Digital RF Battlespace Emulator (DRBE)
Abstract
The Digital RF Battlespace Emulator (DRBE) program aims to develop a large-scale, interactive, emulated radiofrequency (RF) environment, providing DoD with the much needed capability to cost-effectively evaluate adaptive, intelligent, and spatially distributed next-generation RF systems. Current U.S. test infrastructure is no longer able to successfully exercise RF systems in relevant environments, which should account for hundreds of DoD systems coordinating against hundreds of adversary systems. Due to the critical dependency of nearly all platforms and missions on the RF spectrum and the increasingly advanced RF capabilities of peer adversaries, current infrastructure limitations represent a critical capability gap. Existing test approaches are either: 1) small-scale laboratory tests under well controlled but unrealistic conditions or 2) massive training exercises, which occur at most annually due to the required cost and manpower and do not fully collect necessary data. To overcome these limitations, DRBE will leverage advances in massively multi-core computing hardware and high-bandwidth digital cross connects to emulate realistic RF environments that account for RF platform movement, signal propagation effects and delays, signal interference, and interactions between RF systems. DRBE will pursue three technical thrust areas: architecture, massively multi-core computing, and scenario modeling. The resulting test environment should allow plug-and-play connections for hundreds of RF systems in a 100 km battlespace test. Multi-system exercises could then be quickly executed through many different combat scenarios and variations, with RF systems employing war reserve modes forbidden during open-air testing. DRBE should therefore serve to develop CONOPS, inform battle plans, and fine-tune the performance of both individual and large groups of RF systems.
Document Details
- Document Type
- Accomplishment
- Publication Date
- Oct 01, 2019
- Source ID
- 66e98895a523c530d4643d4ff734c41d
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- Root: ELECTRONICS TECHNOLOGY