Military communication testing

The largest part of armed and public-safety forces worldwide still use analogue radios in the band of HF and VUHF band with secured and robust waveforms which enable mainly secure audio exchange. However, the new commercially available radios today offer capabilities beyond analogue audio, using very robust, customized and secured waveforms. They also provide exchange through VoIP, self-positioning/localization, and capabilities to join tactical mission and intelligence networks.

We can classify MILCOM radios by form factor by handheld, portable backpacks and vehicular/onboard., Another commonly used and useful classification is by the scenario where the radios need to operate. Radios that are used by armed forces in warfare scenarios are referenced as military radios, soldier radios, rifleman radios or tactical radios. The radios used in civil environments by law enforcement forces are referred as public-safety radios, land-mobile radio systems, which are in form factor very similar to the handheld radios used by armed forces.

Secure radios as used in Military Communication (MILCOM) Scenarios can use fixed narrow channels or wider frequency hopping channels in the range from 100KHz up to 1GHz. Transmitter power is usually limited to around 5 watts, giving them a limited range, usually 4.8 to 32 km (3 to 20 miles). Older systems use AM or FM modulation, while some recent systems use digital modulation allowing them to transmit data as well as sound.

Law enforcement as well as the armed forces communication devices (usually referred to as secure radios or MILCOM radios) need to ensure maximum robustness and endurance ensuring always a minimum viable communication on the field. Modern smartphones are optimized for usability, speed and interconnectivity with open standards. Public forces need radios that are robust and reliable, as the inability to communicate during real operation on the field may translate into severe damages of people or even casualties.

Most of the radios used by armed forces are analog, nonetheless there is a strong demand to move towards digital; something that is nowadays ongoing in the public safety market. Relatively a largest percentage of radio devices used by law enforcements or firefighters are nowadays digital.

Radio makers are moving their products into the digital world, and they need to ensure that every single very high-speed digital component of the software defined radios is able to meet the new secured digital waveforms’ requirements. Common testing challenges are verification of reference clocks and jitters or compliance verification of signal and power integrity of PLLs, high-speed buses or SerDes components, among others.