Wave Relay wireless data-link product

Wave Relay is the mobile ad hoc network (MANET) technology of Persistent Systems, used as a wireless data link between radios carried on aircraft, vehicles and people. It is a line-of-sight and multi-hop mesh link for command, telemetry, video and payload data, with the networking performed by the radios themselves rather than by a central controller.

The network is distributed, self-forming and self-healing. Every node takes part in the route calculation, so there is no controller whose loss would stop the network. When a node moves, fails or is jammed, the routing algorithm selects other paths from measured link performance and the traffic continues over them. For an unmanned aircraft this means a relay aircraft or a ground node can be added to extend coverage, and a lost link to one node does not by itself interrupt the data path to the others.

The maker states that the design targets large numbers of nodes in constant motion. Local changes in topology do not affect the whole network, and the maker reports no fixed architectural ceiling on the number of nodes in one network. Adding nodes increases the number of available paths, coverage and redundancy. Routing decisions are made thousands of times per second and aim to minimise the channel time each transmission occupies, since all nodes share the same wireless channel. The algorithm also uses reinforcement learning to adjust paths as link conditions change.

Several features matter for integrators of unmanned systems. When more than one Layer 3 gateway is available, for example cellular or satellite connections, the network can use all of them at once and chooses the best gateway separately for each data stream. Persistent Systems also describes an automated PACE scheme that routes traffic over RF or the Cloud Relay according to the throughput available. The radios re-optimise themselves as conditions change, so the operator does not need to reconfigure them in flight. Because the algorithm avoids degraded links without having to identify them as jammed, the network keeps working in electronic warfare conditions.

The Wave Relay product line covers the MPU5 dismount radio, embedded modules, integrated antenna series, vehicle radios and the multi-band tracking antenna for manned and unmanned air and ground platforms. All Wave Relay devices share the same RF signature, which the maker describes as low probability of attribution. Typical applications are command and control and sensor-data links for unmanned aircraft and ground vehicles, relay networks that extend range beyond line of sight, and tactical networks of mixed air, ground and surface assets.