Broad Agency Announcement (BAA)

FY05 MURI Topic #23

This BAA was announced on June 17, 2004.
You may find it in a list of expired BAAs at http://www.onr.navy.mil/02/baa/expired.asp

WAVEFORM DIVERSITY FOR FULL SPECTRAL DOMINANCE

Background: To maintain a superior technological edge under complex operational scenarios calls for sophisticated techniques including effective waveform diversity as a key enabling technology for high-performance integrated C4I from diverse platforms. With the available electromagnetic (EM) spectrum becoming increasingly scarce, a critical Department of Defense requirement in this context is one of multi-band, multi-modal, multi-sensor operation with multi-function processing from distributed platforms. Spatially distributed system components must function cooperatively to minimize interference and mitigate hostile activity while maximizing the utility of collected information. Application needs include sensing, communications, countermeasures, and network-centric warfare. End-to-end integrated optimization for sensor, communication or intelligence-gathering, relies on the design in real-time of waveforms that exploit diversity in many dimensions: transmitted power, bandwidth, center frequency, pulse shape and spreading, polarization, space-time and symbol coding. The design of the waveform set should be based on the propagation/interference environment, which is determined through probing and/or feedback, calibrated to realistic models of the Radio Frequency (RF), multi-user, and network environment or each transceiver. As certain aspects of this information naturally evolve with time, waveform generation resources must optimally and adaptively be integrated with electromagnetic phenomenology. This and other available knowledge is gathered through physical, experimental, and data-dependent approaches. Finally, waveform diversity systems must incorporate robustness to “model mismatch” as well as to parameter estimation error.

Objective: To advance the multidisciplinary fundamental aspects of waveform-diversity sensors and systems for enhanced performance in fiercely contentious operational scenarios, by making efficient use of all available “transmit and receive” resources.

Research Concentration Areas: Areas of interest include but are not limited to:
Design of multi-dimensional waveform sets exploiting diversity for multi-path gains and interference avoidance through synergistic transmission and receiver processing; Re-configurable transmission techniques and receiver algorithms; Multiple-input/Multiple-output (MIMO) systems for sensing and communications; Software/Cognitive Radio; Flexible multiple access schemes; Channel characterization and prediction; Interference suppression methods; Adaptive modulation, coding, encryption and decryption; Networked sensor operation; Cross-layer optimization; Stochastic optimization for end-to-end system configuration; Dynamic information exploitation; Environmental and target attribute modeling.

Impact: Successful research in this area will produce a suite of approaches validated by extensive analysis for improved system performance, thus fostering integrated C4I operation from diverse platforms. Research in this area will support the development of systems capable of dynamically adapting waveforms, processing, and information extraction to changing operational scenarios. Parameterized waveform families will facilitate these capabilities, along with configurable signal processing algorithms, under the control of stochastic optimization algorithms.

Research Topic Chief: Dr. Jon Sjogren, AFOSR, 703-696-6564, jon.sjogren@afosr.af.mil

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