PARETO FRONTIER LLC — Department of Defense SBIR Phase I: N201-018

Description

Pareto Frontier proposes to accomplish the overall objective of identifying and solidifying a robust, comprehensive space-time-adaptive-processing (STAP) system design geared for implementation on the MIDS JTRS terminal. To this end, Pareto Frontier presents the Omni-Spatial-Interference-Removal-Integrated-System (OSIRIS); a modular and scalable framework intended to fully exploit available degrees of freedom with a collection of powerful STAP techniques that synergistically complement one another, providing maximum interference mitigation coverage under a wide range of threat environments. Overall capability is intended to be both host-platform controlled through input of desired interference and signal-of-interest (SOI) steering angles and technique selection as well as fully autonomous, able to detect and estimate interference Direction-of-Arrivals (DOAs) with automatic null-placement management and feedback to the host-platform for situational awareness. Included within the techniques proposed is a novel Maximum-Likelihood estimation (MLE) based wide-band null steering algorithm that has been designed specifically to meet the constraints of this platform application. Pareto Frontier has successfully developed and implemented multiple high-performance real-time single-antenna interference cancellation (SAIC) techniques in conjunction with its industry partner. These techniques can be combined with conventional null-steering algorithms to dramatically increase overall system performance and resilience. The algorithms can also be extended to utilize multiple antenna signals simultaneously, thereby potentially creating a powerful new form of interference mitigation that not only leverages degrees of freedom (DOFs) in the time, space, and frequency domain but also in the signal feature domain. As part of the Phase I effort, constraints related to realistic SWAP limitations, operating bandwidths/frequencies, waveform parameters and interference scenarios will be specifically considered. Pareto Frontier will work closely with its industry partner to assess feasibility and further refine the aforementioned techniques for MIDS JTRS. Pareto Frontier will rely on its own extensive experience with this platform and the expertise that its industry partner possesses, being an original equipment manufacturer (OEM) of MIDS JTRS, to optimally position for a rapid transition to prototype hardware under Phase II.