Vortex Radiometer for Wireless Communications

About this technology

Overview

Innovators at the NASA Glenn Research Center have developed the Vortex Radiometer (VR), an early-warning system for communication antennas that identifies atmospheric noise before it reaches the antenna and then optimizes mitigation strategies. Communication links are subject to atmospheric effects that reduce the signal power received at the antenna (i.e., a fade). If the atmospheric losses are too high, the signal level could drop below the minimum measurable power of the receiver, causing data loss across the communication link. Previous attempts to forewarn fading using predictive algorithms have yielded sub-optimal results largely because they rely on real-time performance data from the communications link itself, meaning they have very little time to respond. By contrast, NASA's VR constantly senses incoming noise, which allows real-time measurement and characterization of fading and enables maximization of data throughput.