Design and System Implications of a Family of Wideband HF Data Waveforms
William N. Furman, E. Koski, John W. Nieto · 2010
The current US MIL-STD-188-110B [1] is being revised and will include an appendix defining a family of wideband HF data waveforms supporting bandwidths from 3 kHz to 24 kHz in increments of 3 kHz. This family of waveforms, designed by engineers at Harris Corporation and Rockwell Collins, extends the high performance serial tone modem technology of the current MIL-STD-188-110B standard, which was designed primarily to operate in a 3 kHz sideband, to wider bandwidths and much higher data rates. The waveforms can provide user bit rates up to 120,000 bps, and allow users the option of selecting the bandwidth and modulation to optimize modem performance based on the HF channel characteristics. The NATO Beyond Line-Of-Sight Communications Ad Hoc Working Group (BLOS Comms AHWG) is currently monitoring this development and may include this wider-bandwidth capability in a future NATO STANAG. This paper begins with a brief discussion of the HF data communications and networking requirements that led to a waveform design effort considering higher bandwidths. This is followed by a detailed discussion of the key design decision and tradeoffs involved in designing a family of waveforms for radio bandwidths of 3 to 24 kHz, where it is necessary to provide reliable communications connectivity under a wide range of expected channel impairments. Next, the paper examines the system implications of these design decisions, considering