Increasing the Flow

1 Pages·2000·0.08 MB·English

by  NON

COMPUTER TECHNOLOGY
COMMERCIAL BENEFITS—SPINOFF
Increasing the Flow
E
verywhere you go people are looking
for increased bandwidth. Whether it
is a faster dial-up modem, digital
subscriber line (DSL), cable, or a wireless
connection, people want to transmit data as
fast as they can. The desire for faster data
transmission is greater nowhere else than at
NASA.
Seeking to increase the speed of wireless
communications for space missions, such as
the International Space Station and Earth
Science missions, NASA’s Glenn Research
SiCOM’s modulator and demodulator circuit cards offer
Center funded a series of Small Business Innova-
high-speed, wireless transmissions of data for satellite
tion Research (SBIR) contracts with SiCOM,
applications.
Inc., located in Scottsdale, Arizona. NASA has
since contracted with SiCOM to provide a radia- distribution, including high definition television
tion-hardened version of their original innovative (HDTV), multimedia broadcasting, and digital
modulator. NASA plans to make use of the tech- satellite news gathering (DSNG), as well as
nology for more efficient satellite-to-earth commu- terrestrial applications such as local multipoint
nications links in terms of more data per watt of distribution service (LMDS), Sonet/Synchronous
power, or more data through an assigned frequency Digital Hierarchy (SDH), fast Ethernet and gigabit
channel, or both. Ethernet links. These applications require a con-
The high-speed wireless digital modem, result- tinuous link, for which current SiCOM products
ing from the SBIR work, provided SiCOM with are designed.
the technology to develop a commercial line of The company claims to offer the broadest
circuit cards and Application-Specific Integrated feature set for ASIC-based solutions. The flexibil-
Circuit (ASIC) products. The programmability and ity provided by their chips can generate efficiency
choice of modulation makes SiCOM’s modem in many areas, including cost, transmission power,
products ideal for high-speed wireless data. spectrum use, antenna size or distance, or some
SiCOM’s products are on the leading edge of combination of any of these variables. This allows
high-speed, high-performance, and low-cost, communications link designers to make use of
digital wireless communications, enabling signifi- SiCOM products to meet the specific and unique
cant power and bandwidth efficiency in a single needs of varying applications.
integrated circuit. These advanced modems can be SiCOM continues to advance its technology to
used to transmit wireless data at over one Gbps provide improved value in communications link
(one billion bits per second) and allow users to designs. Specific concentration is on advanced
optimize performance by providing control of coding, modulation and demodulation coding
waveform shaping, symbol rates, code rates, techniques, and semiconductor processes. Also,
modulation order, pre-equalization, and post products for burst (packet) applications are under
equalization. development. SiCOM recently won a Defense
SiCOM’s technology has the potential to Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA)
increase link throughput by as much as 50 percent contract under the Next Generation Internet (NGI)
even through existing ground terminals and program to develop and demonstrate an OC-12
satellite transponders. SiCOM’s products are well- (622 Mbps) modem for wireless connectivity to
suited for satellite applications such as broadband DARPA’s SuperNet.
64 NASA SPINOFF 2000