Waveform and Protocol Development for Multifunction Radio Networks

The purpose of the proposed project is to develop communication waveforms and network protocols that provide reliable, secure, survivable, communications in multifunction radio networks. The goal is to obtain increased spectral efficiency over current military radio networks through the use of new waveform designs that exploit recent developments in coding and modulation. Consideration is given to applying commercial multiple-access radio technology and military adaptive radio network protocols. A novel waveform with a variable duty factor and recent advances in source compression algorithms are exploited to provide simultaneous delivery of data, video, and voice messages. The proposed decentralized, distributed protocols provide survivable operation of the network by responding quickly to changes in the connectivity due to movement or loss of nodes and to variations in the communication environment due to hostile jamming and other radio-frequency interference. The proposed modulation and adaptive coding techniques, along with our methods for extracting side information from the received waveform, provide efficient anti-jam communications. The side information developed in the radio receivers is used to improve link quality and to route messages around nodes that have been jammed.