SBIR-STTR Award

In this Small Business Innovation Research Phase I project, Efficient Channel Coding (ECC) will validate Hi-BEAM (Highly Integrated Bandwidth Efficient Advanced Modulation), our novel, miniature, low power, and low-cost Bandwidth Efficient Advanced Modulation (BEAM) transceiver designed for integration in Small Uninhabited Aerial Vehicles (UAVs). In addition to exploiting Application Specific Integrated Circuit (ASIC) implementation methods, ECC’s approach also exploits link power control. The current BEAM implementation in an ARC-210 radio uses multiple devices to enable the maximum flexibility. ECC asserts that most of the transceiver can be implemented in a custom Hi-BEAM ASIC. This level of integration has dramatic size and power consumption reductions. It is expected that Hi-BEAM ASIC will consume less than 2W of DC power. Thus, with the Hi-BEAM ASIC, the overall Hi-BEAM transceiver can be implemented in a small form factor (less than 50 in2), allowing for flexibility in mounting and integration with the small UA. ECC estimates the Hi-BEAM transceiver will use less than 25 watts of DC power while transmitting at 10 watts. The products developed under this project have a wide range of applications in UAV networks, and low-cost satellite terminals for a range of monitoring, tracking, and control applications. Benefit The precise BEAM waveform is a customized waveform that has good potential in the commercial market. Perhaps the most powerful market is in commercial applications for small UAVs. Additional applications exist in commercial satellite-based medium data rate sensor networks, satellite-based Supervisory Control and Data Acquisition Systems (SCADA), asset tracking networks, and return links for broadband satellite networks. This section, we describe some application and the potential market size for Hi-BEAM. Keywords Demodulator/Decoder Algorithms, transceiver, Application Specific Integrated Circuit (ASIC), Link Power Control, Adaptive Coding and Modulation (ACM), Hi-Beam, Small Uninhabited Aerial Vehicles (UAV)

The proposed Phase II effort will be focused on designing, implementing and testing a high-speed, low-cost, low-power, miniature modem capable of downloading and displaying high resolution, full motion digital images from UAVs in real-time. The modulation and coding technology used for this link will be compliant with the draft military standard for the BEAM waveform (MIL-STD-188-181C). The proposed Phase II development will validate the research results achieved in the N03-183 Phase I SBIR by providing a fully characterized and flight-tested prototype system. The video communication link will be two directional, allowing a ground based operator to configure and control a video camera and elements in the communication link in real-time. The communication protocol will be based on the Internet Protocol (IP). External interfaced will be Ethernet based. This approach allows the use of standard COTS products for both the video camera and video display elements of the system. It also enables the video communication link to be part of a larger IP-centric communication network that can be extended to other elements within the UAV payload, as well as other networked UAVs. Benefit The technology related to the Phase II development has good potential in the commercial market. Example applications include: (1) public safety, law enforcement, environmental monitoring UAVs; (2) satellite-based supervisory control and data acquisition systems (SCADA) networks; (3) satellite transaction networks; (4) satellite asset tracking networks. Each of these systems can be characterized as needing transceivers that share many important attributes and requirements with the modem technology to be developed. These key features include low-cost; low-power; constant envelope modulation to allow low-cost power amplifiers to be operated at saturation; small footprint; flexible data interfaces including IP. Keywords Forward Error Correction, Modulation and Coding, Video Communication Link, IP-Centric Communication, Hi-BEAM Modem, Ethernet, Unmanned Aerial Vehickles (UAVs), Military Standard for the BEAM waveform (MIL-STD-188-181C, C-Band Downlink and UHF Uplin