In a report from the Swedish Defence Research Agency (FOI), Patrik Eliardsson, along with fellow researchers Erik Axell, Kristoffer Hägglund, and Gunnar Bark, describes how flexible frequency use could mean that the Swedish Armed Forces more frequently change frequencies and adapt their radio systems, instead of sticking to the same frequency.
– The transmitter needs to choose a frequency that is not in use. Therefore, it is essential that there are technologies to find an available frequency and that the receivers are also listening on that frequency, says Patrik Eliardsson, who is a research leader at FOI's Electronic Warfare Division in Linköping.
While civilian technology already uses similar systems, military systems need to be adapted to specific requirements, such as ensuring access to the correct spectrum under critical conditions and robustness against interference.
– But in military systems, there is rarely fixed infrastructure, but rather mobile units that move and are supposed to form a radio network. Therefore, a centralised solution is not as suitable, says Patrik Eliardsson.
The researchers emphasise that increased machine learning can help improve frequency allocation and reduce the risk of conflicts between users in the same spectrum. Multifunctional systems, which can perform several tasks with the same hardware, are a technology that the researchers believe could become interesting for the Swedish Armed Forces in the future.