Year
2006
Abstract
The proliferation of acts of terrorism across the international landscape poses increasing threat to vital nuclear and critical assets. Adversaries or terrorists are acquiring new technologies, increasing in sophistication and are expected to exploit any form of vulnerability. Intelligent probing and attacks can be expected across all forms of security including the wireless data and communication infrastructure used for security systems. A critical requirement for deployment of many security systems is a highly secure wireless technology manifesting stealth or covert operation suitable for either permanent or tactical deployment where operation without detection or interruption is important. The emergence of ultra wideband (UWB) spectrum technology as an alternative medium for wireless network communication offers many advantages over conventional narrowband and spread spectrum wireless communication. UWB also known as fast-frequency chirp is nonsinusoidal and sends information directly by transmitting tens or hundreds of millions of sub-nanosecond pulses without the use of mixing baseband information upon a sinusoidal carrier. UWB spreads its energy thinly over a vast spectrum and can operate at extremely low-power transmission within the noise floor where other forms of RF find it difficult or impossible to operate. UWB offers low probability of detection (LPD), low probability of interception (LPI) as well as anti-jamming (AJ) properties. The wideband nature of UWB also offers less susceptibility to fading and multipath effects. When the covert properties of UWB physical layer are combined with hardened encryption of the Advanced Encryption Standard (AES) an ultra-secure and encrypted wireless communication technology is created. Recently Sandia National Laboratories has adapted secure-encrypted UWB technology for operation and deployment as an IP compatible wireless network for security applications, this paper provides an overview and update of this work.