Pharad, LLC — Department of Defense SBIR Phase I: A17-085

Description

Bringing battlefield information to a safe area and ensuring a continuous stable mission is critical for current and next generation Army command posts.By moving antennas away from the command post, its visibility is reduced and survivability increased.Pharad proposes to conduct a detailed trade-study assessing alternative command post antenna remoting technologies.We will then develop an optimal solution for a fiber optic based antenna remoting system that maintains radio communication link performance and enables LOS or NLOS placement of antennas, up to 500 meters away.We will investigate solutions that meet target performance metrics and reduce hardware volume, footprint, and power consumption.Opportunities for aggregating RF signals from the radios as well as aggregating remote antennas, will be explored.The antenna remoting solution will support all commonly used tactical radios with operating bandwidths extending from HF to C-band.It will provide a reliable and modular capability for interfacing the radios to the remote antennas and able to be deployed in less than 30 minutes.In the Phase I Option we will use the outcome of our feasibility studies to develop an optimal architecture for a prototype command post antenna remoting system that supports fielded VHF, HF and L-band radios.