a4ESSOR Consortium Tests HDR Waveform for Armed Forces Communication

The European a4ESSOR consortium has performed interoperability tests using the new ESSOR High Data Rate (ESSOR HDRWF) waveform.

These tests are part of the ESSOR (European Secure Software defined Radio) project, launched at the end of 2017 by a4ESSOR and OCCAR (Organization Conjointe de Coopération en matière d'Armement) on behalf of Finland, France, Germany, Italy, Spain and Poland.

The testing took place in Poland, with Software Defined Radios (SDRs) from a4ESSOR’s industry partners (Bittium, Indra, Leonardo, Radmor and Thales) equipped with the ESSOR HDRWF, all connected to an automated test environment. This made it possible to verify that the ESSOR HDRWF could handle a number of operational use scenarios, demonstrating full interoperability. The same environment was previously used to conduct testing and preliminary validation activities for participating nations’ SDR platforms.

The tests demonstrated ESSOR HDRWF’s excellent performance, including its networking (MANET - Mobile Adhoc Network), data transmission (IP), security, push-to-talk, radio silence mode and co-habitation (spectrum sharing) features.

The ESSOR project’s next milestone will be to test the ESSOR HDRWF on a radio from Germany’s Rohde & Schwarz. Germany and Rohde & Schwarz joined the program at the end of 2020.