellites populate all orbital regimes including low-earth orbit (LEO), medium earth orbit (MEO) and geosynchronous earth orbit (GEO) and frequently require complex ground station network support requirements. Miltary satellite command and control networks have changed little in over six decades since their inception other than the use of new frequency bands and more complex data modulation schemesthey are still essentially statically configured transceiver pairings. The current satcom environment is congested with radio frequency interference (RFI) sources that interfere with mission-critical operations. These sources result from increasingly congested areas surrounding ground stations, expansion of mobile phone networks and terrestrial radar sources. We will develop a ground-space link simulation environment to assess the effectiveness of a cognitive radio-based ground-space link system in the presence of assorted RFI sources and methods. Our environment will include simulated 3G/4G mobile networks, pulsed radars and base transceiver stations. Our objective will be to demonstrate that migration of these adaptive radio technologies into ground-space link satcom system design must occur if effective satellite communications is desired in the contested RF environment of today and the future. BENEFIT: We will transition the simulation and analysis tools resulting from this program into an RFI prediction/mitigation product line available primarily to the US defense industry. In addition, we will develop a version of the system to support the commercial satellite industry, providing an RFI modeling system capable of supporting commercial operations in an increasingly crowded urban environment. Finally, we will demonstrate the value of cognitive radio technologies in satellite communications and will use our analysis products to develop ground-space link system designs incorporating revolutionary cognitive radio-based technologies with advanced dynamic spectrum access (DSA) capabilities.