Spectrally Efficient High Data Rate Robust Network Waveforms

"Increased demands for data capacity, combined with increasingly limited spectral resources, are rapidly exceeding the capabilities of current communications systems in the battlefield. As in the commercial sector, the nature of the data demand isincreasingly multimedia, with a variety of quality-of-service (QoS) requirements imposed on a shared spectrum. The communications infrastructure for the modern battlefield is the tactical internet, where data traffic is routed through a network ofinternet protocol (IP) based radios. Ultimate spectral efficiency is not determined on individual links, but by the spectral efficiency of the overall network. The objective of this proposal is to demonstrate the feasibility of an innovative spectrallyefficient high data rate waveform for the 21st century digitized battlefield. Our multimedia waveform enhances total network spectral efficiency by comprehensively addressing all applicable protocol layers - physical, link and networking. The waveform ispower efficient and adaptive at all protocol layers to respond to rapidly changing channel environments. Phase I feasibility is demonstrated by computer simulation, with a potential Phase II feasibility demonstration in a network of JTRS-compliant SUO/SASradios. If successful, our proposed research and development will provide the Army with individual, innovative, spectrally efficient, high-data-rate waveform technologies that are multimedia, adapti