[Discuss-gnuradio] article: "No-knob" radio: the future of Warfighter communications?

[Ken N9VV]

<URL: 
http://www.army.mil/-news/2010/01/27/33577-no-knob-radio-the-future-of-warfighter-communications/
>

"No-knob" radio: the future of Warfighter communications?

Jan 27, 2010

By Sharon Rushen, CERDEC Public Affairs

FORT MONMOUTH, N.J. - U.S. Army engineers in collaboration with 
their Navy counterparts hope to open the gates of cognitive radio 
development to academia, industry and other DoD organizations by 
building a universal radio test-bed this year.

The Communications-Electronics Research, Development and 
Engineering Center's Software Defined Radio lab will work with the 
Navy Research Lab to transfer previous development done on the 
Joint Tactical Radio System to the GNU Radio's open source, free 
software environment.

Through the GNU platform which is inexpensive and universally 
accessible, universities, contract companies and government 
agencies can use a common platform to advance the state of 
cognitive radio software. The transition to the GNU platform will 
help ease collaboration efforts with other organizations who 
frequently opt to use 'grass-roots' hardware for programming due 
to the comparably high-cost and limited accessibility of JTRS radios.

Additionally, the GNU platform will enable the SDR lab to conduct 
large lab tests and field tests, rather than having to simulate 
larger-scale network testing. The cost constraints associated with 
the JTRS radio prohibit larger-scale networking, limiting the 
number of radios they can test at one time, explained SDR lab team 
lead, Tim Leising.

Through funding provided by the Office of the Secretary of 
Defense, Director of Defense, Research and Engineering, the SDR 
lab team will collaborate with the Navy Research Lab, to start 
building a universal GNU radio test bed this year. Once the 
test-bed is completed, they will work together to make it 
remote-accessible using the Defense Research Engineering Network 
to house the software platform, allowing DoD organizations and 
external research partners to test their software on it from any 
location.

CERDEC will facilitate a dial-in Q&A session for media 
participants to interact with leading U.S. Army researchers 
involved in developing the GNU test-bed. To participate in the 
media round table, contact CERDEC Public Affairs: (732) 427-1926.

The Communications-Electronics Research, Development and 
Engineering Center (CERDEC) is one of the research and development 
centers under the U.S. Army's Research, Development and 
Engineering Command (RDECOM).

The Software-Defined Radio (SDR) lab is part of CERDEC's Space and 
Terrestrial Communications Directorate.
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de Ken N9VV