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RF Spectrum Monitoring System

Application CASE STUDY: TCS002

Claude Sweeton

Sr. Sales Engineer

TEVET

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CUSTOMER:

SOW:

DoD US Navy NAVSEA NSWC Dahlgren

N00178-13-Q-4355

The US Navy Naval Sea Systems Command (NAVSEA), Naval Surface Warfare

Center (NSWC) Dahlgren site employs approximately 5,700 engineers & scientists.

It is one of the US Navy's top Research & Development (R&D) facilities. The Navy

uses extremely powerful radar and communication systems. Therefore, they are

required to monitor Radio Frequencies (RF). These systems transmit to ensure that

they do not cause interference with other RF spectrum users. NSWC Dahlgren

desired an Open Market Solicitation with the Salient Characteristics for a

Commercial (COTS) RF Spectrum Monitoring system that they could integrate with

their RF Environment Extractor (or T-REX) automated spectrum monitoring system.

MINIMUM REQUIREMENTS

The RF Spectrum Monitoring system had to provide small RF sensors that would be

mounted at locations throughout NSWC Dahlgren's site. Also, it had to come with

both control and analysis software that would detect all RF signals.

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T-REX Evaluation at NSWC Dahlgren Facility

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MINIMUM TECHNICAL REQUIREMENTS

• Condition - New (No second-hand instruments)• RF Spectrum Monitoring

• Geolocations of RF signals

• Time Difference of Arrival (TDOA) measurements• RF Environment recording with detailed signal analysis

• Key Performance Parameters (KPPs)o Monitor signals between 30MHz to 6GHz and display a visual representation

of entire RF spectrum.

o Provide users with a remote central monitoring and analysis capability whichgathers data from all receiver nodes using provided Ethernet.

o Provide automated alerts when detected RF signals exceed user-defined RFthreshold.

o All hardware covered by a full return-to-factory warranty for a period of noless than 3 years.

• System Requirements

o Provide the ability to detect, identify, locate, and analyze all RF signals aroundNSWC Dahlgren.

• Spectrum Monitoring

o Fixed receiver nodes have selectable receiver bandwidth between 1kHz to20MHz.

o Frequency resolution better than 10Hz.o Time required to switch sweeping ranges is less than 60msec - timing

accuracy of less than 100nsec.• Geolocation

o Autonomously determine the location of detected RF emitter - accuracy towithin 50m of source.

• RF Sensor Requirementso Capable of mounting outdoors on a tower.o All components are weather hardened without suffering degradation for 3

years minimum.

o Operating temperature of -10°

to 55°

Celsius. o Meet or exceed IP56 rating for dust and moisture.

TEVET SOLUTION

TEVET engaged directly with the engineering team at NSWC Dahlgren to gain a full understanding of the application and the test challenges they were faced with. TEVET conducted a full gap analysis to gain further insight to what was required for today's need and also future capabilities the customer may have. Determining factors of the gap analysis for identifying the best COTS solution included: selecting a RF Spectrum Monitoring system that had the best Probability

of Intercept (POI) for detecting RF signals, offering high resolution and high speed spectrum, providing energy detection thresholds, and providing alarm tasks for when unwanted RF signals were detected. After evaluating several technologies from different instrumentation providers, TEVET settled on the Keysight RF Spectrum Monitoring System comprised of the N6841A, N6820ES, N6829BS, and N6854A.

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Keysight N6841A

RF Sensor

Keysight N6841A

shown mounted on tower

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KEY TECHNICAL ADVANTAGES

RF Sensor Node • N6841A RF Sensor exceeded all technical requirements:

o Capable of mounting outdoors on a tower.

o All aluminum weatherproof case, maintenance-free internal components, and

use of weatherproof power and LAN cables prevent the N6841A solution

from suffering any degradation for 10 years (typical).

o Operating temperature -15°

to 55°

Celsius.

o IP67 rated (Standard IEC 60529 International Protection 67) for dust and

moisture.

o On-board diagnostics included for complete self-test of internal RF signal

path and a watchdog reset timer.

o Sensor Management Tool (SMT) - Provides the user with a quick/easy way of

setting up the RF sensor remotely on their network, connecting, configuring

and managing the sensor network. Also, provides health and status

monitoring of each sensor.

o Sensor Placement & Optimization Tool (SPOT) - Supplied with SMT and

allows a map image to be imported, then simulates the expected RF coverage.

APPLICATION SOFTWARE

• N6820ES Signal Survey or Software - Provides high-speed spectral search,

advanced energy detection, and signal isolation.

• N6829BS Snapshot Radio Software - Enables operator to focus on survey and

data collection while on station, facilitates the identification of unknown signals so

their source can be traced and they can be eliminated, and displays signals as time

or frequency data.

• N6854A RF Geolocation Server Software - Provides TDOA, Relative SignalStrength (RSS), and adaptive hybrid techniques.

• Keysight solution comes with 3-year standard warranty.

SMTwith SPOT App N6820ES Signal Surveyor App

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Mercer Engineering Research Center (MERC) performed analysis on behalf of the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) First Responder Group (FRG) with the purpose to research, collect and analyze data pertaining to the impact that the growing number of wireless devices has upon the first responder and the spectrum of electronic safety equipment devices in their personal area network. The objectives of the research were to observe in a naturalistic setting, rather than in a laboratory, the kinds of communication losses experienced by first responders during emergency responses and determine the causes and effects of communication losses. To conduct this research MERC selected Keysight Technologies RF Spectrum Monitoring suite of test instruments - N6841A, N6854A, N6820ES, and N6829BS.

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