The Electromagnetic Environment Situational Awareness (EESA), under the name of Radio Environmental Map (REM), has recently attracted a lot of attention in the wireless communications research community. The REM can be viewed as rich hierarchical databases containing various types of static and dynamic radio environment information, e.g. sensing information from Radios or EW sensors, raw spectrum measurements, terrain models, building plans, fixed transmitters, statistical propagation models, estimations of located transmitters and their configurations, estimations of radio propagation models etc. Electromagnetic Environment Situational Awareness can be seen as a field of application of Big Data Analytics to the Spectrum Awareness on the battlefield. REM is an enabler to enhance EM environment awareness on the Battlefield, and it can be exploded to produce a multilayer (per frequency) geographical map of the usage of the spectrum.
In terms of military relevance, the REM provides an enhanced capability to report to the military commander on situational awareness of spectrum in time, space and frequency. As a possible contributor to the NATO Electromagnetic Strategy, it is an enabler for C2 of spectrum, dynamic spectrum management, EW support for Common Electronic Order of Battle (C-EOB) and transmitter localisation. It facilitates the optimisation of spectrum usage in order to improve operational effectiveness by enabling dynamic spectrum management coordination in joint NATO coalition operation.
For this purpose, IST-146 Research Task Group (RTG) on Electromagnetic Environment Situational Awareness (EESA) for NATO aims at evaluating operational benefits in implementing an EESA/REM for NATO. Through operational analysis, architecture and demonstration activities, this RTG will propose an improvement roadmap in C2 of spectrum and dynamic spectrum management, in transmitter localisation and transmit power estimation, in elimination of interference and jamming on the battlefield within Allied forces during operation and in EW systems support for real time establishment of the Electronic Order of Battle. The 8th Meeting of IST-146 took place on 3-5 December 2019, in DGA-IS, France.
Published by IST |
