Workshop on Wireless Communication Systems Research and Education

1. May 21, 2007 Workshop on Wireless Communication Systems Research and Education Chief Scientist General Dynamics C4 Systems Bruce Fette PhD bruce.fette@gdc4s.com 480-441-8392

2. DISCLAIMER • The opinions express are mine alone. • They do not necessarily represent those of the General Dynamics Corporation, General Dynamics C4 Systems, Inc., or our Law Department

3. Undergraduate Education • Perception: waning depth of understanding and cross disciplinary skills to develop SDR & CR technologies • It takes real understanding of many disciplines to optimize a radio for size, weight, power and cost effectiveness – no one discipline can convert an inadequate design to an adequate design • Thermal • Materials • Packaging • Analog,RF, mimic circuit design • Digital, LSI, FPGA, VHDL design • Power optimization • Software, real time, simulation, languages, APIs • Systems, control theory, latency, stability, requirements management • Architecture HW / SW / Systems / Product portfolio Students need to have a broad academic coverage in some depth and understand the relationship between these pieces to understand the flow of requirements into their design, and the impact of their design choices on product and system performance

4. Commercial vs Defense • Commercial Focus: • Cost effectiveness • Time to Market is everything – low risk • 1.8 years / design generation • 3-5 product generations in the pipeline • Garbage can maintenance • 5000 units to test design producability • 1 M + cell phones per day (~1B cell phones last year) • $1T / yr Business • Defense Focus: • Features & Requirements Driven, Flexible, Capable, Robust • Early Adopter • State of the Art differentiator at design time • 100 Unit LRIP • 100K production spread over 5 years • 20 year maintenance & support • Interoperable w 20+ year old legacy equipment • All participants must be US Citizens

5. Academic Depth in Wireless Design • Digital Communications • Modulation & Demodulation • SDR • RFFE – filters & performance analysis • Heterodyne, Homodyne, RF sampling, IF sampling • Digital Signal Processing & Nonlinear Signal Processing • Cognitive Radio • Spectral Awareness • Operating Environment (SCA) • Adhoc Networking • Digital Communications • Nearly all Engineering Universities teach comm theory • SDR • About 6 US universities teach SDR Architecture Principles • Cognitive Radio • 4 US universities doing research in Spectral Awareness. One in GA and Game Theory. None in regulatory awareness. None in declarative design principles & processes for CR • SCA • One university teaching SCA design principles • ****That I know about

6. Finding Employees, Relevance • General Dynamics has a hard time finding graduating students that are sufficiently well grounded in relevant disciplines for SDR and CR • It is necessary to grow good engineers from scratch, because there are NO engineers out looking for jobs who already know SDR, SCA, CR, SW, VHDL, & low power design technologies. • Approximate GD hiring statistics for college graduates: • 20 Universities (coast to coast) • 150 candidates interviewed • 75 candidates selected for further review • 50 invited for plant visit and interview • 40 actual plant visit and interview • 25 offers • 15 accepts

7. Statistics (of students interviewed for radio products) • ~10% of students have an idea what an SDR is • ~5% of students have an idea about what a SW architecture might be for an SDR, or know attributes of an Operating Environment OE (such as SCA) • ~10% of students understand hard deadline real time SW design (determinism, QOS, etc.) • We have only seen 2 students who have an idea what a CR is • We have only hired one student who knows how to perform signal processing tradeoffs to minimize power dissipation in a HW/SW design • Graduating students are ~ 5% of our engineering pool • We train ~100% of our staff with at least 40 hours of training • Of this training, at least 5% take an SDR, SCA, CR, SW, or VHDL class

8. More Statistics (radio product developments) • Of our engineering workforce • 70% SW engineers • 15% HW – analog & digital engineers • 10% Systems engineers • 5% mechanical • Of New Hires • ~ 66% are undergrad • ~ 33% are grad students But >75% of all graduate students are not US Citizens

9. Defense Contractors • Tax structure & Wall Street have eliminated economic incentive to do research for the long term • Nearly all research is focused on products that can ship within a year • Compare this with the European E2R Project: • ~$100M • – 3 years, • - 10 industry, 10 university partners • To develop standards for SDR and CR with significant commercial telecommunications standards & IP as the primary objective • Just like GSM all over again

10. Government Labs & Academia • ITAR Rules – • No foreign nationals • A conversation can invoke $100M fine • Careful publication review • Better safe than sorry • Academia • ~50% of professors & >75% of students are foreign nationals • Institutions generally unwilling to set up SCIFS, firewalls • Professors unwilling to have publications reviewed with publication possibly denied – tenure track impact

11. Industry & Academia • Industry reluctance to interact at the detailed level • Intellectual Property (IP) • IP forcing industry internal lab research versus academia interface • IP negotiation w University always a struggle • Industry not able to interact at the detailed level of the problem • Problem watered down to non-ITAR • Resulting utility questionable • Government seeks urgent delivery • Industry unable to offer 3 year research contracts as part of government contract support

12. Speeding Product Transition • It is important to have at least 2 vendors capable of competing production of a product • Government wants urgent transition to production and production ramp up • Government frequently expects reuse of commercial technology without detailed understanding of impact of requirements changes Recent program: $ 18M bought rights to $ 200M of Commercial developed SW But modifications and integration of changes caused another $25M+ And this SW represents only 10% of the total system

13. Another Commercial Transition Example • Cognitive Radio • SDR and CR are very significant technology enablers • Make radios for DoD that can support legacy and future requirements without new acquisition for each new capability • Commercial radios will never install filters to support frequencies outside regulatory authorized bands • Cost • Approval process

14. Recommend Government funding rules same for contractors & academia: Defense contracts: Government Funding for US students & universities that support US student research under ITAR conditions On time Delivery: Government funding as contracts with deliverables and schedules – not grants IP issues: Government funded research Gov gets data rights Contract award process: Based on technology innovation and match to technical needs rather than CV or “important field”. General Principles for Critical Problems

15. SDR Radios Exist – Its Time To Train Students to Work With SDRs HMS Manpack Ultimate Cognitive Radio AN/PRC112G  Registered Trademark of GD Digital Modular Radio

16. Wireless Communications Systems Research Needs Dr. Bruce Fette General Dynamics C4 Systems Scottsdale Az 480-441-8392

17. Significant Research Opportunities • Software Defined Radio • Wideband antennas • Directional antennas • Nullable antennas • Tunable antennas • High Efficiency PAs • Wide bandwidth PAs • High Linearity PAs • Tunable PAs • Filters • Cosite filters • Improved RFFE chips • Robust MEMs switches • MEMs production house • Low Power Breakthroughs • Software Defined Radio • Improved algorithms for interference suppression under mobile conditions • Improved equalizers for mobile & airborne conditions • New Modulation Domains • Higher data rates • Lower PAPR • Built in Acq & Track • Watermarks • Standardized Protocols & etiquettes • Capabilities Exchange

18. Significant Research Opportunities • Cognitive Radio • Standardized Protocols & Etiquettes • Capabilities Exchange • Reg Rules update exchange • Etiquette update exchange • Spectrum awareness • Position & time services • Test Infrastructure for V&V of CR etiquettes & reg rules • Cognitive Radio • Regulatory Rules database – 192 countries • Standardized rules representation • Radio Ontology • Game Theory Metrics for • Power • Interference • Spectrum Efficiency • Learning algorithms • Net / MAC / Phy Layers

19. Business Models & Issues • Standardize APIs • Right level to support and promote HW independence and growth • Right focus (performance, footprint, etc.) • Standardize deliverable WF documentation to include: • Text requirements description • Executable Waveform Platform Independent Model (PIM - MATLAB – SIMULINK) • Waveform Integerization (PSM) • Detailed operational boundary conditions for input parameters to assure robust operation (and real time assurance) • Test benches to validate robust operation under all possible field conditions of all SW / firmware modules • Interoperability test bench • Source code (optional) • If a WF cannot be delivered with adequate documentation, maybe it should be dropped from inventory

20. Business Models & Issues • SDR • Scale factor of investment in high performance filters to make it attractive to industry • Position SDR filter technologies as ready for commercial utility

21. SDRs are ready to Become CRs We just need the research that makes CRs practical HMS Manpack Ultimate Cognitive Radio AN/PRC112G  Registered Trademark of GD Digital Modular Radio