USAF and MIT further waveform development
The US Air Force (USAF) Research Laboratory (AFRL) Information Directorate and Massachusetts Institute of Technology Lincoln Laboratory (MIT-LL) are working together to test advanced waveforms that can work at high frequencies (HF-band), the USAF announced on 22 May.
Under a commercial test agreement between the two laboratories, MIT-LL will test a newly developed multi-carrier waveform that can achieve high frequencies. The waveform was developed through work between MIT-LL, the Navy Research Laboratory and the Office of the Secretary of Defense AT&L, with initial testing conducted at the Information Directorate’s Stockbridge, New York test site in May 2016.
For the testing, MIT-LL, with AFRL support, installed antennas and equipment at the Stockbridge location and collected data from their transmit site in Massachusetts. MIT-LL remotely operated the terminal and evaluated the new hardware and signal processing concepts at its location. The data collected was analysed to assess effectiveness of the system and shared with AFRL.
The current practices utilised by the USAF pass the information using a three kilohertz bandwidth channel at high frequency.
This method is sufficient only for analogue voice transmissions, but the USAF fleets require vast amounts of data to plan and execute missions. With advanced waveforms, the USAF will be able to transfer data at a much faster rate during military missions.
The agreement is valid until 2019 and MIT-LL will be able to return to the site and conduct additional testing.
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