Millimeter Wave Communications for Force Protection

United States Air Force and other services deploy a variety of covert and non-covert intrusion systems for securing various assets and bases. It is critical that the data generated by these systems be transmitted to various collection sites in a covertfashion to thwart any attempt to compromise the intrusion systems. Millimeter-wave communication links, operating in the oxygen or water vapor band of the electromagnetic spectrum offer an ideal solution to achieve the covertness and integration requiredfor all these systems. The high atmospheric attenuation, coupled with encryptions and coding, provide an ideal secured two-way link between the sensors and the command posts or other remote sites. In addition, the narrow beamwidth achievable with smallantennas makes millimeter wave transceivers portable and communication links easy to set up. An extension of the communication link to an all millimeter-wave sensor and link system offers not only total system covertness, but also broadband capabilityrequired for advanced high-resolution radar/passive imaging sensors. The low cost communication link design will have other potential applications in LMDS systems and millimeter-wave wireless network systems. In addition, the communications link can beused in secured communications in a battlefield environment.