Phase I of Army SBIR project will see the design of a scalable, high-fidelity LTE emulation system for tactical communications and mission command and control applications

WILMINGTON, Del., Aug. 29, 2018 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE): InterDigital (NASDAQ:IDCC), a mobile technology research and development company, today announced that its partner EpiSys Science, Inc. (EpiSci) has been awarded a contract to develop an Emulated Long Term Evolution (LTE) Analysis Environment from the U.S. Army Small Business Innovation Research (SBIR) program. Under this award, EpiSci will design a high-fidelity LTE/5G protocol modelling module for the Extended Mobile Ad hoc Network Emulator (EMANE) platform capable of deploying a full LTE architecture on self-contained commodity personal computer hardware, with assistance from InterDigital’s LTE expert team.

EMANE is an open-source modeling and simulation tool providing a low cost capability to rapidly conduct research and experimentation for a wide range of wireless network systems. Focused on link and physical layer connectivity, the EMANE platform can be experimentally subjected to the same conditions that will occur in real-world mobile, wireless network systems. As part of this project, InterDigital will initially provide technical assistance to EpiSci on the development of the baseline LTE/5G Physical (PHY) and medium access control (MAC) models in EMANE, as well as on the selection and integration of open-source LTE/5G higher-layer protocol models.

As the project progresses, InterDigital and EpiSci will significantly enhance the design of the LTE emulation system by developing and delivering the working emulation environment system with the following novel capabilities:

• LTE-capable EMANE PHY and MAC emulation operating within Virtual Machines (VMs) running on commodity PC equipment;
• Open Source LTE upper layer protocols instantiated within VMs and interfacing to EMANE emulation; and
• Scalability to multiple eNBs and hundreds of UEs.

EpiSci conducts high-risk, high-payoff research and develops innovative systems solutions for the defense, intelligence, and commercial industries. “For the last six years we have been developing breakthrough technology for the defense industry, and are delighted to be awarded this contract with the U.S. army,” said Dr. Bo Ryu, President at EpiSci. “With its experience in the development of wireless technology, we value InterDigital’s expertise, guidance and knowledge in the design of this technology.”

“We understand that bringing commercial wireless systems such as as 5G and LTE into a wide range of tactical communications is important for future needs. With our experience in developing operational LTE networks, we will support our partner EpiSci in the design of a LTE emulation system for the U.S. Army,” added William Lawton, Director Engineering at InterDigital.