Cognicom has been recognized by the U.S. Small Business Innovation Research (SBIR) program for its groundbreaking work in advanced, low-SWaP (size, weight, and power) communications and electronic warfare technologies.
Since 2022, Cognicom has won multiple competitive awards from the Department of Defense for research into ultra-secure, jam-resistant, and covert communication systems. Among the highlights:
A Phase II SOCOM award to develop the Nano Secure Radio (NSR) — a compact, software-defined radio designed for high-speed, low-detectability tactical communication.
Continued innovation through Navy projects like Advanced LPI/D Neptune Radio and PhantomMonitor, advancing wideband, AI-enhanced signal detection for complex operational environments.
These wins underscore Cognicom’s growing leadership in secure Software-Defined Radios (SDR) and its commitment to delivering cutting-edge solutions that keep U.S. forces connected in the most contested domains.
The concept of software-defined radio (SDR) has been around since the late 1980s with renewed interests every decade when technology makes leaps in signal processing and programmability.
The term “software-defined” covers a wide range of possibilities:
Ability to select, via software, different functionalities from a set of prebuilt features,
Ability to change, via software, functions or behaviors of the radio processing chain,
The implementation of partial or complete capabilities in “software”
The ultimate flexibility of SDRs offers
Future proofing hardware investment: enabling the piece of equipment to survive the test of time by allowing its core functions to be continuously updated
Technology consolidation: allowing disjoint designs, concepts, technologies to be hosted by the same hardware, minimizing costs, maintenance, space, etc.
Vendor lock avoidance: a single hardware platform that can be used by any vendor of unique signal processing functions, avoiding single-source supplier issues that lead to high costs, reduced quality, and diminished innovations.
Accelerated deployment: programmability and availably of flexible functions enable rapid deployment of newly invented, much needed functionality as demanded by the increasingly fast changing operational environments. New advancements can start making impacts in months instead of years.
Figure 1: Data/Signal Processing Chain for a Radio Network
Most SDRs support some programmable/adjustable aspects of the data flow in Figure 1, some more than others. Most of the programmability is concentrated on step #2 by using a programmable device such as a Field Programmable Gate Array (FPGA), a DSP device, or even a general-purpose processor paired with some low-level signal processing device. Allowing flexibility to steps #3 and #4 is, however, much more difficult, which is the reason most SDRs support a fixed setup for baseband/IF and RF frontend.
Cognicom Neptune SDRTM is a unique, true Software Defined Radio platform that offers programmability in all four areas in Figure 1:
Software-Defined Network with dynamic flow control, multiple traffic type supports
Programmable Capabilities for Advanced Signal Processing with high-performance, abundant resources
Flexible baseband and IF processing that allows adjustable sample rates, tunable IF frequencies, flexible interpolation/decimation filtering, and so on.
Dual Interchangeable RFEs with extremely wide instantaneous bandwidth (IBW) and a very wide tunable range for operational frequencies, coupled with support for TDD operations, dynamic gain controls for both TX and RX, feedback path for DPD implementation, and more.
Cognicom’s protected waveforms are advanced secure waveforms with best-in-class LPI/LPD/AJ capabilities built to ensure communication superiority while leveraging all hardware features offered by the Neptune SDRTM platform.
Scalable SATCOM DVBS2 Waveform
Cognicom’s DVBS2 implementation offers unsurpassed performance and scalability in symbol/sample/data rates, portability to different FPGA families, and a large set of statistics and controls available for both Space and Terrestrial/Aerial applications.
Software-Defined Routers
Cognicom’s FPGA-based routers are built with flexibility and scalability in mind: number of ports, throughput, traffic types, buffering capabilities, are all programmable.
Neptune SDRTM Formfactors: Handheld and Modular Payload
Cognicom’s Neptune SDRTM is currently available in two formfactors: battery-operated handheld for terrestrial portability and Modular Payload for vehicle mounting, especially on UxS’s.
