Tactical multi-rat sidelink
The US DoD is moving to incorporate 5G, particularly for sidelinks networks. 5G sidelink network are desired to operate at company, platoon, and squad levels independent of connection to 5G base stations (gNB). The 5G sidelink standards, as defined by 3GPP, cannot operate under active jamming at expected threat levels. The sidelink standards are defined for commercial use and cannot withstand active jamming. Various prior art uses beamforming, directionally beamformed MIMO, and even distributed MIMO as potential options to address active jamming. The SWAP-C and standards of the 5G UEs are not conducive to these anti-jamming techniques. A solution is described that uses the 5G sidelink physical layer with modifications at the control layer to avoid denial of the S-SSB. Intra-, inter-squad, and squad-to-command post communications may use the solution to avoid denial of the 5G sidelink.
1. A software-defined radio comprising:
a memory maintaining program instructions; and
one or more processors configured to execute the program instructions causing the one or more processors to:
configure a user equipment to join a sidelink by:
receiving a first broadcast schedule of one or more Sidelink Synchronization Signal Blocks over a waveform; and
transmitting the first broadcast schedule to the user equipment over a physical connection to configure the user equipment to receive the one or more Sidelink Synchronization Signal Blocks according to the first broadcast schedule; and
configure the sidelink to listen for the one or more Sidelink Synchronization Signal Blocks from the user equipment by:
initiating a timer;
failing to receive the first broadcast schedule during the timer;
transmitting a second broadcast schedule to the user equipment over the physical connection to configure the user equipment as a sync reference user equipment; and
transmitting the second broadcast schedule over the waveform to one or more additional software-defined radios causing the additional software-defined radios to configure one or more additional user equipment to receive the Sidelink Synchronization Signal Blocks according to the second broadcast schedule;
wherein the one or more Sidelink Synchronization Signal Blocks include a Sidelink Synchronization Signal; wherein the one or more Sidelink Synchronization Signal Blocks occupy a plurality of subcarriers; wherein the first broadcast schedule and the second broadcast schedule each cause a location of the plurality of subcarriers to hop for avoiding active jamming of the Sidelink Synchronization Signal.
2. The software-defined radio of claim 1 , wherein the program instructions cause the one or more processors to pair to the user equipment; wherein the timer is initiated in response to pairing to the user equipment.
3. The software-defined radio of claim 2 , wherein authenticating the user equipment comprises receiving a pairing request from the user equipment, authenticating the user equipment, and transmitting an acknowledgement to the user equipment.
4. The software-defined radio of claim 1 , wherein the program instructions cause the one or more processors to determine the first broadcast schedule and the second broadcast schedule pseudo-randomly by a transmission security key and algorithm; wherein transmitting the second broadcast schedule over the waveform comprises transmitting the transmission security key over the waveform.
5. The software-defined radio of claim 1 , wherein the first broadcast schedule and the second broadcast schedule each cause the plurality of subcarriers to be contiguous.
6. The software-defined radio of claim 1 , wherein the program instructions cause the one or more processors to receive a network topology of the sidelink over the waveform, implement a routing protocol for the sidelink, and transmit the routing protocol over the waveform.
7. The software-defined radio of claim 6 , wherein the routing protocol comprises transferring one or more user equipment in the sidelink between one or more of a plurality of sync reference user equipment based on a connectivity of the one or more user equipment to the plurality of sync reference user equipment.
8. The software-defined radio of claim 6 , wherein the routing protocol comprises initiating one or more user equipment in the sidelink as the sync reference user equipment based on at least one of a connectivity of the one or more user equipment to a plurality of sync reference user equipment or a battery status of the one or more user equipment.
9. The software-defined radio of claim 1 , wherein the program instructions cause the one or more processors to function as a network manager for the sidelink.
10. The software-defined radio of claim 1 , wherein the sidelink is a 5G sidelink in one of a 5G Frequency Range 1 (FR1) or a 5G Frequency Range 2 (FR2).
11. The software-defined radio of claim 1 , wherein the waveform is selected from the Department of Defense Communications Waveform Inventory.
12. The software-defined radio of claim 1 , further comprising an interface configured to connect to the user equipment by the physical connection.
13. The software-defined radio of claim 12 , wherein the physical connection is a universal serial bus.
14. The software-defined radio of claim 1 , wherein the one or more Sidelink Synchronization Signal Blocks includes the Sidelink Synchronization Signal and one or more Physical Sidelink Broadcast Channels; wherein the Sidelink Synchronization Signal includes one or more Sidelink Primary Synchronization Channels and one or more Sidelink Secondary Synchronization Channels.
15. A system comprising:
a plurality of software-defined radios; wherein the plurality of software-defined radios each comprise a memory maintaining program instructions and one or more processors configured to execute the program instructions causing the one or more processors to:
configure a user equipment to join a sidelink by:
receiving a first broadcast schedule of one or more Sidelink Synchronization Signal Blocks over a waveform; and
transmitting the first broadcast schedule to the user equipment over a physical connection to configure the user equipment to receive the one or more Sidelink Synchronization Signal Blocks according to the first broadcast schedule; and
configure the sidelink to listen for the one or more Sidelink Synchronization Signal Blocks from the user equipment by:
initiating a timer;
failing to receive the first broadcast schedule during the timer;
transmitting a second broadcast schedule to the user equipment over the physical connection to configure the user equipment as a sync reference user equipment; and
transmitting the second broadcast schedule over the waveform to the plurality of software-defined radios causing the plurality of software-defined radios to configure one or more additional user equipment in the sidelink to receive the Sidelink Synchronization Signal Blocks according to the second broadcast schedule;
wherein the one or more Sidelink Synchronization Signal Blocks include a Sidelink Synchronization Signal; wherein the one or more Sidelink Synchronization Signal Blocks occupies occupy a plurality of subcarriers; wherein the first broadcast schedule and the second broadcast schedule each cause a location of the plurality of subcarriers to hop for avoiding active jamming of the Sidelink Synchronization Signal.
16. The system of claim 15 , further comprising a network manager; wherein the network manager is configured to execute program instructions causing the network manager to:
receive information from the plurality of software-defined radios over the waveform, wherein the information includes a location of the user equipment, a frequency of the sidelink, and a bandwidth of the sidelink; and
detect the sidelink interferes with a second sidelink.
17. The system of claim 16 , wherein the program instructions cause the network manager to transmit a new sidelink network configuration for the sidelink to the plurality of software-defined radios over the waveform in response to detecting that the sidelink interferes with the second sidelink.
18. The system of claim 16 , wherein the program instructions cause the network manager to transmit a command to merge the sidelink with the second sidelink to the plurality of software-defined radios by updating a network identifier of the sidelink.
19. The system of claim 15 , further comprising a network manager configured to execute program instructions causing the network manager to:
receive information from the plurality of software-defined radios over the waveform, wherein the information includes a location and a link connectivity status of the user equipment;
select the user equipment as the sync reference user equipment based on the location and the link connectivity status; and
transmit a signal to a first software-defined radio of the plurality of software-defined radios, wherein the signal causes the first software-defined radio to configure the user equipment as the sync reference user equipment.
20. The system of claim 15 , wherein the sync reference user equipment transmits the Sidelink Synchronization Signal Blocks according to the second broadcast schedule; wherein the user equipment is configured to receive the Sidelink Synchronization Signal Blocks according to the second broadcast schedule.