In an interview with Urgent Communications Magazine, Mike McCarthy, director of operations for the Mission Command Complex at the Brigade Modernization Command at Fort Bliss, Texas, spoke about the xMax cognitive radio access network and called it a "potential game changer" in terms of how the Army can use smartphones on the battlefield.
The xG system was lauded for its flexible deployment models and ability to operate in spectral environments fraught with interference and targeted jamming. McCarthy said:
“It uses something that’s radically different from other solutions that we’ve looked at, and it’s been exceptionally impressive. Their combination of cognitive radio and frequency hopping — as opposed to a fixed-frequency base station — has shown tremendous operational capabilities."
The xMax system was put through its paces by soldiers at Fort Bliss during day-to-day operations, as well as being tested during a 6-week NIE 11.1 (Network Integration Evaluation) event at White Sands Missile Range, where it was found to perform as advertised. McCarthy had this to say about the evaluation:
"The solution has proven to operate very reliably, even when confronted by intentional jamming. We attempted to jam it with conventional military jamming systems, and we were unable to do it."
He went on to point out that the dynamic frequency hopping on the xMax system has not introduced any noticeable latency in their tests thus far:
“We haven’t noticed any latency. We haven’t put a meter on it to measure how many milliseconds it is, but it’s not enough that it affects the voice or data that we’re transmitting over the system."
Next spring, the military plans to expand its tests to include several hundred different phones in a limited geographic area, and the xMax system is expected to be evaluated further. “I’m going to push that system as far as we can push it, because I want to know the limitations,” McCarthy said.
He also remarked that he considers the xG Technology system and other solutions being tested by the military to be “complementary” to the military’s own development of advanced communications that leverage cognitive radio and other information-assurance techniques.
The complete Urgent Communications article can be read at this link:
Military tests of xG Technology solution could have domestic implications
Daniel Carpini
xG Technology, Inc.
Marketing Director
xG Technology will be an exhibitor and presenter at the 2012 NTCA Wireless Symposium and Expo, which is being held in New Orleans, LA Jan. 11-13, 2012. The event is produced by NTCA (the National Telecommunications Cooperative Association) and RTG (Rural Telecommunications Group), and is the premier wireless conference for rural telco service providers and vendors from across the nation. xG will be exhibiting in booth #39.
