A flexible architecture for the design and test of automatic radio control systems

This paper describes a flexible radio system architecture suitable for the implementation and testing of an automatic radio control system (ARCS). As HF radio systems become more automated, the concept of ARCS has been introduced to embrace the functions of automatic channel selection (ACS), automatic link establishment (ALE) and automatic link maintenance (ALM). For such systems to be of worth over the HF channel it is necessary that they are able to adapt to prevailing channel conditions, and do so automatically. This leads to a requirement for a flexible radio architecture which can easily reconfigure itself in real time. The modular system described also allows separate system components to be independently designed and integrated. This offers the opportunity to easily test various system configurations and optimise the intelligence algorithms, as well as allowing for future expansion