Low probability of intercept communication system

• US 5,029,184 A
• Filed: 01/24/1990
• Issued: 07/02/1991
• Est. Priority Date: 01/24/1990
• Status: Expired due to Term

• Current Assignee: Harris Corporation Melbourne
• Original Assignee: Harris Corporation (L3Harris Technologies, Inc.)
• Inventors: Andren, Carl F., Lucas, Leonard V., Schachte, John A.
• Primary Examiner(s): Buczinski, Stephen C.
• Assistant Examiner(s): Gregory, Bernard Earl
• Application Number:
  US07/470,199
• Time in Patent Office: 524 Days
• Field of Search: 380/34, 380/2, 380/6, 380/9, 380/28, 380/33, 375/1, 375/10, 364/481, 342/13, 342/14, 342/16
• US Class Current: 375/138
• CPC Class Codes: H04K 3/226 Selection of non-jammed channel for communication spectrum sharing arrangements H04W16/14; selection of wireless resources by user or terminal H04W72/02
• CPC Class Codes: H04K 3/25 based on characteristics of target signal or of transmission as countermeasure against surveillance H04K3/827, e.g. using direct sequence spread spectrum or fast frequency hopping spread spectrum techniques H04B1/69

Abstract

A low probability of intercept communication system (CCSK)--modulates information signals onto an inverse fast Fourier transformation of a large number of simultaneous frequencies that have been determined to be reasonably `quiet` within a given system bandwidth, so as to produce a time domain pulse waveform. The amplitude of each transmitted frequency is weighted. Within the receiver equipment of each participant in the system, the incoming pulse waveform produced by the inverse fast Fourier transformation mechanism at the source is coupled to a fast Fourier transform operator, so as to separate the time domain signal into a plurality of frequency components that contain the modulated data. These components are then convolved with a replica of the plurality of quiet channels to derive a time domain output waveform from which the data modulation can be identified and recovered. Even if a jamming threat is injected into one or more of the `quiet` channels that has been selected as a participating carrier, by virtue of the signal analysis and recovery process employed by each unit for incoming signals, jamming spikes are effectively excised.

Claims

1. A communication system for conducting low probability of intercept communications between a transmitter site and a receiver site comprising:

at said transmitter site,

first means for generating, during a prescribed time slot, a plurality N of carrier frequencies having respective amplitudes, and phase angle values that are randomly distributed with respect to one another;

second means, coupled to said first means, for performing an inverse fast Fourier transformation of said plurality of carrier frequencies so as to obtain a time domain pulse waveform representative thereof; and

third means, coupled to said second means, for modulating said time domain pulse waveform with information signals and transmitting said modulated time domain pulse waveform; and

at said receiver site,

fourth means for receiving the modulated time domain pulse waveform that has been transmitted by said transmitter site;

fifth means, coupled to said fourth means, for performing a fast Fourier transformation of the received time domain pulse waveform, so as to obtain therefrom a distribution of the frequency components thereof; and

sixth means, coupled to said fifth means, for processing the frequency components obtained by said fifth means, so as to recover said information signals.

2. A communication system according to claim 1, wherein said first means includes means for monitoring communication activity over a prescribed frequency band and generating, during said prescribed time slot, a plurality N of carrier frequencies respective amplitudes of which are set in accordance with spectral characteristics of said monitored frequency band.

3. A communication system according to claim 2, wherein said first means includes means for setting the phase angles of said plurality of N carriers are set at random values.

4. A communication system according to claim 2, wherein said first means includes means for generating a multiplicity M of frequencies within said prescribed frequency band, spaced apart from one another by a selected frequency separation, and means for defining said plurality of N frequencies as those of said multiplicity M of frequencies, the communication activity of which has been measured to be within a prescribed level of the average noise within said frequency band.

5. A communication system according to claim 1, wherein said sixth means comprises means for combining said distribution of the frequency components of said received time domain pulse waveform with a replica of said plurality N of carrier frequencies to produce a multifrequency signal from which frequencies other than those of said plurality have been removed and within which the phases of the multiple frequencies of said multifrequency signal are aligned in accordance with modulation imparted by said information signal, means for performing an inverse Fourier transformation of said multifrequency signal to produce a time domain pulse waveform containing a compressed pulse at a timing representative of modulation imparted by said information signal, and means for decoding said time domain pulse waveform to recover said information signals.

6. A method of conducting covert communications in the presence of one or more jamming/intercept threats comprising the steps of:

at a transmission site,

(a) modulating information signals onto an inverse fast Fourier transformation of a plurality of frequencies that have been selected within a given system bandwidth, the amplitude of each transmitted channel being weighted in accordance with the inverse power spectrum density of said bandwidth, and the phases of which are irregularly distributed, thereby producing a time domain pulse waveform;

at a reception site,

(b) coupling a received time domain pulse waveform to a fast Fourier transform operator, so as to separate the time domain pulse waveform into a plurality of frequency components that contain modulated information signals;

(c) convolving the frequency components of step (b) with a replica of the plurality of frequencies so as to derive a time domain output waveform; and

(d) recovering said information signals from said time domain output waveform.

7. A method according to claim 6, wherein step (a) comprises, prior to a transmission, conducting a measurement of a designated band of frequencies over which communications between said transmission and reception sites are to take place, so as to determine the energy distribution within the band and thereby identify those ones of a plurality of frequencies that are to be transmitted as part of said time domain pulse waveform.

8. A method according to claim 7, wherein step (a) further comprises modulating said time domain pulse waveform with a digital information signal so as to controllably displace the peak of the waveform in time.

9. A method according to claim 7, wherein step (a) comprises modulating said time domain pulse waveform by means of cyclic code shift keying so as to controllably displace the starting phase of each frequency component that makes up the waveform.

10. A method according to claim 9, wherein step (c) comprises multiplying the frequency components obtained by step (b) by an independently generated replica of each of the unmodulated frequencies that were employed at the transmission site to form said time domain pulse waveform and removing any signal whose product is above a prescribed value from further processing, and converting the resulting frequency domain signal into the time domain as said time domain output waveform.

11. A method according to claim 10, wherein step (c) includes the step of converting the frequency products into the time domain by an inverse fast Fourier transform operation, so as to obtain said time domain output waveform,

12. A method according to claim 11, wherein step (d) comprises locating the largest peak in said time domain output waveform and converting its temporal offset from the beginning of the waveform into an information signal value.

13. A method of conducting low probability of intercept communications between a transmitter site and a receiver site comprising the steps of:

at said transmitter site,

(a) generating, during a prescribed time slot, a plurality N of carrier frequencies having respective amplitudes, and phase angle values that are randomly distributed with respect to one another;

(b) performing an inverse fast Fourier transformation of said plurality of carrier frequencies so as to obtain a time domain pulse waveform representative thereof; and

(c) modulating said time domain pulse waveform with information signals and transmitting said modulated time domain pulse waveform; and

at said receiver site,

(d) receiving the modulated time domain pulse waveform that has been transmitted by said transmitter site;

(e) performing a fast Fourier transformation of the received time domain pulse waveform, so as to obtain therefrom a distribution of the frequency components thereof; and

(f) processing the frequency components obtained by step (e), so as to recover said information signals.

14. A method according to claim 13, wherein step (a) includes monitoring a prescribed frequency band over which communications between said transmitter site and said receiver site are to take place and generating, during said prescribed time slot, a plurality N of carrier frequencies respective amplitudes of which are established in accordance with spectral characteristics of said monitored frequency band.

15. A method according to claim 14, wherein step (a) includes the step of pseudo randomly establishing the phase angles of said plurality of N carriers.

16. A method according to claim 14, wherein step (a) includes generating a multiplicity M of frequencies within said prescribed frequency band, spaced apart from one another by a selected frequency separation, and defining said plurality of N frequencies as those of said multiplicity M of frequencies, the communication activity of which has been measured to be within a prescribed level of the average noise within said frequency band.

17. A method according to claim 13, wherein step (f) comprises combining said distribution of the frequency components of said received time domain pulse waveform with a replica of said plurality N of carrier frequencies to produce a multifrequency signal from which frequencies other than those of said plurality have been removed and within which the phases of the multiple frequencies of said multifrequency signal are aligned in accordance with modulation imparted by said information signal, performing an inverse Fourier transformation of said multifrequency signal to produce a time domain pulse waveform containing a compressed pulse at a timing representative of modulation imparted by said information signal, and decoding said time domain pulse waveform to recover said information signals.

18. A method according to 13, further including the preliminary step of performing acquisition and timing alignment at said receiver site comprising the steps of:

at said transmitting site,

(i) transmitting an acquisition preamble a first portion of which contains a first sequence of the same preselected information symbol, followed by plural repetitions of a second sequence of different information symbols;

at said receiver site,

(ii) monitoring said acquisition preamble transmitted in step (a) to locate and align said burst recovery receiver with the occurrence of one of the same preselected information symbols in said first sequence; and

(iii) monitoring said second sequence of different information symbols and deriving therefrom an indication of which of a plurality of successive timeslots, within said burst repetition interval, said burst recovery receiver is aligned.

19. A method according to claim 13, wherein step (f) includes producing a time domain correlation characteristic representative of a received information signal burst, and processing said time domain correlation characteristic so as to recover an intended information signal burst in the presence of a multipath signal burst by translating said time domain correlation characteristic by one half its time domain interval, to obtain a translated time domain correlation characteristic, rotating the translated time domain correlation characteristic about the center of the time domain interval, thereby causing a complementary translation of a desired attribute of said time domain correlation characteristic back to its original time domain location, while causing a displacement of a multipath signal correlation, and combining the original time domain correlation characteristic with the rotated characteristic, and thereby emphasizing the desired information signal attribute, so that the intended signal can be readily identified.

20. A method according to claim 19, wherein step (f) includes summing logarithmic representations of said original and rotated characteristics.

21. A communication system according to claim 20, wherein said time domain pulse waveform transmitter comprises a modulator which modulates said time domain pulse waveform with a digital information signal so as to controllably displace the peak of the waveform in time.

22. A communication system according to claim 20, wherein said time domain pulse waveform transmitter comprises a modulator which modulates said time domain pulse waveform by cyclic code shift keying so as to controllably displace the starting phase of each frequency component that makes up the waveform.

23. A communication system according to claim 22, wherein said time domain convolver comprises a multiplier which multiplies the frequency components of the received time domain pulse waveform by an independently generated replica of each of the unmodulated frequencies that were employed at the transmission site to form the transmitted time domain pulse waveform and a filter which removes any signal whose product is above a prescribed value from further processing, and inverse fast Fourier transform operator which converts the resulting frequency domain signal into the time domain as said time domain output waveform.

24. A communication system according to claim 23, wherein said decoder comprises means for locating the largest peak in said time domain output waveform and converting its temporal offset from the beginning of the waveform into an information signal value.

25. A communication system for conducting covert communications between a transmission site and a reception site in the presence of one or more jamming/intercept threats comprising, in combination:

at said transmission site,

a time domain pulse waveform transmitter which modulates information signals onto an inverse fast Fourier transformation of a plurality of frequencies that have been selected within a given system bandwidth, the amplitude of each transmitted channel being weighted in accordance with the inverse power spectrum density of said bandwidth, and the phases of which are irregularly distributed, thereby producing a time domain pulse waveform; and

at said reception site,

a time domain pulse waveform receiver to which a received time domain pulse waveform is coupled, said receiver including a fast Fourier transform operator which separates the time domain pulse waveform into a plurality of frequency components that contain modulated information signals, a frequency domain convolver which convolves said frequency components with a replica of the plurality of frequencies so as to derive a time domain output waveform, and decoder which recovers said information signals from said time domain output waveform.

26. A communication system according to claim 25, wherein said transmission site includes a power spectrum monitor which, prior to a transmission, conducts a measurement of a designated band of frequencies over which communications between said transmission and reception sites are to take place, thereby determining the energy distribution within said designated band and identifying those ones of a plurality of frequencies that are to be transmitted as part of said time domain pulse waveform.

27. A communication system according to claim 25, further including an arrangement for aligning said time domain pulse waveform receiver with waveform bursts transmitted by said transmitter site comprising:

at a transmitting site,

means for transmitting an acquisition preamble a first portion of which contains a first sequence of the same preselected information symbol, followed by plural repetitions of a second sequence of different information symbols;

at a receiver site,

means for monitoring said acquisition preamble to locate and align said time domain waveform pulse waveform receiver with the occurrence of one of the same preselected information symbols in said first sequence; and

means for monitoring said second sequence of different information symbols and deriving therefrom an indication of which of a plurality of successive timeslots, within said burst repetition interval, said receiver is aligned.

28. For use with a communication system in which information signals are transmitted in burst format and at a prescribed burst repetition rate, a method of aligning a burst recovery receiver with transmitted bursts comprising the steps of:

at a transmitting site,

(a) transmitting an acquisition preamble a first portion of which contains a first sequence of the same preselected information symbol, followed by plural repetitions of a second sequence of different information symbols;

at a receiver site,

(b) monitoring said acquisition preamble transmitted in step (a) to locate and align said burst recovery receiver with the occurrence of one of the same preselected information symbols in said first sequence; and

(c) monitoring said second sequence of different information symbols and deriving therefrom an indication of which of a plurality of successive timeslots, within said burst repetition interval, said burst recovery receiver is aligned.

29. For use with a communication system in which information signal bursts are processed to produce a time domain correlation characteristic, a method of processing said time domain correlation characteristic so as to recover an intended information signal burst in the presence of a multipath signal burst comprising the steps of:

(a) sending two symbols such that the second is a time reversal of the first.

(b) rotating the time domain correlation characteristic of the second symbol in step (a) about the center of the time domain interval, thereby causing a complementary translation of a desired attribute of said time domain correlation characteristic back to its original time domain location, while causing a displacement of a multipath signal correlation; and

(c) combining the original time domain correlation characteristic with the rotated characteristic, and thereby emphasizing the desired information signal attribute, so that the intended signal can be readily identified.

30. A method according to claim 29, wherein step (c) comprises summing logarithmic representations of said original and rotated characteristics.