Extending Operational Range Of MANET Radios With NuPower XtenderTM Bidirectional Amplifiers

Battlefield command and control operations for the field operator have evolved dramatically from early days of WWI utilizing vacuum tubes with a transmit range of 2000 yards to state of the art software define radios (SDR) that transmit voice and data simultaneously with ranges in the kilometers. Modern systems (Figure 1) operate on several platforms, one that is growing in popularity is Mobile Ad-Hoc Mesh Networking (MANET). MANET is an architecture utilizing multiple antennas that operates in the UHF to SHF bands (300- 6000MHz) with typical transmit output power range of 4-10W. To learn more, download the full application note.