Projects:2018s1-102 HF Radio Automated Link Establishment (ALE) Model
Contents
Project Team
Students
Surbhi Ahuja
Sandul Fernando
Blake Luetkens
Supervisors
Prof. Lang White
Paul Hirschausen
Introduction
The industry sponsor for this project, Codan - Radio Communications Division are a supplier of HF radio communication solutions to hobbyists, humanitarian organisations and Australian military operations. HF communication enables communication between a transmitter and receiver unit by taking advantage of HF wave propagation characteristics, particularly the wave reflection with ionospheric layers in the ionosphere.
The 2018 group undertaking this project name will be continuing the work of work done on a 2G-ALE simulator that was delivered by a 2017 group under the same project name and sponsor. Our group aims to incorporate ionospheric prediction data and receiver station mobility into the 2G ALE simulator to provide Codan with quality of service statistics and indicators regarding achievable connection links and channel requirements.
The wiki of the 2017 group can be found here. [2017 HF Radio Automated Link Establishment (ALE) Model.
Background
HF radio is still actively used and protocols (such as the new 4G ALE) that use HF communication continue to be actively developed. HF radio communication is critical for use in geographic locations without established communication infrastructure that are occupied by military personal or being aided by humanitarian groups. Protocols such as ALE ensure that no expert training is required for the operation of HF radios or knowledge of ionospheric conditions or effects on HF wave propagation.
The ionosphere is a layer of the atmosphere that contains electrically charged (ionised) particles and is located 60km - 1000km above the Earths surface. The ionosphere can be separated into multiple layers, each classified by density of these ionised particles and each layer can generally be described as having a different effect on wave energy absorption and reflection. As such the present state on the ionosphere plays a key role in the propagation of HF waves, it also varies greatly depending on various factors. The time of day, season, sun spot numbers and space weather conditions all greatly effect the ionospheric properties and the perversity of particular layers. For example the
2. How ionospheric properties effect HF wave propagation
3. Using predictive software to account for seasonal effects
4. Effect of mobility
5. HALT testing (highly accelerated life testing)
Aims
1. To expand upon previous work on a HF ALE simulator by incorporating ionospheric prediction data to determine the amount of channels required by a customer to operate the radio for an acceptable call blocking probability.
2. Build a system to assist in the automated HALT machine at Codan, provide regression testing analysis and automated load variation.
