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Oz Defence’s Remarkable Radio Breakthrough
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Imagine a radio set that is capable of working as a cellular phone or an aircraft communications unit – or both simultaneously. In the commercial and military worlds, it could link networks that can’t communicate with each other so they can operate as one.
Traditionally we think of individual types of radio as being inherently different. We assume each one requires a completely different sort of receiver or transmitter. No longer. In Adelaide, Defence scientists have invented – and are patenting – a universal radio that will do all these things. By tuning in to transmissions, it will instantly configure itself.
Brian Andrews, who heads research into communications at the Defence Science and Technology’s Electronics Research Laboratory at Salisbury, calls the invention “the uncommitted radio”, or UCR. It demands a complete change in our traditional thinking if we even try to imagine what the UCR will be capable of doing.
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For Andrews, however, the UCR is the tool which will help Australian defence communications to “migrate” towards the more advanced civil standards, which Telecom Australia is introducing. Specifically Telecom hopes that by the second half of this decade, it will be offering an advancement of its present Integrated Services Digital Network (ISDN), with a much greater bandwidth and so capacity. This is broadband ISDN (or B-ISDN). However, in the military, the specific needs of different services have resulted in services going many different ways. The Royal Australian Air Force has its own networks and sometimes they can’t communicate from one to another.
Australia’s Telecom can look at a reequipment process in the commercial market of about five to ten years. In the military the process of producing a concept, designing and procuring equipment and using it might last 45 years.
Enter the UCR. As the military shifts gears and links more and more closely with the civilian system (for instance, setting up virtual private networks within the ISDN or B-ISDN framework), the UCRs can act as an interface between the new and the old and adapt themselves to the rapidly changing technology.
Building on communications research into monitoring radio transmissions, the UCR is basically a powerful, parallel computer with a radio interface tacked on. It can sweep over a huge range of frequencies (from 2 to 900 megahertz) and process several disparate signals simultaneously. If it is to link an aircraft operating on the ultra high frequency (UHF) band with ground troops using HF (short-wave) equipment,. the UCR can seem to be both sets to both users at the same time.
The implications extend into many areas. For instance a civil aircraft may need a dozen communications and navigation radios. In theory all these requirements could be handled by one set (although for safety reasons, three would probably be the minimum). There is not only a saving in initial cost but also in valuable space in the electronics bay and in weight.
The concept of the UCR is so revolutionary it is hard to come to terms with. But as the idea catches on, a huge market must surely emerge.
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