A practical approach for channel problem detection and adaptation in tactical radio systems

Soldier-based tactical radio systems in the battlefield have tendencies to be severely affected by various phenomenon such as signal jamming and environment deterioration. This is because many types of wireless handheld and manpack devices carried by soldiers may not have efficient algorithms or the hardware for adapting the device to these conditions. Taking on the advantage that most of these devices use software-defined radios but do not fully utilize its functionalities, we present channel quality estimation and channel adaptation algorithms that can solve the problems of these devices. We utilize simple and practical channel problem detection methods by constantly monitoring the channel quality parameters such as signal-to-interference-noise ratio and clear channel assessment value while inducing low overhead. Furthermore, we propose efficient channel adaptation methods that can quickly sense and avoid deteriorated channel conditions. Via the experimental studies, we implement our proposed scheme on actual testbeds and show that it can improve the performance and mission-criticality of the tactical networks.