RAP opportunity at Air Force Science and Technology Fellowship Program AF STFP
Blind and Beacon-Less TDMA Scheduling for Ad-Hoc LEO Satellite Communications
Location
Space Vehicles Directorate, RV/Space and Planetary Sciences
| opportunity |
location |
|
| 13.40.01.B7835 |
Kirtland Air Force Base, NM 871175776 |
Advisers
| name |
email |
phone |
|
| Khanh Dai Pham |
khanh.pham.1@spaceforce.mil |
505.846.4823 |
Description
Future satellite missions require radio-frequency (RF) subsystem architectures with low size, weight, and power (SWAP) that can support remotely piloted aircraft (RPA)’s high data rates at the order of Gbps for both uplinks and downlinks. To meet the ever-increasing demands of high data rates, the most commonly used technology in RPA communications is often to be dual polarization in conjunction with time division multiple access (TDMA) and a constellation of Low-Earth-Orbiting (LEO) satellites. Currently, the TDMA technique for LEO satellites requires satellite radio beacons (or pilot tones) to perform TDMA scheduling. Any satellite payloads, which require space radio beacon systems, will increase the SWAP requirements. In this opportunity the Air Force is soliciting innovative R&D advances to enable future technology capabilities in the following aspects: (1) revolutionary design principles using TDMA scheduling without space or satellite radio beacons, (2) robust analysis on satellite fingerprints to search for satellite identification and availability, (3) on/off-board TDMA scheduling to efficiently disseminate schedules to RPA platforms, and (4) TDMA scheduling techniques with and without requiring a priori knowledge of satellite locations. The introduction of this emerging capability onto satellite platforms should have minimal impacts on SWAP requirements and require no a-priori knowledge of satellite locations.
References
Nguyen TM: Plenary Paper, SPIE Defense and Security 2013: Sensors and Systems for Space Applications VI, Proceedings of SPIE, Vol. 8385: Baltimore, MD, 2013
Kwan WC, Sieteng S, Chen M: A Novel Spatial TDMA Scheduler for Concurrent Transmit/Receive Wireless Mesh Networks, 24th IEEE International Conference on Advanced Information Networking and Applications: 2010
key words
Satellite radio beacons; Feature extraction and inference; Satellite fingerprints; Spoofing and jamming; TDMA scheduling; Sparse observations; SWAP;
Eligibility
Citizenship:
Open to U.S. citizens
Level:
Open to Postdoctoral and Senior applicants
Stipend
| Base Stipend |
Travel Allotment |
Supplementation |
|
| $95,000.00 |
$5,000.00 |
|
Experience Supplement
Postdoctoral and Senior awardees will receive an appropriately higher stipend based on the number of years of experience past their PhD.
|
Additional Benefits
Relocation
Awardees who reside more than 50 miles from their host laboratory and remain on tenure for at least six months are eligible for paid relocation to within the vicinity of their host laboratory.
Health insurance
A group health insurance program is available to awardees and their qualifying dependents in the United States.