Within militarized regions, reliable radio communication is crucial for coordinating maneuvers between military units. As more radios are used, the radio frequency spectrum becomes crowded with interfering signals. Currently, radio broadcast frequencies have to be manually configured. We have created a program which automates and optimizes this process. This will ensure clear communication in otherwise unusable environments. Our program runs on an Android smart phone which can be connected to a military radio, allowing the entire process to be executed on portable devices.

Our software pulls radio spectra from a military radio. With this data, a decision is made as to what radio frequencies are suitable for transmission. Friendly transmissions which are already in place on the air are detected, allowing the operator to tune into an existing radio network. If the radio operator wants to set up a new transmission on unused airspace, our program recommends a set of radio frequencies over which to broadcast, conforming to some minimal requirements specified by the user. The user can scroll through all available broadcasting recommendations and select one of these recommended frequencies on which to broadcast. Once the new broadcast is set up, other friendly radio operators can identify and tune to this same set of frequencies.

The algorithm used to generate broadcasting recommendations was coded separately from the Android user interface. Raytheon can easily reuse the algorithm’s code, allowing for future development of non-Android dependent versions.