SBIR/STTR Award attributes
In support of the Hi-FIVE effort in wideband HF communications, optimized frequency selection, and improved parametric settings for signal control, NWRA will employ our extensive HF propagation software capabilities.Given an ionosphere estimate from our GPSII code, informed by current measurements (including WSPRnet and other amateur-radio databases), we can efficiently characterize the propagation channel for frequency support and can determine sub-bands capable of wideband operation.Coupled with HiCIRF calculations of channel coherence parameters (e.g., signal decorrelation time and coherence bandwidth), we are able to fully characterize the real-time HF propagation environment.We propose to address the following four challenges for the Hi-FIVE program:1. Collection of communication-link quality data from amateur radio networks, in order to complement the ionospheric-sounder data that is commonly used to inform ionosphere models.2.Estimation of an ionospheric model that assimilates the reports communication-link quality, in addition to ionospheric sounder data.3.Use of the updated ionospheric model to generate metrics affecting link quality, wherein, the resultant metrics are designed to inform operators and to advance modern HF communication protocols.4. Visualization of link-quality metrics derived from the observation-informedionospheric model, to enable near-real-time visualization and assessment of conditions by radio operators.
