Adaptive power control in frequency hopping VHF networksto reduce inter-network interference

Sammanfattning

The Swedish Armed Forces are going through a period of growth after a long time of gradual downsizing. The introduction of the Internet of Things and the rapid expansion of civilian wireless applications have created a substantial increase in demand for the available bandwidth. As a result, the frequency spectrum has become an increasingly contested and limited resource, leading to reduced exclusive access for military users. This recent growth, in combination with international cooperation, has significantly increased the Swedish Armed Forces demand for frequency spectrum. As the spectrum is limited, frequencies have to be reused between battalions. Spectral reuse introduces a significant risk of interference between radio systems. This work evaluates the link degradation caused by interference between military radio networks for two transmit power control methods, compared to a fixed transmit power baseline and a heuristic lower-bound solution. This is done in a two-network scenario for frequency-hopping networks in the very high frequency band. The results indicate that, in most scenarios, transmit power control can be used to decrease power consumption and improve stealth capability while maintaining link quality. Under specific conditions, link quality improves when transmit power control is implemented compared to fixed transmit power.