| Hardware-in-the-loop
EW Environment Simulation refers to
injecting into an Electronic Warfare (EW) system
a realistic mix of pulsed and Continuous Wave
(CW) RF signals such as the system might
experience in a real-world radar environment.
Hardware units
that create such signal mixes are known as EW
Environment Generators or
simulators. They are indispensable tools
for developing and testing EW systems.
Varilog has over
twenty years of experience in EW environment
simulation with contributions ranging from
digital hardware design and embedded
processors to software development and full
simulator system integration and test.
We recently developed a revolutionary new
Digital Generation technology which breaks
some old signal fidelity barriers while
providing high total pulse densities in the
million-pulse-per-second range.
The VariGenTM Modeling
Advantage
With VariGenTM technology, an
EW analyst has at his disposal two powerful
techniques for emitter description: the
Basic Emitter Description Method, which is
suitable for most conventional radars, and the
Segmented Emitter Description method, which is
adequate to describe phased-array radars and
telemetry-type emitters exhibiting Pulse Code
Modulation.
The Basic
Method is intuitive, easy to use, and
allows efficient interaction with the key
parameters of an emitter mode all within a
single window. Using the Basic Method,
the analyst specifies the "type" of the
emitter mode with respect to primary domains
of PRI, RF, Scan, and Modulation on Pulse
(MOP). According to the type-selections
made, the editor software modifies the window
to show the other required or optional
parameters implied by the type-selections.
The Segmented
Emitter Description Method allows the
analyst to describe an individual emitter mode
as moving rapidly through various patterns of
PRI, RF, pulsewidth, and Scan. Scan
segments can be timed independently of
PRI/pulsewidth or RF segments or, upon hitting
their limits, can trigger transitions of the
non-scan segments. Conversely,
PRI/pulsewidth or RF segments can be set up to
make transitions based either on time or
number of pulses output and optionally can be
set to trigger scan segment transitions.
Individual scan segments can be oriented
relative to the host platform's body axes or
to a platform being tracked. Multiple
simultaneous beams are accommodated within the
framework. In addition, the framework
allows systematic description PCM-type PRI
patterns such as seen in weapon-associated
telemetry signals.
This method
provides a fully graphical, flowchart-like
presentation of the emitter, with which
the user interacts as though creating a block
diagram.
The Segmented
Emitter format makes it possible for a VariGenTM simulator to
create high-fidelity signal replicas of
Electronically Scanned (e.g., phased-array)
radars exhibiting complex behaviors consistent
with track-while-scan
functionality. Other radars using a
combination of mechanical scanning and
beam-steering in elevation, with coordinated
changes in PRI and pulsewidth, can also be
accurately modeled.
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