Unlicensed communications in industrial-scientific-medical (ISM) frequency bands have long been of interest to defense/military users as a way to add bandwidth when and where needed for particular applications. The latest frequency modules for the MPU5 mobile ad hoc networking (MANET) “smart” radios from Persistent Systems, LLC transform those radios into powerful, portable radios for use at upper C-band frequencies from 5.1 to 5.9 GHz within the unlicensed ISM band. This opens the door not only to defense contractors, but portable radio specifiers of all kinds to consider their needs for reliable voice, text, video, and data communications with these robust modular radios.
1. The modular MPU5 radios work with additional plug-in frequency modules to cover different frequency bands from L-band through upper-C-band frequencies.
The Wave Relay MPU5 radios (Fig. 1) are as much computers as portable radios, each powered by an Android operating system. Like computers, the radios enable connection of external USB devices; the radios also have enough computer background to form and create self-healing networks with other radios and computer devices. The latest radio modules (Fig. 2) operate from 5.1 to 6.0 GHz with three independent antenna chains, each contributing more than 1.3 W transmit power to total 4 W transmit power.
The frequency modules support all multiple-input, multiple-output (MIMO) antenna modes with standard frequency accuracy of ±4 ppm. They support binary-phase-shift-keying (BPSK), quadrature-phase-shift-keying (QPSK), 16-state quadrature-amplitude-modulation (16QAM), and 64-state QAM (64QAM) modulation formats. As with the other frequency modules, the latest upper-C-band frequency modules are designed for operating temperatures from −40 to +85ºC.
2. The latest frequency modules for the MPU5 MANET radios support operation at unlicensed ISM frequencies, in the upper C-band range of 5.1 to 5.9 GHz.