FY 17 Communications and Networking Discovery and Invention | Apply Online

Opportunity Summary:

The FY 17 Communications and Networking Discovery and Invention opportunity is a Department of Defense, Office of Naval Research (ONR 311) research solicitation aimed at pushing forward the communications and networking technologies that underpin the Navy's move toward network-centric operations. The premise is straightforward: modern Command and Control (C2) and decision-making only work as well as the communications fabric connecting sensors, commanders, shooters, and supporting forces. ONR is looking for advances that improve end-to-end connectivity, interoperability, survivability, security, and timeliness for mission-critical information exchange, especially in demanding operational settings where infrastructure may be absent or degraded and where spectrum, interference, mobility, and size/weight/power limitations are constant constraints.

The opportunity is framed around supporting the FORCEnet vision and the broader Sea Power 21 concept of getting the right information to the right place at the right time. In practical terms, that means research that can deliver high-throughput, robust communications across naval, joint, and coalition forces, from centralized operational command all the way out to the tactical edge. ONR emphasizes the diversity of platforms and environments involved, including manned and unmanned systems operating in space, terrestrial, and undersea domains, where real-world effects like multipath, atmospherics, contested spectrum, and interference complicate reliable networking.

For FY17, ONR specifically sought white papers for Exploratory Development/Applied Research efforts (budget category 6.2). The requested work targets measurable technology improvements that can be transitioned into systems supporting naval missions, not just theoretical studies. While the solicitation lists several priority topics, it also explicitly leaves the door open to innovative communications and networking ideas that fall outside those focus areas if they are clearly relevant to Navy and Marine Corps operational needs.

The first focus area calls for compact, deployable circularly polarized antennas for CubeSat communications, covering UHF, X-band, or Ka-band. The emphasis is on high radiation efficiency and an adaptive gain pattern, sized for multi-U CubeSat form factors. This reflects a need for small satellite communications hardware that can fit tight packaging constraints but still provide robust links, potentially accommodating varying mission geometries and link conditions through adaptive radiation patterns.

The second focus area is about achieving near-Shannon-limit wideband communications using multi-channel AESA pulsed radar hardware chains, including beamformers, transmit/receive modules, and antenna arrays. The idea is to enable high-bit-rate communications modes on hardware originally designed for radar, which introduces unique challenges such as operation with saturated, nonlinear power amplifiers. ONR highlights interest in new coding and modulation approaches that remain resilient under those non-ideal amplifier conditions, along with techniques that leverage pulse-to-pulse phase coherence and MIMO concepts to raise throughput and robustness.

The third focus area targets improved waveforms and diversity techniques for mobile troposcatter communications in roughly the C- through Ku-band range, including innovative tracking methods. A key practical constraint is that solutions should reuse existing apertures, minimize hardware impact, and allow modular upgrades. That language points to an interest in fieldable enhancements that can modernize existing troposcatter systems without requiring major redesigns, while still improving performance under mobility and challenging propagation conditions.

The fourth focus area seeks robust and throughput-efficient wireless medium access mechanisms for mobile low probability of intercept/low probability of detection (LPI/LPD) networking. The solicitation stresses operation in high dynamic range receive conditions and environments demanding high interference rejection, including concepts like spectral underlay. In other words, ONR is interested in MAC-layer and related network-access approaches that can keep networks functioning efficiently when signals are weak, adversaries or other emitters are strong, and stealthy or hard-to-detect operation is required.

The fifth focus area focuses on guaranteeing delivery of traffic across multi-hop ad hoc networks within specified latency bounds. This includes optimizing traffic based on multiple parameters such as priority, latency, and jitter, as well as multi-path TCP implementations that understand differing path characteristics and traffic priorities without harming application performance. It also includes store-and-forward and disruption-tolerant networking approaches that can operate across a cipher-text core, reflecting the reality that tactical networks can be intermittently connected, must remain secure end-to-end, and still need predictable performance for time-sensitive data.

Administrative details in the synopsis identify the opportunity as discretionary and indicate that awards may be made as grants or procurement contracts under CFDA 12.300. The funding opportunity number is N00014-16-S-BA11, with an original and current closing date of September 23, 2016. Eligibility is broadly described as "Others," with clarification referenced in the full announcement. The synopsis directs applicants to Grants.gov to access the complete announcement materials and instructions.

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