Distributed Satellite Communications (SATCOM) On-t

Toyon Research Corporation proposes to develop an electrically reconfigurable SATCOM On-the-Move (OTM) distributed-aperture communications system for use over the DoD Wideband Global System at X- and K/Ka-bands. The system will incorporate: 1) Toyon’s Electrically Reconfigurable Endfire Planar Phased Array antenna design (recently validated under Army CECOM SBIR II contract no: W15P7T-06-C-P248), and 2) Toyon’s Multiple-Input-Multiple-Output (MIMO) DSP-based signal distribution and combining architecture. Toyon’s unique reconfigurable antenna technology allows the beam from each aperture to be steered down to 70-degrees off boresight, a significant improvement over traditional flat panel arrays. Toyon’s proposed design is scalable in both element count and frequency, and is less than 3” high. Each antenna system will contain several apertures, coordinated by a central node using Toyon’s MIMO signal distribution and combining architecture. The system will adjust for hard- and soft-blockage challenges, differences in the physical mounting planes between apertures, and signal losses due to fading. All beam steering will be performed electrically without the use of mechanical steering, and the required beam-steering controllers will use a GPS-linked Inertial Navigation Unit (INU).