HIGH LATITUDE METEOR BURST COMMUNICATIONS FOR THE INTEGRATED UNDERSEA SURVEILLANCE SYSTEM (IUSS)

THE NAVY-S ANTI-SUBMARINE WARFARE FORCES NEED A LOW COST, RELIABLEAND SURVIVABLE LONG-HAUL COMMUNICATIONS SYSTEM TO AUGMENT ITS CURRENT HIGH FREQUENCY (HF) AND SATELLITE CONNECTIVITY. HF AND SATELLITE COMMUNICATIONS SUFFER FROM SERIOUS DRABACKS THAT ARE ONLY WORSENED BYOPERATION AT NORTHERN LATITUDES. METEOR BURST COMMUNICATIONS IS A STRONG CANDIDATE BECAUSE OF ITS INHERENT LOW PROBABILITY OF INTERCEPT (LPI), ITS RELIABILITY, AND ITS ABILITY TO RECOVER QUICKLY FROM HIGH ALTITUDE ATMOSPHERIC DISTURBANCES. WE INTEND TO DEMONSTRATE THE FEASIBILITY OF NETWORKED METEOR BURST COMMUNICATIONS TO PROVIDE AN ALTERNATE PATH FOR INTEGRATED UNDERSEA SURVEILLANCE SYSTEM (IUSS) INFORMATION. OUR NETWORK WILL CONSIST OF SURFACE SHIP, BUOY, AND SHORE BASED TERMINALS. OUR APPROACH INVOLVES THE USE OF DATA ACQUIRED FROM THE USAF GREENLAND METEOR-SCATTER TEST BED AND A NEW ALGORITHM FOR DESIGNING SURVIVABLE NETWORK TOPOLOGIES. OUR PRINCIPAL INVESTIGATOR IS A LEADING RESEARCHER IN METEOR BURST COMMUNICATIONS.