An agreement has been finalized through which the Shared Spectrum Co.’s (SSC) dynamic spectrum access (DSA) technology will be integrated into Thales Communications Inc’s field-ready military radios. The agreement is part of Phase III of the neXt Generation Communications (XG) Program being managed by the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA). The two companies will team up to demonstrate the benefits of DSA software in frequency-hostile environments. As part of the agreement, Thales will first port the software to its AN/PRC-148 radio.
With DSA technology, existing radio software can be upgraded to dynamically sense and communicate across available spectrum without causing harmful interference to legacy systems. Significant improvements in network capacity have been demonstrated with SSC’s DSA technology and the XG program builds on the company’s past success in fielding cognitive radio technology.
“Working with a major supplier of tactical radios like Thales represents another significant milestone in the inauguration of new Dynamic Spectrum Access technology for the benefit of military users,” said Mark A. McHenry, SSC’s founder and CEO. “Building on a series of successful field demonstrations, the Thales agreement moves the DSA-radio software to a platform that will be widely deployed to the warfighter.”