Astrapi Corporation
Member Since: 2019
Dallas TX 75252-8004
Telephone:
Email:
CEO:
Jerrold Prothero
CCO:
David Shaw
Business Focus:
Astrapi addresses communication channels (transportation layer) that are bandwidth and signal power constrained and susceptible to increasing amounts of signal interference and intentional jamming. By introducing a fundamentally new form of signal modulation, called Spiral Modulation, Astrapi has opened the door to pushing spectral efficiency far beyond what was previously viewed as the theoretical limit. This can provide 2X or greater improvements in occupied bandwidth, data throughput, signal power requirements, or any combination of these benefits. Spiral Modulation can also reduce latency as well as reduced SWaP-C. Astrapi is supported by $2.8 million in private and institutional investment, as well as over $1 million committed by the National Science Foundation (NSF), with additional funding from the U.S. Air Force. Astrapi has developed a single-channel Ettus N210 Software Defined Radio (SDR) implementation of spiral modulation in place, demonstrating modulation, synchronization, and demodulation, but not in real-time. We are now beginning work on our 2nd generation SDR using a Xilinx Zynq UtraScale+ RF SoC stand-alone 5-channel real-time implementation that will fully enable the capabilities of Spiral Modulation. Astrapi is executing a licensing model and seeks to strengthen technology partnerships across telecommunications sectors, including but not limited to satellite, terrestrial backhaul, smart devices, and Internet of Things (IoT) sensors. Defense applications include modems, radios and sensors enabling, Protected Tactical SATCOM/Waveforms, resilient SATCOM, UAV/UAS, ground systems, tactical radios, MANET, Multi-Domain Operations, LPI/LPD, among others.
Products/Services:
Astrapi was established to address bandwidth and power constrained communication channels that are susceptible to increasing signal interference and intentional jamming by licensing our proprietary Spiral Modulation. Astrapi has ten patents issued with more pending, including international coverage. Astrapi has developed a first generation, Spiral Modulation-enabled prototype, using a single-channel Ettus N210 Software Defined Radio (SDR) implementation demonstrating modulation, synchronization, and demodulation, but not in real-time. These results have been validated by the Southwest Research Institute (SwRI). We are now beginning work on our second generation SDR using a Xilinx Zynq UtraScale+ RF SoC stand-alone 5-channel real-time implementation that will fully enable the capabilities of Spiral Modulation. In addition, Astrapi has introduced a new software-based spectrum analyzer (SSA). This provides a previously unavailable capability for measuring the occupied bandwidth (OBW) and other characteristics of a spectrum in conditions that would otherwise require a hardware swept-tuned spectrum analyzer (HSTSA). This new capability facilitates analysis of the power spectral density (PSD) when the spectrum is continuously varying (non-stationary). Astrapi's Symbol Waveform Hopping (SWH) switches the symbol waveforms used to convey bits. This poses a much more difficult problem than frequency hopping for an adversary seeking to intercept a signal, because it is not sufficient to scan the spectrum looking for power. Instead, the adversary has to recognize a potentially very large set of unknown symbol waveforms, and determine which of these waveforms could have been in use during a particular symbol time.
Clients:
Astrapi's Spiral Modulation is a dual-use technology that serves global defense, commercial satellite, terrestrial wireless and Internet-of-Things communication networks.
Access to Contract Vehicles:
Astrapi has won both Phase I and Phase II National Science Foundation SBIR grants as well as an AFWERX Phase I. In addition, Astrapi is currently a member of both the Space Enterprise and National Spectrum Consortiums as a non-traditional, small business contractor. Two other Navy and one Army consortium memberships are under consideration.