Automated High Frequency Communications Planner

The High Frequency (HF) band can offer continuity of connectivity to US Navy, Joint, and Coalition forces when satellite communications (SATCOM) are denied or degraded. Unfortunately, the performance of today’s HF systems is hampered by legacy, manual processes for spectrum planning. Long before a mission, communications planners assign fixed sets of frequencies for day and night operations based on predicted ionospheric activity. Unexpected changes to solar weather can render those frequencies unusable once the mission begins. If HF is to provide a viable alternative to SATCOM for resilient command and control, a better approach to planning is required. In the proposed SBIR effort, Caliola Engineering will develop a fully automated communications planning tool that will optimize HF channel selection based on real-time propagation information and high-fidelity ionospheric prediction data from software being developed by the US Navy. Our tool will allow US Navy, Joint, and Coalition networks to rapidly reconfigure their HF spectrum usage in response to changing threat and ionospheric environments.