ADVANCEMENTS IN THE FIELD OF HF COMMUNICATIONS

AND ITS MILITARY APPLICATIONS

Cdr Shishir B Sahay,

Naval EMC Centre, C/O Fleet Mail Office, Mumbai -400 001

Abstract. The paper highlights the current advancements and innovations made
and the way to go in the field of HF Communication in terms of Nature of the HF
channel, contemporary HF models, MIMO based HF links, exploitation of NVIS
antennas, and efforts to achieve a secured HF. HF is here to stay either as an
independent entity or in conjunction with terrestrial / space-based networks. The
reasons justifying this have been elaborated in the Paper. MIMO for HF
communication seems to be a very attractive option and even more so for maritime
application. The HF channel and MIMO seem to be made for each other. MIMO
technique requires multi-path and fading; and the HF channel offers it “on a platter”
in abundance. In this context, the paper aims to clarify the understanding of the
concept of MIMO based HF links.

Intoduction 3.In short, HF communications is here

1.Radio frequency transmission to stay; both as an independent entity
between 3 and 30 MHz is called High or complementary to satellite /
Frequency (HF) or "short-wave" radio terrestrial communication.
communications. HF is the widely used
communication band for long 4.This paper would be covering the
distances despite an all-around following aspects.
implementation of cellular and satellite
communication systems. It is the only (a)Nature of the HF channel.
way of achieving global (b)Contemporary HF modems.
communication coverage without using (c)A new concept of MIMO
expensive terrestrial and satellite based HF links.
infrastructure. HF communication still (d)Exploitation of Near Vertical
remains fail-safe means for Incidence (NVIS) antennas.
communicating in high latitudes, (e)Secure HF communications.

2.A resource / domain which is often

ignored by military planners is Amateur Nature of the HF Channel
radio. Post 9/11, radio amateurs are
increasingly being viewed as part of 5.HF signal propagation is determined
the emergency communications by the fact that it is repeatedly
infrastructure, especially in the US as reflected from the ionosphere and the
part of its Homeland Security Initiative. earth surface. That's why they often
Radio amateurs provided assistance call this communication method the
during recent disasters such as "skywave communication". It is
hurricane Isabel, the fires in southern affected by significant changes of
California and the 9/11 World Trade propagation conditions depending on
Centre attacks when cell phones and the geographical location, frequency,
other municipal services were time of day, season, solar activity, and
disrupted / overloaded. other circumstances. Besides long-
term instability of the propagation
conditions, it turns out that the signal
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passed via the HF channel undergoes fading). It's very desirable to have the
significant distortion and the dynamics ability of automatic detection of the
of these distortions can have transmitted signal parameters (eg.
sufficiently little time constants. The Auto baud feature). For military uses,
propagation effects through the HF reliability, interference suppression
channel are as follows: and jam-resistance become additional
requirements.
(a)Severe multipath and
distributed reflection from the 7.Rapid developments in Digital Signal
ionosphere. As a result of it, Processing (DSP) have made it
there appears the effect called possible to substantially improve
'fading'. Multipath is features of HF communication
characterized by the value of systems. Modern formal standards /
delay between replicas of the protocols for HF communications take
signal. into account all the above-mentioned
circumstances and set a high level of
(b)Another characteristic is the BER performance for modems. As a
frequency shift and frequency- result, the transmission rates up to
spread distortions imposed on 9600 bps in a 3 kHz channel have
the transmitted signal by been achieved. High-level protocols,
ionosphere reflection due to such as STANAG 4538 and STANAG
temporal changeability of ionic 5066 possess mechanisms of
concentration. adaptively controlling the transmission
(c)Nature of noise on the HF rate and increasing data transmission
channel comprises of the reliability under disturbed conditions.
following components [1]:
(i)Atmospheric noise (eg. 8.Improvements are achieved by
due to lightning). introducing reception techniques such
(ii)Man-made impulsive as turbo-equalization, MAP decoding,
noise. etc. The cost of improved performance
(iii)Narrow band is increased hardware requirements
Interferers (intentional or for HF modems. However, novel
unintentional jamming DSPs, such as C55x or C67x from
signals). Texas Instruments fit such hardware
(iv)And of course, requirements with low number of
Gaussian noise. external components.

6.The information available about HF

propagation is only statistical in nature 9.There are several types of
and forms the background for waveforms, which are being used for
designing of terminal equipment HF transmission: single-tone,
(modems and others), as well as Orthogonal Frequency Division
communication systems as a whole. Multiplexing (OFDM) and orthogonal
Changeability of propagation signal modulation. Each type of
conditions makes it imperative to apply waveform has its own advantages and
adaptive mechanisms at the modem modern modems should support
level, as well as on the controlling several waveforms to fit system needs.
protocols level. Modems should be The best characteristics for HF
able to combat with distortions brought channels at rates below 9600 bps are
in by the HF channel (multipath, provided by single-tone modems. They
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provide robust operation under summarizes waveform characteristics
interference and are capable to for most widespread contemporary
withstand strong and fast varying Inter- modems [2].
symbol Interference (ISI). Table below

Standard / Auto- Modulation Rates, bps Interleavers, Coding

Waveform baud Delay in sec
feature
MIL 118- Yes Single-tone 150, 300, Block-based, Convolutional
110A BPSK, QPSK, 600, 1200, 0, 0.6, 4.8 (133,171), 1/8
Single tone 8PSK 2400, 4800 ... 1/2
(150..2400 (uncoded)
bps)
MIL 118- No OFDM, 75, 150, 300, Depends on Reed-Solomon,
110A (App QDPSK 600, 1200, rate, from 0 to 10/14, 3/7
B) / 39-tone 2400 6.48
MIL 118- Yes Single-tone 3200, 4800, Block-based, Convolutional
110B App C QPSK, 8PSK, 6400, 8000, 0.12, 0.36, 1.08, (133,171), 3/4
/ 4539 HDR 16, 32 and 64- 9600, 12800 2.16, 4.32, 8.64 with tail-biting
QAM (uncoded)
STANAG Yes Orthogonal 75 Block-based, Convolutional
4415 signals, 0, 0.6, 4.8 (133,171), 1/32
4-ary Walsh
functions,
BPSK
STANAG No Single-tone, 75, 150, 300, Convolutional,Convolutional
4285 BPSK, QPSK, 600, 1200, 0.853, 10.24 (133,171), 1/16,
8PSK 2400 1/8, 1/4,1/2,
2/3
STANAG No Single-tone, 75, 150, 300, Convolutional, Convolutional
4529 BPSK, QPSK, 600, 1200 1.706, 20.48 (133,171), 1/8,
8PSK 1/4,1/2, 2/3
STANAG Yes Single-tone, up to ~4400 No interleaver Convolutional
4538 BW2 8PSK (235, 275, 313,
357), 1/1 to 1/4
STANAG Yes Orthogonal up to ~573 Block-based, up Convolutional
4538 BW3 signals, 16-ary to 7.2 (133,171) 1/12
Walsh to 1/24
functions,
BPSK
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10.Development of HF modems communications. Given an arbitrary

requires deep knowledge of HF wireless communication system,
propagation specifics, comprehensive consider a link for which the
testing under simulated HF conditions transmitting end as well as the
and strong mathematical skill for receiving end is equipped with multiple
algorithm deployment. It is impossible antenna elements. Such a setup is
without using channel simulator illustrated in Fig. 1. The idea behind
software to model the impairments MIMO is that the signals on the
introduced by HF media as well as by transmit (Tx) antennas at one end and
associated communication equipment. the receive (Rx) antennas at the other
Also, porting such computationally end are “combined” in such a way that
intensive tasks onto the target DSP the quality (BER) or the data rate
platform (including fixed point (bits/sec) of the communication for
processors) is not a trivial thing. each MIMO user will be improved.

11.In recent times, much attention is

being paid to developments in the area 13.A core idea in MIMO systems is
of implementing the "turbo" principles space–time signal processing in which
in telecommunications. For example, time (the natural dimension of digital
using this principle in HF modems communication data) is complemented
allows us to give ultimate performance with the spatial dimension inherent in
and very fast tracking. Such complex the use of multiple spatially distributed
solutions as, for example, integration antennas. As such, MIMO systems
of the vocoder with the modem and can be viewed as an extension of the
use of source-coding principles allows so-called smart antennas, a popular
to significantly increase characteristics technology using antenna arrays for
of the voice / data transmission system improving wireless transmission. A key
as a whole. feature of MIMO systems is the ability
to turn multipath propagation,
traditionally a pitfall of wireless
A New Concept of MIMO Based HF transmission, into a benefit for the
Links user. MIMO effectively takes
advantage of random fading and when
12.Digital communication using available, multipath delay spread for
multiple-input–multiple output (MIMO), multiplying transfer rates. The prospect
sometimes called a “volume-to- of many orders of magnitude
volume” wireless link, has recently improvement in wireless
emerged as one of the most significant communication performance at no cost
technical breakthroughs in modern of extra spectrum (only hardware and

CHANNEL
‘H’
0010110 Coding Weighting / De mapping 0010110
Modulation Demodulation
Weighting / Mapping Decoding

N Txrs M Rxrs

Fig.1. Diagram of a MIMO wireless transmission system. The transmitter and receiver are equipped with multiple antenna
elements. Coding, modulation and mapping of the signals onto the antennas may be realized jointly or separately.
 5
complexity are added) is largely relies on the presence of rich multipath
responsible for the success of MIMO. which is needed to make the channel
As far as the fundamentals of MIMO spatially selective.
are concerned, they are clearly
explained in [3], an excellent tutorial 15.[4] brings out as to how MIMO
paper. Relevance of the technique to effectively exploits multipath, which is
HF data communications in the Indian present “in abundance” in the HF
Navy is however, the author’s own channel. Thus we can say that MIMO
contribution. It is also discussed as to and the HF channel are “Made For
how the HF channel and the MIMO Each Other”. MIMO exploits the
technique are made for each other, a “negativities” of the HF channel to its
trait which needs to be exploited for advantage. Another point brought
the naval requirement. For a complete home in [4] is that multipath is rich on
treatment, refer to [4]. ships and aircrafts because of the
densely packed equipment on the
14.A high-rate bit stream is external surfaces. This again aids
decomposed into N independent 1/N- MIMO. Thus, MIMO using HF
rate bit sequences which are then communications is best suited for the
transmitted simultaneously using N Navy. It has also been shown that the
antennas. The signals are launched minimum antenna spacing required by
and naturally mix together in the the MIMO technique is easily available
wireless channel as they use the same on ships / aircrafts for the HF band.
frequency spectrum. At the receiver,
after having identified the mixing
channel matrix through training Exploitation Of Near Vertical
symbols, the individual bit streams are Incidence (NVIS)S Antennas.
separated and estimated. A strong
analogy can be made with code- 16.NVIS as a concept was used in the
division multiple-access (CDMA) World War-2 by the Germans. The key
transmission in which multiple users concept is to facilitate HF
sharing the same time / frequency communications in the “Blind Zone” i.e.
channel are mixed upon transmission distances where the ground waves are
and recovered through their unique not able to reach; and the “Sky Waves”
codes. The concept of “Space Time have not yet reached after reflection
Codes” has been elaborately from the atmospheric layers. This
described in [3]. The advantage of translates (depending on the
MIMO is that the unique signatures of propagation and atmospheric
input streams (“virtual users”) are conditions) the zone from 100 kms to
provided by nature in a close-to- about 1000 kms.
orthogonal manner (depending
however on the fading correlation) 17.NVIS only works at frequencies
without frequency spreading, hence at from 2Mhz to 10Mhz. It is imperative
no cost of spectrum efficiency. Another that the signal must penetrate the D
advantage of MIMO is the ability to layer of the ionosphere, and also
jointly code and decode the multiple bounce off the F layer. Lower-
streams since those are intended to frequency signals will not penetrate the
the same user. Note that, unlike in D layer; higher frequencies will not
CDMA where user’s signatures are bounce off the F layer at the sharp
quasi-orthogonal by design, the angles of transmission! (Remember
separability of the MIMO channel the Maximum Useable Frequency, or
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MUF?). There are many conventional may not be suitable for the Navy on
designs for a NVIS antenna, one being account of the large distances
shown below. It is evident that this involved.
design, though suitable for the Army
 7

18.One design which has been

recently developed is shown below. It (a)Is my transmission detected
promises stealth. It is the Stealth ST- by the enemy?
940B, commercially available off the
shelf. It is primarily designed for the (b)Can the enemy make sense
Army. The unique design of the ST- out of my transmission? Can
940B provides for a hidden, almost the enemy estimate with a
undetectable presence of an efficient reasonable amount of accuracy
antenna system camouflaged as a the following parameters about
regular luggage roof rack. Compared my friendly transmitters /
with the traditional whip-type vehicle transmission; and in how much
antennas, the ST-940B gives an time does he come to that
additional 9dB of Omni-directional “reasonably accurate” estimate?
gain, even in regions with poor soil (i)Location.
conductivity. The roof rack has been (ii)Identity.
meticulously designed to become an
integral part of the antenna system. (iii)Content of the
The fully functional roof rack can also message.
be used for carrying almost any kind of (c)After analyzing the various
cargo. The shock-sensitive parameters of my friendly
components of the system are transmissions, can the enemy
protected by aircraft-type shock masquerade as a friend and in
absorbing vibro-frame. The micro- how much time?
processor controlled interface of the
Stealth ST-940B allows for flexibility in
connection with any type of mobile HF
transceiver.
Secure HF Communications.

19.The term “secure” would imply the

following aspects:
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(d)Do my forces receive friendly panacea of all problems? Well, this
transmissions accurately? How needs to be rigorously checked on
strong are my error correction priority.
mechanisms? Can I live with
Forward Error Correction (FEC)
even in the worst environmental 21.Accuracy of Transmission
and operational conditions or Forward Error Correction
would I need to resort to time- techniques are fairly strong and are
consuming ARQ protocols? evolving. Turbo-coding, seems to be
the “latest flavour” in town.
(e)Are my authentication Implementation of Automatic Repeat
mechanisms fool-proof? If not, Request (ARQ) has its own
what are its weaknesses and disadvantages. Considering the
how much time would it take for “satisfactory” performance (in terms of
the enemy to overcome the BER) of the 9600 bps (a “reasonably”
weaknesses of my fast speed) modems and the
authentication mechanisms? continuing improvement in FEC
(f)Can the messages be techniques, it is opined that FEC is the
repudiated? way to go!
(g)How rugged, pervasive and
versatile is my storage, recall 22.Authentication, Retrieval and Non-
and back-up infrastructure? repudiation That forms part under the
How rugged are my levels of purview of the cryptologist or network
authorities and privileges? security expert. Well, not exactly ! A
fair amount of work is underway in
20.Detection of transmission and “marrying the coding, modulation and
Masquerading Is the security aspects” and come to a
transmission detected by hostile forces composite scheme. This too, is one
or the enemy merely sees some area, where a national effort is
“noise” barely above the “ambient” required on priority since no literature
noise level? Here, MIMO seems to be would ever be in the open domain
a good option if the transmitted signal about such schemes. CDMA can be
is divided over a large number of considered to be the starting point for
widely dispersed antenna. The such schemes, where the transmission
antenna spacings calculated in [4] are can be de-coded only by the receiver
possible for the longitudinal and having a copy of the coding waveform.
transverse dimensions of present day It may also be noted that MIMO also
warships. The use of the Stealth NVIS employs what are known as “Space
antenna though limited to the Time Codes” which are known only to
frequencies (2 to 10 MHz) and the the concerned Rx-Tx stations pairs.
limited ranges (100 to 1000kms) This can also ensure a finite level of
mentioned above is not too restrictive “secrecy”
in the real sense. Evaluation of the
location, identity and content of the Conclusion
transmission would also be difficult in
case the transmission is not detected 23.HF is here to stay either as an
at all ! Masquerading by the enemy as independent entity or in conjunction
a friend would also not be possible. with terrestrial / space-based
Does it then mean that MIMO is the networks. MIMO for HF
communication seems to be a very
 9
attractive option and even more so for multi-path. A finite level of secrecy can
ships. The HF channel and MIMO also be delivered by the technique
seem to be made for each other. since it employs “Space Time Codes”.
MIMO technique requires multi-path There is an urgent requirement to
and fading; and the HF channel offers study the technique in detail. Analysis
it “on a platter” in abundance. Ships also needs to be carried out to look at
are even more suited for the technique ways of “marrying the coding,
because they have the required space modulation and security aspects” and
to house the multiple antennas; and come to a composite scheme. This
the dense superstructure contributes surely requires “networking” on a
additionally to the “much desired” national level.

REFERENCES

[1]John J Lemmon, Christopher J Behm, “Wideband HF Noise / Interference

Modeling Part 1: First Order Statistics”, NTIA Report 91-227.

[2]http://www.etools.de/software/telekommunikation/komponenten/hfcommunicationo
verview.htm

[3]D. Gesbert, M. Shafi, Da-shan Shiu, P. J. Smith, and A. Naguib,”From Theory to

Practice: An Overview of MIMO Space–Time Coded Wireless Systems”, IEEE J.
Select. Areas Commun., vol. 21, pp. 281-302, April 2003.

[4]Lt Cdr Shishir B Sahay, “Relevance of MIMO Space Time Coded Wireless
Systems To HF Communications in Indian Navy”, Proceedings, Conference on HF
Communications, Mar 2006, Naval EMC Cell, Mumbai, 2006.

Cdr Shishir B Sahay received his B Sc from the National Defence Academy, Pune
and BE from the Naval College of Engineering, Lonavla. Having completed his M
Tech in Communications from Indian Institute of Technology, Kanpur, he was a
faculty at the Institute of Armament Technology, Pune from 2002 to 05 where he was
teaching Information and Coding Theory, Probability Theory, Stochastic Processes,
Detection and Estimation Theory, Communications and DSP to graduate students.
His interests include design of data modems for the HF and under-water acoustic
channel, HF channel modeling and modeling of anti-aircraft gun and Fire Control
System. He has also attempted detection of surface vessels using statistical signal
processing techniques. Presently, he is posted at the Naval EMC Centre, Mumbai.