NSWC Crane works alongside university to develop advanced spectrum sensing and channel estimation

NSWC Crane works alongside university to develop advanced spectrum sensing and channel estimation

By Emily Gray (ctr), NSWC Crane Corporate Communications

CRANE, Ind. -

Naval Surface Warfare Center, Crane Division (NSWC Crane), along with the University of Nebraska-Lincoln, is working on a Naval Engineering Education Consortium (NEEC) project focused on developing advanced spectrum sensing and channel estimation methods through machine learning algorithms.

NEEC combines the knowledge of the Naval engineering workforce with colleges and universities through project-based research. These projects offer students the opportunity to work with experts while targeting the Navy's most important technological needs.

Dr. James Stewart, Spectrum Warfare Systems Department's Chief Scientist, submitted the original idea looking for research proposals related to adaptive networks for dynamic spectrum and spatial environments. The University of Nebraska-Lincoln was selected to lead this research. The current project between the University of Nebraska-Lincoln and NSWC Crane is titled is titled "Deep Complex-valued Convolutional Neural Networks (DCCNN) for Joint Spectrum Sensing and Channel Estimation." This effort started in 2023 and is scheduled to be completed Spring 2025.

Dr. M.C. Vuran is the Dale M. Jensen Professor of Computing at the School of Computing, University of Nebraska-Lincoln. He is the principal investigator for the project and states the goal is to apply DCCNN to real-world application.

"Although applications of deep learning in the physical layer of wireless communication have shown remarkable performance, it is unclear whether these approaches can capture complex real-world scenarios," said Dr. Vuran. "This project focuses on spectrum monitoring with a novel deep learning approach (i.e., complex-valued neural networks) that has been shown to capture complex wireless signal representations and learn transformations in wireless signals without explicit modules. The goal of this project is to transform DCCNN from their infancy to practical operation for joint spectrum sensing and channel estimation."

Through this project, the team aims to help with restrictions that current military members face.

"The research, once realized and integrated into existing and emerging systems, will afford our warfighters with enhanced Electromagnetic Spectrum Operations (EMSO) related capabilities including Signature Management (SigMan), Electromagnetic Spectrum (EMS) concealment and other non-traditional offensive Electromagnetic Warfare (EW) concepts," said Dr. Stewart.

Since NEEC is a joint effort between universities and the Navy workforce, it allows the students participating to gain a better understanding of how their work will impact the end-user.

"The project personnel are regularly in contact with NSWC Crane through site visits. Moreover, annual meetings bring together participants from all NSWC-funded projects," said Dr. Vuran. "The personnel are exposed to a unique environment where concrete problems in dynamic spectrum sharing can be discussed. Furthermore, through the annual meetings, the students are provided with a big-picture view of the nationally strategic problems and unique approaches to these problems by their peers."

Sebastian Wysocki is the accelerated master's student working on the NEEC project with Dr. Vuran. While he is newer to the project, he looks forward to what the future holds for this kind of work.

"This has been an excellent experience in applying and broadening my knowledge of both machine learning processes and software-defined radios, and I'm excited to continue learning through this project," said Wysocki.

Sangwon Shin is a Ph.D. Student working alongside Wysocki and Dr. Vuran and says that working on this project is rewarding.

"Developing machine learning models for wireless communication signals has been a rare and rewarding experience," said Shin. "This project has the potential to revolutionize spectrum management, enabling dynamic spectrum sharing to address scarcity. I've learned how effectively machine learning can understand and optimize spectrum use, and I hope this technology becomes a new standard in wireless communications."

About NSWC Crane | NSWC Crane is a naval laboratory and a field activity of Naval Sea Systems Command (NAVSEA) with mission areas in Expeditionary Warfare, Strategic Missions and Electromagnetic Warfare. The warfare center is responsible for multi-domain, multi- spectral, full life cycle support of technologies and systems enhancing capability to today's Warfighter.

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