Programmable High-Rate Multi-Mission Receiver for Space Communications

Current and upcoming NASA space links require both highly reliable low-rate communications links supporting critical TT&C, ranging and voice services and highly efficient High-data rate links supporting Mission or Payload Data. Investing in re-usable elements, such as Programmable Communications Radios, for ground and flight data handling that are capable of receiving both kinds of links would address current Communication and Navigation needs without foregoing future capabilities. Additionally, the development, test, and optimization of new algorithms and modulation schemes require a high-speed platform able to be reconfigured as needed. Such a product would feature an open and modular architecture, allowing users to independently load and route custom code blocks. A modular and flexible High Rate Receiver Backbone (HRRB) would allow customization of some processing firmware and should accommodate advances in deployed link formats more easily than units "factory loaded" for particular signal types. SRI's Phase 1 SBIR researched, developed an architecture and test bed, and coded and tested an initial set of waveforms as a baseline for a Programmable High-rate Multi-mission Receiver. The results of this effort showed the technical and commercial viability of such a unit. The proposed Phase 2 effort will extend this innovation by developing and implementing an IF front end, refining and extending the performance of the ADC/DAC sections and hardware architecture, extending the architecture to support programmable and configurable decoding processing capacity, testing performance with both extended development support modulators/coders as well as other available high-rate modulators, and delivering a realized HRRB for further NASA use. Additional market segmentation, analysis, and prospect identification would be conducted in preparation for either a Phase 3 or independent SRI development of a market-ready Programmable High-rate Multi-mission Receiver (PHMR).