SDR-Ready Standardized Waveforms for Tactical VHF and UHF Communications for NATO

Modern concepts of operations for multinational operations within NATO and partners require air-interface interoperability for VHF and UHF tactical communications. This contrasts with the historical approach to interoperability of using wired gateways at the higher network levels. As a result of the historical trends, national combat-net radios (CNR) have been procured from industry conforming to proprietary specifications. This has made it difficult to achieve interoperability in recent deployments, and has been a barrier to implementing modern operational concepts. A Modern waveform providing interoperability for VHF and UHF tactical communications is under development by NATO, and this emerging standardized waveform specification is, importantly, free of intellectual property restrictions. This networking waveform is tailored for vehicle, manpack, and tank communications, for mobile ground-to-ground links, and ground-to-helicopter for rotary-air support links, providing long range secure tactical MANET supporting voice and data communications beyond 10’s of kilometres distance. In the future soldiers are expected to carry small radios with soldier systems waveforms, offering broadband WiFi-like MANET services, and covering only hundreds of meters. So it should be clear that the new VHF/UHF standardization agreements (STANAGs) offer complementary capabilities to those promised in upcoming soldier radios. 1.0 INTRODUCTION In recent military operational scenarios the need for air-interface interoperability at the tactical edge has been recognized [1] for systems commonly referred to as combat-net radios (CNRs). Unfortunately, the existing CNR communications equipment used by nations for this, usually in the 30MHz – 108MHz VHF band has not been included in any international standards, and each nation operates using different proprietary equipment. In the past, multinational interoperability has taken place at higher levels of command, and national forces operate their CNRs in national communications and cryptographic domains. In response to this unsatisfactory situation, in 2007 NATO released a set of technical requirements for a “Narrowband Waveform (NBWF)” [2] conveying the operational military requirements in terms of engineering requirements. The NATO C3 Board’s ad-hoc working group for VHF and UHF communications Report Documentation Page Form Approved OMB No. 0704-0188 Public reporting burden for the collection of information is estimated to average 1 hour per response, including the time for reviewing instructions, searching existing data sources, gathering and maintaining the data needed, and completing and reviewing the collection of information. Send comments regarding this burden estimate or any other aspect of this collection of information, including suggestions for reducing this burden, to Washington Headquarters Services, Directorate for Information Operations and Reports, 1215 Jefferson Davis Highway, Suite 1204, Arlington VA 22202-4302. Respondents should be aware that notwithstanding any other provision of law, no person shall be subject to a penalty for failing to comply with a collection of information if it does not display a currently valid OMB control number. 1. REPORT DATE SEP 2010 2. REPORT TYPE N/A 3. DATES COVERED 4. TITLE AND SUBTITLE SDR-Ready Standardized Waveforms for Tactical VHF and UHF Communications for NATO 5a. CONTRACT NUMBER 5b. GRANT NUMBER 5c. PROGRAM ELEMENT NUMBER 6. AUTHOR(S) 5d. PROJECT NUMBER 5e. TASK NUMBER 5f. WORK UNIT NUMBER 7. PERFORMING ORGANIZATION NAME(S) AND ADDRESS(ES) NATO C3 Agency, The Hague NETHERLANDS 8. PERFORMING ORGANIZATION REPORT NUMBER 9. SPONSORING/MONITORING AGENCY NAME(S) AND ADDRESS(ES) 10. SPONSOR/MONITOR’S ACRONYM(S) 11. SPONSOR/MONITOR’S REPORT NUMBER(S) 12. DISTRIBUTION/AVAILABILITY STATEMENT Approved for public release, distribution unlimited 13. SUPPLEMENTARY NOTES See also ADA568727. Military Communications and Networks (Communications et reseaux militaires). RTO-MP-IST-092 14. ABSTRACT Modern concepts of operations for multinational operations within NATO and partners require air-interface interoperability for VHF and UHF tactical communications. This contrasts with the historical approach to interoperability of using wired gateways at the higher network levels. As a result of the historical trends, national combat-net radios (CNR) have been procured from industry conforming to proprietary specifications. This has made it difficult to achieve interoperability in recent deployments, and has been a barrier to implementing modern operational concepts. A Modern waveform providing interoperability for VHF and UHF tactical communications is under development by NATO, and this emerging standardized waveform specification is, importantly, free of intellectual property restrictions. This networking waveform is tailored for vehicle, manpack, and tank communications, for mobile ground-to-ground links, and ground-to-helicopter for rotary-air support links, providing long range secure tactical MANET supporting voice and data communications beyond 10s of kilometres distance. In the future soldiers are expected to carry small radios with soldier systems waveforms, offering broadband WiFi-like MANET services, and covering only hundreds of meters. So it should be clear that the new VHF/UHF standardization agreements (STANAGs) offer complementary capabilities to those promised in upcoming soldier radios. 15. SUBJECT TERMS 16. SECURITY CLASSIFICATION OF: 17. LIMITATION OF ABSTRACT SAR 18. NUMBER OF PAGES 24 19a. NAME OF RESPONSIBLE PERSON a. REPORT unclassified b. ABSTRACT unclassified c. THIS PAGE unclassified Standard Form 298 (Rev. 8-98) Prescribed by ANSI Std Z39-18 SDR-Ready Standardized Waveforms for Tactical VHF and UHF Communications for NATO 8 2 RTO-MP-IST-092 has consequently produced a draft standardization agreement (STANAG) for the NBWF physical layer [3], for the APIs, and work is at an advanced stage for the access control layer and the other network elements. This NATO waveform will provide multinational interoperable communications, complementing the national tactical waveforms. The specification follows tradition within NATO in that it contains no intellectual property, which is possible because the technology has been developed primarily in government R&D laboratories. The software for implementation will be made available to nations and manufacturers via the emerging NATO Software-Defined Radio Waveform Library. Recent improvements in modulation and coding signal processing has improved the potential throughput and range of tactical waveforms. These increased capabilities have resulted in a pull for a new generation of networked tactical radios. Traditionally, the VHF tactical band has used 25KHz channelization and 16kbps uncoded FSK modulation, with all-informed communications and no dynamic networking. The new NBWF draft STANAG provides 20kbps through 96kbps coded throughput with a fully constant envelope waveform, designed to operate at low SNR for long range networked communications at VHF and UHF. Link encryption and communications security architecture have been incorporated from the earliest stages of design, and will be briefly described in this paper. These interoperable waveforms have been designed to conform to the footprint of legacy waveforms as much as possible, to aid the implementation in the newest generations of procured radios and in many legacy radios that have appropriate internal architectures. By using STANAG specifications, and by making available source software-defined radio (SDR) code to nations, NATO can help reduce the product development cost and development time in the deployment of this technology. In this paper the role of tactical communications interoperability is described. The architecture of the narrowband waveform, and a summary of the main technical requirements are provided. Progress of the waveform design and prototype activities to-date is reported, including the availability of SDR software. 2.0 TACTICAL COMMUNICATIONS INTEROPERABILITY Effectiveness of modern military operations is enhanced by the ability of terrestrial-based communications to share information in a timely manner as needed between all forces in the area of deployment. In a multinational operation, air-interface communications between forces of different nations is needed. The depiction in Figure 1 is taken from an operational and systems architecture study [1] developed to describe requirements and solutions for modern waveforms, and shows that connectivity is provided by several types of waveforms. 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