INDUSTRY-LEADING SPECTRUM EXPERTS
Electromagnetic spectrum access has always been an imperative for military operations. The increasing number of DoD spectrum dependent-systems — coupled with the global wireless broadband industry’s demand for spectrum — has made access increasingly complex. Adversarial fielding of electronic attack and cyber technologies further compound the complexity.
With more than 65 years of experience across the lifecycle of spectrum-dependent systems, we are a proven leader in spectrum management and electromagnetic engineering. Our experts help the Armed Forces, the Department of Commerce, the intelligence community, other government agencies, and private companies optimize use of the electromagnetic environment, including resolving spectrum-sharing issues associated with the introduction of new radiating systems into already heavily congested co-platform, test, and contested environments.
OUR SPECTRUM SOLUTIONS
SPECTRUM
POLICY
Our regulatory and legislative expertise provides clients with the insight they need to make the right move, including support to senior government decision-makers dealing with intricate domestic and international policy issues.
SPECTRUM ENGINEERING
With expertise across a range of domains and technologies, our deep bench of engineers are a force multiplier for agents engaged in the complex activities necessary to ensure access and effective and efficient use of the RF spectrum.
INFORMATION & AUTOMATION
Our knowledge and suite of RF parametric data and physics-based propagation information and models enable geo-characterization and aggregation of interference mechanisms for performance predictions and sharing recommendations.
MEASUREMENT & MONITORING
Alion’s world-class test, monitoring, and measurement capabilities — coupled with state-of-the-art analytical tools — provide unrivaled RF design and investment decision support, plus interference prediction and mitigation.
FEATURED WORK
TIREM RF MODELING
Alion’s Terrain Integrated Rough Earth Model (TIREM) lets DoD and commercial customers forecast radio frequency (RF) propagation loss over irregular terrain and seawater for ground-based and air-borne transmitters and receivers. Alion scientists and engineers have been enhancing and maintaining TIREM since creating it in 1967.
CLUTTER MODEL APPROACH
Alion is developing Propagation and Clutter Modeling Analysis (PACMAN), a new integrated model approach to help coordinate between the telecommunications industry (LTE and 5G providers) and the U.S. government. As part of this work, we have expedited early expansion to the AWS-3 bands, while continuing to protect DoD systems from harmful interference with increased accuracy, by modeling site-specific effects of clutter. Our approach provides an innovative, band-agnostic solution to clutter modeling that will benefit future bi-directional spectrum sharing analyses and build the foundation upon which a dynamic spectrum allocation engine could be developed to optimize shared spectrum use.
COMMERCIAL REGULATORY PERMISSIONS
Alion played a key role in securing the regulatory permissions required for a private company that plans to deploy commercial broadband services in the U.S. — including in under-serviced rural areas — through low-Earth orbit satellite systems. We determined the appropriate operational parameters to avoid interference with existing systems and provided analysis and advice to advance the filings.
SOFTWARE-DEFINED RADIO DESIGN & PROTOTYPE DEVELOPMENT
Alion RF engineers have used a wide variety of software-defined radios (SDRs) and built SDRs using Zylinq 7000 and Zynq UltraScale+ system-on-a-chip (SoC), with the ability to generate complex waveforms, such as Standard Common Data Link (STD-CDL). Our design process uses both the HDL Coder and Embedded Coder to target Xilinx FPGAs and the Xilinx Zynq SoC family of parts, permitting floating point operations within the same FPGA part for rapid data transfer between the Advanced Reduced Instruction Set Compatible Machine (ARM) processing system and FPGA programmable logic, for complex algorithm implementation.
EMERGING SPECTRUM TECHNOLOGY
Advanced spectrum technology must be integrated into the DoD’s spectrum-dependent systems for enhanced access and efficiency in congested and contested electromagnetic environments. Alion is a key and active partner in formally chartered advanced technology and policy/regulatory working groups. We have developed models and hardware in-the-loop simulations that allow us to provide advice on spectrum strategy and tactics as well as enhance understanding of the affects of emerging spectrum technologies in real-world scenarios.
The Alion Spectrum Operations Center in Maryland includes a spectrum-sharing laboratory, which focuses on algorithm development and RF signals processing. Lab personnel work cooperatively with industry, researchers, and academia to design and test new technologies — such as FPGAs and systems-on-a-chip, MIMO, advanced sensors, and machine learning — that can increase access, improve spectrum awareness, and advance spectrum sharing.
MEET OUR BUSINESS LEADERS
Alan Dietrich, Senior Vice President
Al Dietrich assumed the role of senior vice president and group manager for Alion’s Rapid Solutions Group (RSG) in January 2018, following more than a year of success in his previous role as the deputy group manager for the company’s Distributed Simulation Group (DSG). In his role as RSG group manager, Al is responsible for overseeing all aspects of Alion’s ISR and systems engineering and integration work.
To learn more about Alion's spectrum solutions, contact us today.
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