Rockwell Collins Wideband HF Airborne Demo Overvie · - Form-fit same as RT-1341(V)8 - Power supplied from RT mount Airborne WBHF Demo Equipment Panasonic Toughbook

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Rockwell Collins Proprietary Information

Rockwell Collins Wideband HF Airborne Demo Overview

Joe Lahart, GS Comm Products EngineeringBruce Borcherding, GS Comm Products EngineeringRon Broden, HF Airborne Sales

22 February 2017



Agenda

• Background • Concept and Goals• Demo Configuration and Video• Demonstration Results• Summary

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Demo Background

• Many airborne platforms (including C-17s) currently operate ARC-190 HF systems – ARC-190s are 80’s vintage radios, limited capability

– Analog voice, limited data capabilities

• Rockwell Collins and others in the industry have developed Modernized HF technology… Wideband HF, Digital Voice– Greatly improved performance of HF radios

• Modernized HF has been demonstrated between ground stations many times but never between air and ground

• Rockwell Collins assembled a proof-of-concept HF system that can be installed in an ARC-190 equipped aircraft

• Purpose of the demo: Show that Modernized HF technology can be used in airborne environment and is viable for military use

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Airborne Demonstration

• Conducted August 9 - 10, 2016

– Supporting Unit: 436th Airlift, Dover AFB, DE

– Two-day demo… Dover-to-McChord, remained overnight, returned

• AMC Requirement: Applications previously demonstrated during Dec 2014 Long Beach demo

– Conducted Real-time Chat, Streaming Video, File Transfer, Digital Voice

• Conducted 4G ALE and Data Transfer performance testing

• Used six Rockwell Collins ground stations

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Fundamental goals:1. Demonstrate proof-of-concept Modernized HF applications2. Collect important performance data to provide answer to the question,

“Can we do __________ with WBHF?”



Demonstration Objectives

Establish an HF link to “best” station using 4G ALE Establish an HF link to specific ground stations using 4G ALE Conduct real-time chat between aircraft and ground Conduct full-motion streaming video from aircraft to ground Conduct large file transfer (> 1 mB) from ground to aircraft Conduct half-duplex, digital voice audio communication between

aircraft and ground using Mixed-Excitation Linear Prediction –Enhanced (MELPe) standard

Conduct 4G ALE soundings from both aircraft and ground stations to collect Link Quality Assessment (LQA) information.

Transmit/receive test data streams between aircraft and ground stations to collect signal strength, signal-to-noise ratio, and bandwidth availability information during various conditions during the flight.

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Airborne Demo Concept

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Rockwell Collins Proprietary Information 7

WBHF Receiver/Exciter Case - Prototype RT-4800- PR-2025 Pre/Post Selector

Install History August 2014 – MC-130H AFSOC Ground Demo

December 2014 – C-17 Boeing Ground Demo

October 2015 – P-3 RAAF Plan Jericho Demo

June 2016 – C-17 HQ AMC EMC Testing

August 2017 – C-17 HQ AMC Airborne Demo

549E-1 Power Amp - Form-fit same as RT-1341(V)8- Power supplied from RT mount

Airborne WBHF Demo Equipment

Panasonic Toughbook


Rockwell Collins Proprietary Information 8

Airborne WBHF Demo Install on C-17

C-17 installation completed in approximately 60 minutes



Airborne WBHF Demonstration Video

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Demonstration Results

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Mission Activities – Day 1 (09 August 2016)

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VideoMELPe BER Testing

File TransferData Modes



Mission Activities – Day 2 (10 August 2016)

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VideoMELPe BER Testing

File TransferData Modes



Goal #1: Establish and maintain an HF link to "Best Ground Station" using 4G ALE

• MEASURE OF SUCCESS: Maintain ALE link to Best Ground Station for at least 80% of available HF operational time during the flight

• RESULT: Using "best station" calling from the aircraft, we could make an ALE link to the ground network at will.

• CONCLUSION: GOAL ACHEIVED

• OF NOTE: Regardless of any link drops due to condition or propagation changes, reestablishing link and regaining communication immediately was never a problem.

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Goal #2: Conduct real-time chat between aircraft and ground.

• MEASURE OF SUCCESS: Maintain chat communication between aircraft and demonstration location for at least 80% of available HF operational time during the flight

• RESULT: Due to results of Goal #1, we had nearly constant communication via the chat protocol.


• OF NOTE: An actual mission function was performed using that chat feature. HQ AMC provided full weather update for Dover AFB to the plane which was relayed to the flightcrew approximately two hours out from landing. Possibly the first weather update provide over an HF chat link, certainly over WBHF.

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Goal #3: Conduct full-motion steaming video from aircraft to ground

• MEASURE OF SUCCESS: Receive streaming video from aircraft at demonstration location for at least five minutes at data rates of at least 19.2 kbps

• RESULT: Successfully transferred streaming video on six occasions throughout the flight. Exceeded 19.2 kbps on all transmissions. Achieved a max rate for video transmission of 72 kbps


• OF NOTE: We believe that this is the first-ever transmission of live, 15 fps streaming video from an aircraft to the ground via High Frequency radio.

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Capture of Streaming Video Received at HQ AMC15 FPS, 72 kbps on 48 kHz channel

August 9, 2016, 10:29 AM, CDT



Goal #4: Conduct large file transfer from ground to aircraft

• MEASURE OF SUCCESS: Transfer a complete, uncorrupted file, of approximately 1 megabyte in size, from demonstration location to aircraft under 10 minutes

• RESULT: Transferred a one megabyte jpg file of an aeronautical chart at 96 kbps on a 48 kHz channel in 3 min Effective rate > 44 kbps


• OF NOTE: Conducted two additional transfers from the ground to aircraft plus an additional unplanned transfer of a file fromthe aircraft to the ground with success. A 214 kilobyte file was sent to the ground in 134 seconds - effective rate of 12.8 kbps

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Goal #5: Conduct half-duplex, digital voice audio communication between aircraft and ground using MELPe standard

• MEASURE OF SUCCESS: Conduct at least one ten-minute half-duplex conversation between aircraft and demonstration location, once during flight

• RESULT: Conducted six MELPe conversations during various portions of the flight. Kept link up for the ten minute minimum. occasion.


• OF NOTE: Passed position reports and other audio traffic between the aircraft and the ground station.

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ALE Sounding and Bit Error Rate Performance Testing

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Day 1 Air-to-Ground ALE Sounding (E to W)

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Day 2 Air-to-Ground ALE Sounding (W to E)

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Air-to-Ground BER Test Data 9-10 August 2016

Time (UTC) Ground StationFrequency

(Mz) Avg SNR Min SNR Max SNRBandwidth

(kHz)Data Rate

(bits per sec) Bit Error % Block

Error %

Avg Air Speed

(mph)

Avg Distance (miles)

Avg Altitude

(feet) 8/9/2016 12:32 Melbourne FL 14.36 17 0 27 36 9,600 0.000% 0.0% 0 819 458/9/2016 12:35 Melbourne FL 14.36 14 0 24 36 9,600 0.000% 0.0% 0 819 458/9/2016 13:29 Melbourne FL 17.01 17 11 24 15 16,000 1.084% 3.3% 447 801 13,7388/9/2016 13:32 Melbourne FL 17.01 21 14 27 15 16,000 0.000% 0.1% 484 805 21,6818/9/2016 14:07 Melbourne FL 17.01 17 11 23 48 48,000 0.000% 0.0% 463 916 38,2428/9/2016 14:10 Melbourne FL 17.01 18 10 26 48 48,000 0.005% 0.2% 453 932 38,2638/9/2016 15:50 Dallas TX 17.01 14 8 18 9 9,600 1.276% 7.5% 447 777 37,8418/9/2016 15:55 Dallas TX 17.01 14 7 19 9 9,600 5.034% 18.9% 436 789 37,7808/9/2016 16:28 Cedar Rapids IA 12.04 10 9 10 18 19,200 0.000% 0.0% 419 550 37,5768/10/2016 22:42 Melbourne FL 15.96 3 0 5 36 9,600 0.307% 11.6% 557 986 37,3198/10/2016 22:48 Melbourne FL 11.65 13 8 22 15 16,000 1.557% 8.8% 557 1,005 37,294

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Min Data Rate: 9,600 bps Max Data Rate: 48,000 bps

Average Data Rate: 19,200 bps



Ground-to-Air BER Test Data 9-10 August 2016

Time (UTC) Ground StationFrequency

(Mz) Avg SNR Min SNR Max SNRBandwidth

(kHz)Data Rate (bits

per sec) Bit Error % Block

Error %

Avg Air Speed

(mph)

Avg Distance (miles)

Avg Altitude

(feet) 8/9/2016 12:41 Melbourne FL 14.36 21 16 22 48 96,000 0.1% 2.3% 0 819 458/9/2016 12:45 Melbourne FL 14.36 23 13 29 48 96,000 0.6% 3.3% 0 819 458/9/2016 14:13 Melbourne FL 17.01 18 10 29 36 9,600 0.0% 0.0% 455 949 38,2618/9/2016 14:17 Melbourne FL 17.01 19 11 27 36 9,600 0.0% 0.0% 450 969 38,2368/9/2016 16:00 Dallas TX 17.01 22 14 31 3 3,200 0.0% 0.0% 430 801 37,7888/9/2016 16:04 Dallas TX 17.01 22 11 33 3 3,200 0.0% 0.0% 429 813 37,7078/9/2016 17:10 Cedar Rapids IA 12.04 21 14 27 36 57,600 0.8% 1.6% 412 839 37,4388/9/2016 17:13 Cedar Rapids IA 12.04 20 16 24 36 57,600 0.1% 1.2% 410 863 37,3698/10/2016 22:52 Melbourne FL 11.65 13 5 23 48 48,000 3.1% 20.0% 554 999 36,1568/10/2016 23:06 Melbourne FL 16.01 14 7 19 3 2,400 1.7% 6.0% 476 947 16,993

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Min Data Rate: 2,400 bps Max Data Rate: 96,000 bps

Average Data Rate: 38,320 bps



Demonstration Objectives and Results

Establish an HF link to “best” station using 4G ALE Establish an HF link to specific ground stations using 4G ALE Conduct real-time chat between aircraft and ground Conduct full-motion streaming video from aircraft to ground Conduct large file transfer (> 1 mB) from ground to aircraft Conduct half-duplex, digital voice audio communication between

aircraft and ground using Mixed-Excitation Linear Prediction –Enhanced (MELPe) standard

Conduct 4G ALE soundings from both aircraft and ground stations to collect Link Quality Assessment (LQA) information.

Transmit/receive test data streams between aircraft and ground stations to collect signal strength, signal-to-noise ratio, and bandwidth availability information during various conditions during the flight.

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Demonstration Summary

• Documented as “SUCCESSFUL” by HQ Air Mobility Command

• Culmination of three years of planning and development

• Validated potential of WBHF in airborne environment

• First-ever events for air-to-ground HF communications

– 15 fps Streaming Video

– High Speed File Transfer

– 4G ALE Linking

• Ongoing discussions for additional demo in the future

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Documents

Rockwell Collins Wideband HF Airborne Demo Overvie · - Form-fit same as RT-1341(V)8 - Power supplied from RT mount Airborne WBHF Demo Equipment Panasonic Toughbook