The European Space Agency Tender

Directional Modulation (dm) Based Antenna Arrays Can Be Used To Control The Pattern Towards Main Directions Of Transmission/reception While Randomizing It In Any Other Direction. For Example, They Have Been Studied In The Communications Context To Improve The Secrecy Of A Transmission Without Changing The Transmitter Structure. Such Antennas Can Be Also Used To Receive Signals, In This Case, A Dm Process Has The Effect To Distort Any Undesired Signal (i.e., Rf Threat) Coming From Directions Other Than The Intended One With Potential Benefits In Terms Of Resilience Against Any Rf Threat.time Modulated (tm) Based Antenna Arrays Are Characterized By Radiated Patterns Controlled Via Variable-width Periodical Pulses Through Ab Network Of Rf Switches. One Of The Resulting Feature Is The Appearance Of Radiation Patterns At The Harmonic Frequencies Of Periodic Pulses, Together With Potential Exploitation Of Steerable Beams And Spatial/frequency Diversity. In Addition, A Significant Reduction In Hw Complexity Is Expected When Compared To Conventional Bf Networks. Tmas Are Also Interesting For Applications In Pnt Domains, Such As Smart Antennas And Crpas, Interference/spoofingdetection/mitigation, Multipath Suppression, Doa Estimation, And Multi-input/frequency Hybrid Positioning. They Can Be Used For Antenna Arrays Exploiting Novel Features For Pnt Applications, With Benefits In Terms Of Compact Form-factor, Low-cost, And Reduced Computational And Electrical Power, And May Pave The Way To Cheaper Implementation Against Bfn-based Solutions.the Concepts To Be Studied In The Activity Map Very Well With Proposed Strategic Guidelines, Such As The Inception Of New Concepts/services/features, And The Characterization Of Improvements In User Performance, Security And Resilience, Swap-c Reduction, And Hybrid/multi-system Pnt Approaches, Where Dm And Tm Concepts Have Not Yet Been Studied.this Activity Encompasses The Following Tasks:- State-of-the-art Reviewand Consolidation Of The Applications And Use Cases, And Definition Of The Operational Concepts.- Preliminary Dm/tm-based Receiving System Design For Pnt Applications.- Analysis Of Alternative Dm/tm-based Solutions/designs Coming From Relevant Or Promising Use Cases (e.g., Transmission/encryption, Etc.).- Modelling And Signal Processing Prototyping Via Sw Tools.- System Characterization And Performance Assessment Via Simulation.- Conclusions, Recommendations And Future Work.