Overview

WaVe Inc. is submitting a formal proposal in response to  the Air Force Research Laboratory (AFRL) Broad Agency Announcement (BAA) to design a satellite module to characterize the W/V-band propagation channel.

Motivation

As lower frequencies have become increasingly crowded and sub-divided to accommodate a growing number of users and an ever increasing demand for data, it becomes necessary to move to communications at higher frequencies. Due to their inherently high atmospheric attenuation and high-performance technology requirements, millimeter-wave frequencies are relatively underutilized compared to lower, less technologically demanding bands.

The V and W bands just above the atmospheric absorption peak at 60GHz are well suited for high bandwidth satellite communication. Wide bandwidth allocations on the order of several GHz are available, and there is very little interference from other users and out of band sources.

Atmospheric phenomenon in these bands, however, have not been extensively studied. Theoretical models exist based primarily on terrestrial measurements, but it is desirable to make satellite-based measurements to validate the models and obtain a statistical characterization of atmospheric phenomenon and link performance in the V and W bands. In addition, practical challenges exist in implementing a digital communications link operating in these bands. The high atmospheric loss and rain attenuation presents difficulty in designing a link budget capable of supporting a high data rate link. The fact that RF hardware for these frequencies is not very mature is another challenging factor.

WaVecom Inc. plans to develop a V band beacon and a W/V band communications link to study this propagation channel and to demonstrate high data rate communications at these frequencies.