Physical Optics Corporation — Department of Defense SBIR Phase I: N162-135

Description

To address the Navys need for a shipboard troposcatter system, Physical Optics Corporation (POC) proposes to develop a new Wideband Communications Enabled Through Shipboard Troposcatter (WEST) system. WEST is based on state-of-the-art tropospheric RF propagation analysis and hardware-accelerated algorithms to control the existing shipboard CBSP C-band antenna and modem. Specifically, the innovation in the WEST system design will compensate for ship-to-ship motion dynamics in sea states up to at least World Meteorological Organization (WMO) level 5 (rough). As a result, WEST offers up to 100 Mbps throughput at bit error rate of 10^-5 or better, and directly addresses the PMW/A-170 requirements for reuse of existing Commercial Broadband Satellite Program (CBSP) and commercial-off-the-shelf troposcatter modem systems. In Phase I, POC will determine the technical feasibility of the WEST troposcatter control algorithms to increase communications capability for shipboard application reaching technology readiness level (TRL) 4. In Phase II, POC plans to develop, demonstrate and validate a WEST prototype which can maintain at least 10 Mbps throughput. By the end of Phase II, the WEST technology will reach TRL-5-6 and be ready for initial testing for potential transition to Navy Multiband Terminal (NMT) and the Wideband Antijam Modem System (WAMS).