Silvus Technologies has been awarded a contract to develop new communications technology for DARPA’s Resilient Networked Distributed Mosaic Communications (RN DMC) program. The company, whose advanced MIMO radios are widely utilised for critical UAV (unmanned aerial vehicle) and unmanned systems applications, will develop a distributed beamforming/beamnulling solution that will enable resilient, long-range terrestrial communications of up to 100km using multiple collaborative radios distributed over hundreds of meters.
DARPA has invested significantly in the concept of mosaic warfare, which uses large numbers of lower-cost systems, or “tiles”, to perform complex mission functions in a coordinated fashion. A mosaic of inter-connected tiles allows functions such as command and control, communications, and sensing to be performed with more resilience and higher performance.
Silvus has developed a proven track record with real-time solutions that enable distributed frequency and time synchronization. Its proposed solution for the RN DMC project, known as Mosaic Scattered Wide-Area Resilient Network (MScWRN or M2N), will enable spatially distributed beamforming and beamnulling with minimal communications required between tiles, resulting in mosaic clusters that are able to bridge large range gaps while seamlessly interoperating with the rest of a traditional Silvus mesh network.
Dr. Babak Daneshrad, Chief Executive Officer of Silvus, commented: “The reliability of long-range communications utilizing multiple radios distributed over large distances is a critical component in DARPA’s vision of mosaic warfare. The RN DMC program will enable the continued development of our M2N solution, and we look forward to demonstrating its matured operation.”
