A Universal Modem for Airborne Networking

ABSTRACT: The Air Force has a goal of supporting very high bandwidth communication systems for airborne and ground terminals. This communication system should support a wide range of data rates that will be imposed by the terminal sizes, link distances , and weather conditions. It is envisioned that this system should primarily achieve the communication through free space optical (FSO) transmission but have the capability to provide backup communication through standard radio transmission. There are two fundamental problems in achieving this objective: 1) getting transmitted power on the target receiver and 2) efficiently using the power to maximize the rate and reliability of data communications. The first problem involves pointing and tracking of the communication resources (laser beam or radio beam) and the second involves modems that optimize the throughput and error rate performance for the link. It is typical in modern FSO development programs that these two problems are solved quasi-independently because there is little dependence between the technologies of pointing and tracking and modern high performance modem design (recent examples include the DARPA FOENEX and ONR TALON programs). Consequently, TrellisWare is proposing a solution to the second problem based on a decade of cutting-edge modem research and development. BENEFIT: A universal modem using reliable adaptive coded modulation (RACM) developed in this program could, in principle, be directly applied to commercial backhaul or specialty networks (intra-campus). The development of a jointly optimized scheme for both radio FSO links can be the first step for TrellisWare"s entry into the commercial communications market. We anticipate partnerships with companies that are targeting the commercial backhaul or specialty networks market. These companies will see TrellisWare providing a complete baseband electronics board for such systems. A Phase II demonstration will prove the commercial viability of the RACM approach.