Echo Ridge, LLC SBIR Phase I Award, April 2018

Echo Ridge proposes to deliver a Hardware-in-the-Loop RF environment emulator with high fidelity scintillation simulation within which propagation models will in real-time accurately simulate a nuclear-disturbed environment for testing MILSATCOM communications links. The emulator will accommodate the attachment of physical devices (MILSATCOM communications link equipment or simulators), and/or models of such devices (software-based virtual spectrum users), and will permit users to establish paths through the emulated RF environment to connect the physical and/or virtual MILSATCOM devices. The communications paths will be subject to the effects of the emulated RF environment(s), including the nuclear-disturbed ionization effects, and users will be able to observe and measure the impact of these effects. The simulator will be based on the existing and proven Echo Ridge DYnamic RF Environment Emulator (DYSE), and will incorporate multiple state-of-the-art, user-selectable ionospheric propagation channel models. DYSE is a scalable HiTL RF environment emulator which supports up to 24 x 24 individually tunable transmit to receive paths with each path capable of support 100 MHz of instantaneous bandwidth. The channel modeling provides an established baseline capability for high scattering severity cases, and arbitrary scattering severity, inhomogeneous environments/non-stationary channels, and long duration.