An advanced HF communications simulator

Propagation simulation tools, and in particular simulators, allow designers of HF communications systems to evaluate the performance of both novel and existing systems under specified propagation conditions. Simulation under controlled laboratory conditions allows objective comparisons of different techniques and implementations to be made over a wide range of communication scenarios without having to resort to long and potentially expensive trials. This paper presents a flexible architecture for an HF and jamming simulator (HFJS) which is being developed by the UK Defence Research Agency (DRA). The simulator is based on high performance digital signal processing (DSP) hardware and software. The system includes a narrow band simulator model and will also support new wideband models which are currently being researched. The simulator will also allow the effects of jamming on particular communication systems to be explored.