One of the trends emerging from the commercial space industry is a shifting focus toward utilizing very small satellites, called CubeSats or nanosatellites, in low Earth orbit (LEO) to do some of the heavy lifting that was once the domain of much larger, much more expensive geostationary orbit (GEO) satellites. CubeSats are constructed to standard dimensions of 10 cm by 10 cm by 10 cm as modular units and can weigh as little as three pounds, as opposed to traditional communication satellites that can be the size of a school bus and weigh up to six tons. Cost is certainly an issue, and CubeSats are a fraction of the cost of traditional satellites. In addition to being cost effective, a constellation of many small satellites is better suited than a few large satellites for both scientific research applications as well as communications applications. In fact, SpaceX is planning on launching up to 12,000 small satellites as part of Starlink, their project aimed at providing low-cost internet to remote regions of the world. Though larger than CubeSats, Starlink satellites are still small by traditional standards, weighing in at about 560 pounds. Whether for high-profile projects or just run-of-the-mill research, smaller satellites are possible thanks to increasingly smaller computing elements and off-the-shelf alternatives to building custom components.

In previous blog posts, we’ve explored the challenges associated with defending secure areas from pervasive connected devices and how next-generation wireless detection offers full-spectrum coverage for beyond just Wi-Fi® and Bluetooth®. In this post, we’re going to single out cellular threat detection and look at some of the unique risks and opportunities it presents.

Analog Devices, Inc. (ADI) recently announced the ADRV9002, the latest in its RadioVerse™ family of wideband RF transceivers. As an ADI Alliance Partner, we’ve been working with the entire family of ADI wideband RF transceivers starting with the AD9361 back in 2012. With the recent public announcement, combined with our hands-on experience over the last year, we wanted to share our thoughts on the key differentiators for the ADRV9002 RFIC and the promise this holds for defense applications. In particular, this RFIC represents a significant step forward in terms of RF performance and flexibility, while continuing to maintain aggressively low power consumption and minimal size. These factors are at the heart of Epiq Solutions’ mission to provide our customers access to the RF world around them in form factors radically smaller than anything else on the market.

At Epiq Solutions, we develop flexible software-defined radio (SDR) modules that enable engineering teams to understand and interact with the wireless world around them to suit their application needs. Generally, our customers’ engineering teams integrate our SDR modules into their systems having selected our modules for their features, form factor, I/O, and other criteria that meet particular project requirements. But in some cases, customers don’t want to take on the effort to integrate an SDR module themselves. They may not have the expertise in-house or could be short on time to get a solution up and running. They need something they can just plug in and use.

When Kevin Ashton coined the term “Internet of Things” in 1999, not many of us could envision exactly how connected the world would become. According to Statista, by 2025 there will be nearly six billion IoT connections in North America alone. The vast majority of these connections use BluetoothⓇ, Wi-FiⓇ, or cellular connectivity, so if part of your mission requirements is to understand and interact with your wireless environments, these are the protocols you need insight into.

If you are an RF engineer supporting government-focused mission requirements, you have probably at least considered the implications of moving toward compliance with the Sensor Open System Architecture (SOSA). If your responsibilities include signal intelligence (SIGINT), electronic warfare (EW), radar, and communications, then you are likely well on your way down this path already. We recently covered some background on SOSA and how it intersects the world of software defined radio (SDR) here. In this blog, we will take a look at some of the basics of RF I/O and how these I/O signals are expected to be deployed according to SOSA. We will work through the entire signal chain from the antenna to the chassis/backplane and finally to the RF transceiver card installed in the system.

Sun Tzu, in The Art of War, said, “The opportunity of defeating the enemy is provided by the enemy himself.” If any part of your mission involves protecting sensitive compartmented information facilities (SCIFs), then you understand how this philosophy can apply to safeguarding these areas from wireless device intrusion. Unauthorized portable electronic devices (PEDs), as well as Internet of Things (IoT) devices, pose risks to sensitive areas that are pervasive and always changing. But the RF signals that would carry a SCIF’s secrets away are also what let us know there’s a problem. With the right tools that constantly scan the environment to detect and locate these RF transmitters, the devices in question can’t hide.

Mission-critical defense systems are getting more complex every day, and as real-world wireless threats get more sophisticated, the integration of RF capabilities to counter those threats needs to happen fast. Rigid guidelines and an antiquated procurement culture have a tendency to make fleet-wide deployment of potentially life-saving systems painfully slow. Cutting down the number of required development cycles, driving reconfigurability and upgradability, encouraging the reuse of components, and reducing the time it takes to get new systems into the field are all part of the Sensor Open Systems Architecture (SOSA) Consortium’s mission. Over time, SOSA’s acceptance is expected to result not only in significant cost savings, but also highly flexible systems that enable rapid response in warfighter RF technology platforms.