Description:
OUSD (R&E) CRITICAL TECHNOLOGY AREA(S): Trusted AI and Autonomy; Integrated Network Systems-of-Systems
The technology within this topic is restricted under the International Traffic in Arms Regulation (ITAR), 22 CFR Parts 120-130, which controls the export and import of defense-related material and services, including export of sensitive technical data, or the Export Administration Regulation (EAR), 15 CFR Parts 730-774, which controls dual use items. Offerors must disclose any proposed use of foreign nationals (FNs), their country(ies) of origin, the type of visa or work permit possessed, and the statement of work (SOW) tasks intended for accomplishment by the FN(s) in accordance with the Announcement. Offerors are advised foreign nationals proposed to perform on this topic may be restricted due to the technical data under US Export Control Laws.
OBJECTIVE: Develop enabling technologies for providing high data rates and precise position, navigation, and timing services with high assurance and reduced hardware/software complexity by leveraging functional synergies of navigation and communication and their hardware/software similarities.
DESCRIPTION: With the growing demand for high communication rate and navigation accuracy, different approaches for integrating the navigation and communication system have been explored for next-generation navigation and communication applications. If successful, a prospective integrated design could provide improved utilization of the spectrum and orbit resources by sharing the spectrum for navigation and communication. Moreover, it would reduce hardware/software complexity and power consumption by sharing radio frequency (RF) front end and signal processing unit, which are common to both communication and navigation. Also relevant is that it would leverage functional synergies of communication and navigation to improve the positioning speed via higher communication rate and alleviate the signal synchronization burden via timing information. However, the key challenge is to meet different requirements, namely high data rate and precise and trustworthy positioning/timing, with a single signaling system. Most previous efforts have explored these requirements in isolation. Navigation and communication functions are implemented independently without deep integration, and the spectrum resources are used separately. Furthermore, the message authentication mechanisms for secure and trustworthy satellite navigation and communication are implemented in isolation. The isolated design inevitably results in a waste of radio resources, increased hardware/software complexity, and degradation of network performance. This topic solicitation seeks a proof of concept to meet all the communication, navigation, and authentication requirements in a single design framework. Signaling solutions that provide: i) high data rates with low transmission power, ii) trustworthy position, navigation, and timing services with reduced hardware/software complexity and power consumption, and iii) reduced spectrum usage, are desirable. Solutions that are backward compatible with the existing navigation system, i.e., providing navigation services with the existing navigation receiver without any modification, are of interest under this call. Signal designs that support various services for users with different data rates, are also of interest. Theoretical performance analysis is highly encouraged as it can provide important guidance and insight for optimum system design.
PHASE I: Identify and explore options for the integration of navigation, communication, and authentication, conduct trade analysis and simulations, define operating concepts, and provide justification for proposed solutions. Integrated solutions should offer potential advantages over state-of-the-art and demonstrate technical feasibility.
PHASE II: Develop prototype hardware and software and demonstrate a proof of concept for trustworthy navigation and communication services. Evaluate the data transmission rate, navigation accuracy, and authentication error rate in the presence of spoofing attacks to support instantiations and deployments of the proposed concept.
PHASE III DUAL USE APPLICATIONS: Integrate with prospective follow-on transition partners to provide an improved operational capability to a broad range of potential Government and civilian applications such as non-dedicated positioning, navigation, and timing (PNT) services (e.g. through communications systems) as can be derived from the NASA-funded HelioSwarm flight experiment consisted of multi-satellite missions by flying a swarm of nine spacecraft (8 nodes, 1 hub) to make measurements at multiple scales simultaneously, in which a large hub is utilized for transport of the smallsat nodes to the mission orbit and data relay. Government organizations such as Air Force Research Laboratory and Space Systems Command could sponsor a government reference design for PNT over communications flight integration, in collaboration with small business and industry partners. Successful contractor technology demonstrations will inform the technical requirements of future acquisitions by Primes and subcontractors.
REFERENCES:
1. S. Han, Z. Gong, W. Meng, C. Li and X. Gu, "Future Alternative Positioning, Navigation, and Timing Techniques" A Survey, "IEEE Wireless Communications, vol. 23, no. 6, pp. 154-160, December 2016;
2. Zou, Deyue, and Shouchuan Ma. & "Satellite Navigation and Communication Integration Based on Correlation Domain Indefinite Pulse Position Modulation Signal. "Wireless Communications and Mobile Computing 2021;
3. X. Xu, L. Li, M. Zhao, and C. Fan, "A flexible design of waveform for communication and navigation, "IEEE Wireless Communications and Networking Conference (WCNC), 2018;
4. Zou, Deyue, and Shouchuan Ma. "Satellite Navigation and Communication Integration Based on Correlation Domain Indefinite Pulse Position Modulation Signal. "Wireless Communications and Mobile Computing 2021;
5. Yin, Lu, et al. "A novel positioning-communication integrated signal in wireless communication systems. "EEE Wireless Communications Letters, pp. 1353-1356, 2019;
6. Wang, Yu, et al. "Integrated Communication and navigation for ultra-dense LEO satellite networks: vision, challenges and solutions "arXiv preprint arXiv 2105.08985, 2021;
7. Zou, Deyue, Xinyue Li, and Ruofei Ma. "A signal optimization strategy for next-generation navigation and communication integration applications. "Physical Communication, 2022;
8. Wang, Lei, et al. "LEO-augmented GNSS based on communication navigation integrated signal. "Sensors 19.21, 2019;
9. Hein, Guenter W. "Status, perspectives and trends of satellite navigation. "Satellite Navigation 1.1, 2020
KEYWORDS: Communications; navigation; authentication; trustworthy position, navigation, and timing services; reduced hardware and software complexity; low power consumption; reduced spectrum usage
