Evolving Software Defined Radio (SDR) technology continues to have a significant technological impact on C4ISR operations. According to the latter researchthe global C4ISR market is estimated to be approximately $133 billion by 2020.
One of the main factors driving SDR in the defense market is its interoperability and integrated solutions. The defense market is global and includes major Western markets such as the United States and Europe, but also transient markets from countries such as Australia, Brazil, Indonesia and Turkey.
Defense Market Challenges
The outlook for the international defense market is driven by the changing environment of military operations and the need to achieve interoperability between systems. The communications platforms currently used by military personnel are difficult to access and manage—not to mention that the hardware used on the battlefield is both substantial and large.
Field employees must work to work with multiple devices using different software architectures to communicate. As a result, effective communication and responsiveness can be compromised.
To keep pace with the ever-changing landscape of military technology and operational requirements, an improved integrated platform is essential to provide highly interoperable and multi-faceted communications.
These platforms will also enhance the response of governments to respond quickly to global events.
What makes software defined radio the ideal solution?
Modern warfare is dramatically different from the way militaries operated during the Cold War. Military personnel on the battlefield are now connected to command centers in real time, collecting and sharing data for situational awareness.
Because the military’s equipment procurement processes take time, building an integrated C4ISR is not currently feasible. To work effectively with current systems, SDR becomes the ideal solution as it is highly adaptable, interoperable and secure. This platform not only enables performance, reliability and scalability, but also essential requirements such as flexibility, modularity and portability. This makes it easy to integrate multiple communication devices to function on a single platform. This means that the future of C4ISR is smaller integrated systems with a common single interface.
With SDR, integration with government proprietary hardware and software is possible, as solutions can be combined to provide synergistic end-to-end support. With budget cuts on the horizon, SDR is also becoming the most cost-effective solution for giving front-line military personnel a compelling advantage to address evolving threats.
Integrated C4ISR with SDR
A key advantage of building an integrated C4ISR with SDR is that it allows for a wide operating frequency. With high-performance SDR platforms, manufacturers can develop enhanced integrated C4ISR that has the ability to perform protocol translation.
SDRs are designed with multiple inputs and outputs, allowing seamless integration with current systems. Moreover, since the operations are enabled by software, with a sufficiently flexible hardware platform, there is no longer any need to modify the hardware part. For example, the full duplex transceivers offered by Per Vices operate at frequencies ranging from DC to 6GHz and are built with a highly stable internal reference clock (+/- 5ppb) and dual SFP+ backhaul providing up to 20Gbps transfer rates.
SDR will also enable greatly improved deterministic phase coherence between all receive channels with the flexibility to modulate or demodulate different wireless signals and protocols, as well as multiple receive and multiple transmit circuits.
Whether the defense market chooses to change its communications systems through an overhaul or by updating current technology, SDR has a significant role to play in influencing both outcomes.
Stephanie Chiao is a product marketing manager at Per Vices Corp., a company specializing in the development of high-performance software-defined radio (SDR) platforms.
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