Rapidly Research and Prototype Novel Concepts for Radar and Electronic Warfare
Radar and EW researchers and systems engineers need to prove out novel concepts quickly, in order to meet funding timelines or to transition capability into fielded systems. Pace is limited by the speed of building testbeds and migrating IP from simulation to hardware. Experimenting with firmware on mission hardware is unintuitive and takes deployed assets out of use. Custom board designs typically lack software support, making them time consuming to create and sustain. NI COTS components help:
- Rapidly assess new techniques in areas like cognitive radar, SAR, passive, and multistatic radar
- Transition from software simulation to a multichannel hardware testbed with minimal code rewrites
- Minimize the cost of evaluating new ideas by reducing custom hardware and firmware development
- Validate performance of new approaches in the lab, chamber, and range to demonstrate operational impact
COTS Components for Radar and EW Research and Prototyping
- The PXI Vector Signal Transceiver combines a vector signal analyzer and generator with a user-programmable FPGA for real-time signal processing from baseband to Ka band.
- PXI FlexRIO IF Transceivers combine high-speed data converters with Xilinx FPGAs for real-time signal processing and high-performance analog input.
- USRP SDR devices provide a software-defined RF architecture to design and prototype radar systems with custom signal processing.
- LabVIEW enables rapid access to hardware and data insights for applications that require test, measurement, and control.
- Open Architecture for Radar and EW Research contains freely available software and documentation, providing an advanced starting point for building testbeds with USRP SDRs.
Solution Advantages
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NI COTS components include modular I/O and signal processing blocks, with infrastructure for synchronization and data movement.
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Synchronized COTS IF, RF, and microwave Tx/Rx modules scale from one to many channels, for architectures including digital phased array radar.
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The path from simulation to hardware is simplified by algorithmic IP reuse from MathWorks software into the LabVIEW FPGA Module through HDL Coder™.
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Tight software and hardware integration allows researchers to focus on algorithm design and validation rather than infrastructure development.
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IP export features in the LabVIEW FPGA Module ease the transition from the lab to tactical hardware, saving time in development.
Build Your Solution with the NI Ecosystem
NI offers a variety of solution integration options customized to your application-specific requirements. You can use your own internal integration teams for full system control or leverage the expertise of NI and our worldwide NI Partner Network to obtain a turnkey solution.
The NI Partner Network is a global community of domain, application, and overall test development experts working closely with NI to meet the needs of the engineering community. NI Partners are trusted solution providers, systems integrators, consultants, product developers, and services and sales channel experts skilled across a wide range of industries and application areas.
NI works with customers throughout the life of an application, delivering training, technical support, consultation and integration services, and maintenance programs. Teams can discover new skills by participating in NI-specific and geographic user groups and build proficiency with online and in-person training.
NI COTS Components for Radar and EW Research and Prototyping
Read how to create a hardware-based prototyping testbed for assessing the viability of new concepts for radar and EW systems. Discover the performance benefits of PXI instrumentation and processing modules and workflow options that accelerate the development of mission-ready capabilities.