Validate COMINT and Countermeasures

Accelerate the evaluation of signals intelligence systems & develop waveforms effective in disrupting communications

Communications Technologies – a Moving Target 

Since the beginnings of Signals Intelligence more than 100 years ago, signal interception and communications intelligence (COMINT) have been central to national safeguarding. In the current day our communications standards have evolved immensely, and the infrastructure has progressed from fixed installations to moving platform on land, sea, air and space - now deploying in small unmanned vehicles and cube-sat constellations. 

Monitoring and Recording Wideband Signals

Modern communications systems can operate at wide bandwidths and over extended frequency ranges. COMINT and Electronic Countermeasures (ECM), such as jamming and deception, continue to keep pace with the technology through concurrent evolution and with frequent updates to remain effective.

During development and evaluation, you will need to measure effectiveness in a number of dimensions, including:

• Operation across broad spectrum to millimeter wave

• Discriminating signals of interest within dense spectral environments

• Generation of effective countermeasures signals

• Adapting to fast-changing path-loss, fading, multipath effects

• Adjusting for the effects of high-velocity platforms.

The ability to progress validation testing repeatably and reliably provides a powerful advantage for system deployment and maintenance updates.

Get better business results with Keysight

The latest generation of genera-purpose hardware and software allow new possibilities for custom signal creation, simulation of dynamic signals environments, and analysis of system performance. You can rely on Keysight’s worldwide delivery and engineering services to fulfill the exact functionality you need, with ongoing support to sustain your program for its duration.

Evaluate COMINT system performance and Jammer effectiveness

Commercial off-the-shelf (COTS) based test solutions offer a cost-effective way to characterize COMINT receivers and evaluate communications performance under electronic attack scenarios.

Comprehensive COMINT Receiver Test

• Calibrated test waveforms for sensitivity measurement

• Simulation of interfering signals representative of the environment

• Rx signal analysis in RF and digital domains (including EVM, BER analysis)

Transmitter and Jammer Evaluation

• Jammer signals development

• Communications emulation

• Assess system effectiveness

Scale for functionality and performance

• Signals creation and analysis to defined standards

• Channel propagation effects including path-loss, multipath, fading, doppler

• Frequency coverage to 110 GHz with 4 GHz bandwidth

Next Generation Test and Evaluation Solutions

Keysight PathWave Signal Generation Software provides flexibility to create performance-optimized reference signals, while the Vector Signal Analysis Software allows you to explore every facet of an RF signal. Keysight COTS hardware (such as the M9384B Vector Signal Generator and N9042B Vector Signal Analyzer) and can be scaled for the frequency and bandwidth of interest, or connect your DUT in the digital domain to PathWave development and validation software.

Conclusion

With the increasing frequency and bandwidth used for communications, evaluation of COMINT and Jammer effectiveness requires new generation of test and evaluation tools with flexible capability. Commercial off-the-shelf components from Keysight can be applied to address the test and evaluation challenges for COMINT, ECM systems development and updates.