DARPA begins Mobile Networked Multiple-Input Multiple-Output
Program
News Release February 4, 2004
Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency
3701 North Fairfax Drive
Arlington, VA 22203-1714
“ Providing technological innovation for national security for over 40
years.”
The Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) has kicked
off the first phase of
the Mobile Networked Multiple-Input, Multiple-Output (MNM) program
to develop technologies to
enable spectrally efficient, mobile ad hoc network communications
as part of DARPA's continuing
Future Combat Systems supporting technologies effort.
Lucent Technologies, Whippany, N.J., received a $11.5 million
contract as the prime contractor
for this phase. Subcontractors include BBN Technologies, Cambridge,
Mass.; Rockwell-Collins,
Cedar Rapids, Iowa; Boeing, Anaheim, Calif.; Lockheed-Martin,
Moorestown, N.J. and Gaithersburg,
Md.; Stow Research LLC, Flanders, N.J.; and Stevens Institute
of Technology, Hoboken., N.J.
Future U. S. military operational concepts call for increased
amounts of bandwidth, especially
in challenging multipath environments in frequency bands that
are already spectrum-limited. Multipleinput,
multiple-output (MIMO) technology offers the potential for
increased spectrum efficiency in
such environments while also maintaining anti-jam and low probability
of detection properties in
mobile ad hoc networks. The MNM program will provide significant
advancements in spectrum
efficiency and data rate, thereby greatly increasing warfighters’ capabilities.
The overall program goal
of the MNM program is to perform a field demonstration showing
a 20 times increase in spectral
efficiency while operating at multiple frequency bands in a mobile
ad hoc network in an urban setting.
The MNM program’s initial 12-month phase will validate
the concept of a mobile ad hoc
network using a MIMO physical layer. Lucent Technologies, as
the MNM Phase 1 prime contractor,
will develop and build the media access control and physical
layers and perform a 20-node mobile ad
hoc network field demonstration at the Naval Air Engineering
Station, Lakehurst, N.J., in the fall of
2004.
The MNM program plans a subsequent follow on phase and will solicit
future industry
participation based on successful completion of this first 12-month
effort.
-END
Media
with questions, please contact Jan Walker, (703) 696-2404,
or jwalker@darpa.mil
Contractors or military organizations, contact Dr. James Freebersyser
at (703) 696-2296.
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