UHF satellite broadcast to palm-top receiver display-a last mile solution

With a small, hand-held, palm-top receiver/LCD display, command and control, weather, hazard warnings, and common operational pictures may be conveniently presented and rapidly understood in context by deployed forces. Commercial information appliances based on palm-top products are in development, but military applications development lags, partly due to lack of a convenient delivery system. A major military problem continues to be the delivery of information to lowest echelons ("the last mile"). Currently, GBS receive equipment (size, weight, and cost) is incompatible with application to lowest echelons. A low cost equipment solution is required and this is best accomplished by using lower frequencies, such as UHF, for data delivery. Fortunately, a UHF receiver on a 3/spl times/5 inch card is not only feasible, but has already been developed by SPAWAR. This is the ENTR. The concept of integrating ENTR with a palm-top display is suggested as a universal military product with numerous applications. For ubiquitous, joint, global data delivery, a high power UHF satellite broadcast channel (EIRP >40 dBW) is suggested. The high power can support >64 kb/s delivery and data rate can be controlled to match G/T of addressed receivers. Such a channel is feasible for a GEO satellite such as the MUOS or the MEO GMSP (GPS replacement under study). Operational, schedule and cost advantages of the satellite broadcast channel and palm-top receiver-display are reviewed, including issues of technical feasibility and frequency management. Data would be broadcast without request, but return links for requesting data are discussed.