Digital modular radio (DMR) as a maritime/fixed Joint Tactical Radio System (JTRS)

Abstract

The definition for Joint Tactical Radio System (JTRS) compliance is continuing to evolve through refinement of the JTRS Joint Program Office (JPO) software communications architecture (SCA). Over the last 3 years, the Navy digital modular radio (DMR) program has solicited, evaluated, and selected a software defined radio, which must eventually evolve to be JTRS compliant. The need to replace legacy communications systems required the Navy to bear the risk that the system they selected would support an orderly migration to JTRS compliance. To reduce the risk, the Navy conducted open system architecture (OSA) evaluations during the selection process. These evaluations looked for specific architecture attributes that would enable a future transition to JTRS compliance. Program participation by the Navy's DMR contractor, Motorola, on JTRS Step 2B successfully demonstrated that DMR is indeed able to migrate to full JTRS compliance. As part of a JTRS Step 2B effort, Motorola assessed the DMR architecture against the SCA V.1.0 and modified the DMR implementation to develop a nearly JTRS SCA compliant DMR prototype. Evaluation confirms that migration to a JTRS SCA V2.0 complaint architecture is possible due largely to the extensible, open DMR architecture that is based on a distributed object computing software architecture. This paper addresses the Navy's DMR/OSA specifications exercising architecture flexibility and the Motorola JTRS Step 2B efforts.