Autonomous cars are coming. When exactly, no one knows. There’s also many different opinions about how autonomous cars should be introduced. Will the infrastructure, technology and laws be in place to go from human drivers to fully autonomous cars in one leap, or will this changing of the technological guard be a gradual one? Engineering […]

For systems engineers, Systems Modeling Language (SysML) basically helps in representing system-related information in universally accepted dynamic diagrams. Before software, systems engineering requirements were documented in sets. In a small system that’s not too difficult to do without too many errors. But with larger systems that’s not an easy task. The advantage of Model-Based Systems […]

A common misconception about Model-Based System Engineering (MBSE) is that it replaces traditional systems engineering. It does not. It’s more like MBSE formalizes part of systems engineering. MBSE combines traditional methods and best practices with rigorous modeling techniques. In its purest form, MBSE is the formalized application of modeling to support system requirements, design, analysis, […]

Embedded systems run most of the machines and devices that we use every day. This includes cars, microwave ovens, washing machines, coffee machines, digital cameras and mobile phones. Machines and devices of embedded systems are architected around microcontrollers or larger microprocessors with external memory (peripherals for the most complex ones), and sometimes FPGAs (field programmable […]

Past generations of military personnel were forced to fight blindly in a battlespace. Battlefield events were orchestrated with couriers, signals and radios.  Troops essentially fought in a fog. Advances in technology have made battlespace scenarios much clearer, primarily through real time or nearly real time situational awareness. The military system that has made this possible is […]

The Controller Area Network (CAN) has become a de facto standard for automotive communications and it’s also having considerable impact in other industries where noise immunity and fault tolerance are more important than raw speed. CAN is a multi-master serial bus standard for connecting Electronic Control Units (ECUs) also known as nodes. For technologically forward […]

There are several forms and causes of degradation in electric signals, both in the time domain and in the physical domain, including runt pulse, voltage spike, jitter, wander, swim, drift, glitch, ringing, crosstalk, antenna effect and phase noise. The Joint Range Extension Applications Protocol (JREAP) was designed to provide a standard way to allow Link 16 and other critical tactical data link-based information to overcome line-of-sight […]

While the variable message format (VMF) is typically thought of as a ground force tactical data link (TDL), VMF will support whatever environment is desired. This is important, especially used in combination with the Link 16 TDL, a communications system that delivers crucial exchange of situational awareness among U.S., NATO and Coalition forces inside the […]

Tactical Data Links are secure military communication standards that exchange tactical data between platforms and commands. The “data link” term refers to all technologies, applications and messages packages used in the communication system. The military “tactical data link” term represents the data links used as support in military actions. Known data links were designed according to specific standards […]

Systems engineering is an inter-disciplinary field of engineering that focuses on how to design, manage and optimize complex engineering systems over their life cycles. Systems engineering deals with work-processes, optimization methods and risk management tools in such projects. Link 16 is an essential tactical data link (TDL) used by U.S., NATO and Coalition forces to make […]