Physical Optics Corporation — Department of Defense SBIR Phase I: N142-113

Description

To address the Navys need for a man-packable, wireless microserver with clustering to support company-sized units and below, Physical Optics Corporation (POC) proposes to develop a new Man-Packable Expeditionary Tactical Server (METS). METS is based on a multiprocessor design with software defined radio (SDR) for tactical communication and data distribution, solid-state disk storage for speed and ruggedness, and a battery allowing recharging from multiple tactical edge power sources. METS will contain an extensive software suite for a METS server cluster in a mesh networking configuration. The METS networking cluster supports a tactical cloud to eliminate the need for company-sized units and below to reach-back to congested remote C2 nodes and reduce the processing time by distributing compute-intensive tasks among multiple METS servers. In Phase I, POC will develop systems engineering models, perform trade-off studies between potential design alternatives, and identify a METS design that satisfies the Navys requirements under various environmental conditions and tactical scenarios. System engineering alternatives will be evaluated in the context of form factor, power, system cooling, data-distribution, processing, and information-assurance capabilities. During Phase II, POC will engineer and construct a METS prototype. The capabilities of the Phase II prototype will be demonstrated in a controlled environment.