Minimising RF Detectability for Low Probability of Detection Communication

This paper describes the need for management of transmission powers in mobile land networks in order to achieve low probability of detection. It explores applicable work in topology control and presents sub-graph search, a localized search method for finding the topology with the lowest detectability footprint. It presents algorithms which can be applied to existing topology control techniques in order to minimise the probability of detection and evaluates them using demonstration and comparison to the sub-graph search method.

I. Introduction

In the military land domain, low probability of detection (LPD) communication is becoming critical as low cost electronic warfare support measure (ESM) systems continue to improve. It has been shown that decreasing transmission power will decrease the likelihood of detection [1]. In a mobile network, minimising transmission power while maintaining required network performance is not simple [2]. There is a large body of work in topology control on this problem, however, this work controls transmission power to reduce power consumption and interference; probability of detection is not considered. When considering the detectability of a network, transmission ranges overlap, resulting in a nonlinear relationship between detectability and transmission power. In vehicle mounted mobile ad-hoc networks (MANETs), where battery conservation is not as critical (as in a UAV, for example), topology control mechanisms which specifically seek to reduce probability of detection are more relevant. This paper pursues low probability of detection (LPD) by developing techniques that manipulate the detectability footprint of the network, i.e. the area in which the radiated power is above a detectable threshold.