A Novel CSAC Based Handheld Radio with Exceptional Range, LPD, and Cost Metrics

In the Phase I effort, the Silvus team designed simulated, and carried out field trials of a novel PHY-MAC radio architecture centered around the commercially available CSAC. Our unique approach of leveraging the accuracy afforded by the CSAC to minimize both PHY and MAC transmissions lead to an extremely energy efficient handheld solution that can provide voice, text and data communications over a 10 km range for a 72 hour mission without requiring a single battery refresh. In addition to the extreme battery efficiency, the proposed Phase I solution delivers in excess of 21 dB of LPD at the PHY layer through an aggressive fast frequency hopping system design all implemented on a low cost all COTS hardware solution. In the proposed Phase II effort we look to develop a TRL-5 hardware prototype of the solution arrived at under the Phase I effort. By leveraging a unique multi-antenna MIMO SDR platform developed at Silvus along with expertise at Southwest Research Institute (SwRI) in the use of CSAC we will be able to quickly bring up a robust and reliable hardware platform on which the Time Lancer firmware/software will be ported. The final Time Lancer Phase II prototype will be fully validated in mission relevant environments and CONOPS at such venues as Camp Roberts, CA (as part of the USSO-COM/NPS TNT experiments) and the Aberdeen Test Center.