Bluetooth RF Solutions for Short Range Military Applications

Wireless communications are becoming a preferred method of sending information anywhere in the world. Wireless systems have gone beyond radio, telephones, and television, to include computer networks, merchandising services, data systems, and personalcommunications devices. Advances in technology are making wireless communications easier, safer, of higher quality, and less expensive every month. This rapid development of wireless technology is creating new opportunities and challenges forcommunications users and suppliers. Recent Army battlefield experiments have identified the need for more effective wireless communications. The military needs RF systems with the ability to self-assemble in ad-hoc networks when brought in closeproximity to one another. Short range wireless systems are needed both for dismounted soldiers voice/data communications and for quick network assembly of computer equipment in Command Posts.The opportunity now exists to leverage new short range RFdevices developed by the computer and communications industries to military applications at significantly reduced cost. Luna Innovations and the Center for Wireless Telecommunications at Virginia Tech propose to develop a miniature, robust, telemetrysystem for military applications based on the emerging Bluetooth technology, standard for short range RF communications championed by the major companies in the computer and communications industries.Luna Innovations anticipates large non-defense relatedmarkets in industrial preventive maintenance systems and diagnostic instrumentation. Specific applications include spacecraft and aircraft monitoring and control, nuclear/conventional power plant health monitoring, transportation vehicle design andtesting, and industrial rotating machine monitoring.