Monitoring,modelling and prediction of HF Spectral Occupancy over Cyprus

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The primary objective of the proposal is to establish a dedicated measurement system to provide effective measurement and analysis of HF spectral occupancy in Cyprus. The incentive for this initiative stems out of the well known fact that interference from legitimate users is one of the most common problems encountered in the use of the HF spectrum due to its long range transmission properties.

With the congested nature of the HF spectrum, where users with differing requirements compete for diminishing available bandwidth within the International Telecommunications Union (ITU) frequency allocations, there is strong motivation for developing an understanding and models for spectrum usage. Such models find application in both short-term forecasting of channel availability for communications applications, and for long-term prediction of HF spectrum usage for spectrum management and evaluation especially in the context of defence communication systems.

The research undertaken will involve an extensive investigation of the dependence of HF interference characteristics on various parameters such as signal threshold level, frequency, solar activity, filter bandwidth, time of day, season and signal elevation angle. Ultimately this effort aims to provide experimental data and to develop statistical, mathematical and possibly data-driven models that may be used in conjunction with frequency predictions to advise operators on typical interference occupancy levels and assist in the planning of frequency usage and management.

The results and the subsequent analysis of observations from continuous monitoring of HF spectrum occupancy over Cyprus will aid towards improved understanding of HF spectral characteristics over the Eastern Mediterranean region and especially of any systematic variations present.

  1. Economou L.V., Haralambous H., Pantjiaros C.A., Green P.R., Gott G.F., Laycock P.J., Bröms M. and Boberg S, Models of HF Spectral Occupancy over a Sunspot Cycle, IEE-Communications, 152 (6), Dec 2005, pp.980-988.
  2. Haralambous H, Papadopoulos H, Diurnal Neural Congestion Models for High-Frequency Broadcast Users IEEE Transactions on Broadcasting June 2009 Vol 55 pp 145-154.
  3. António Casimiro, Joaquim Azevedo, Lefteris Economou, Haris Haralambous, Ersin Tulunay, Yurdanur Tulunay, Yildirim Bahadirlar, A. Serdar Türk, E. Michael Warrington HF spectrum Occupancy and Antennas , Special Issue of Annals of Geophysics 2009 Vol 52 pp 339-357.
  4. Mostafa, Md G., Eleni Tsolaki, Haris Haralambous (2017). HF Spectral Occupancy Time Series Models Over the Eastern Mediterranean Region IEEE Transactions on Electromagnetic Compatibility 59.1 (2017): 240-248.
  5. H. Papadopoulos H (2017) 24-hour HF Spectral Occupancy Characteristics and Neural Network Modeling Over Northern Europe. (accepted for publication February 2017 in IEEE Transactions on Electromagnetic Compatibility).
  6. Economou L.V., Haralambous H., Pantjiaros C.A., Green P.R., Gott G.F., Laycock P.J., Bröms M. and Boberg S, Models of HF Spectral Occupancy over a Sunspot Cycle, IEE Int. Conf. HF Radio Systems and Techniques, pp. 7-12, 2003 July.
  7. Economou L.V., Haralambous H., Green P.R., Gott G.F., Laycock P.J., Bröms M. and Boberg S, Trends in the Utilisation of the HF Spectrum, IEE Int. Conf. HF Radio Systems and Techniques, pp. 222-227, July 2003.
  8. Economou L.V., Haralambous H., Green P.R., Gott G.F., Laycock P.J., Bröms M. and Boberg S, Aspects of HF spectral occupancy, IEE International Conference, HF Radio Systems and Techniques, pp. 367-372 Guildford UK, July 2000.
  9. Haralambous H, Papadopoulos H, Economou L.V Using Neural Networks for Predicting the Likelihood of Interference to Groundwave Users in the HF Spectrum International Conference on Engineering Applications of Neural Networks (EANN-07) August 2007 Salonica pp 200-209.
  10. Haralambous H, Papadopoulos H, Neural Network Prediction of HF Spectral Occupancy Nordic International HF Conference, (HF07) pp4.1-4.4.8 August 2007 Sweden.
  11. Haralambous, H. Papadopoulos, L. Economou Predicting the diurnal variation of HF spectral occupancy over Sweden 12th Ionospheric Effects Symposium (IES2008) pp 351-358 May 2008 Washington.
  12. Haralambous H, Papadopoulos H Short-term Forecasting of the Likelihood of Interference to Groundwave Users in the Lowest Part of the HF Spectrum 4th IEEE International Conference on Intelligent Systems (IS08) pp 17.17-17.21 September 2008
  13. Haralambous, L. Economou, Pantjiaros C.A, Christofi L. Monitoring of HF Spectral Occupancy in Cyprus, IET 11th International Conference on Ionospheric Radio Systems and Techniques (IRST)  pp 42-45 May 2009 Edinburgh.
  14. Papadopoulos and H. Haralambous. Predicting the Occupancy of the HF Amateur Service with Neural Network Ensembles Proceedings of the 19th International Conference on Artificial Neural Networks (ICANN2009), Part II, LNCS 5769, pp. 335-344. Springer, 2009. DOI: 10.1007/978-3-642-04277-5_34.
  15. H Haralambous,P Vryonides HF interference temporal and spectral characteristics over the eastern Mediterranean, 10th Communications International Conference, in Bucharest, Romania May 2014.
  16. Haralambous H, G. Mostafa, HF spectral occupancy over the eastern Mediterranean 14th Ionospheric Effects Symposium May 2015 Washington (IES2015)  Washington.
  17. . Haralambous, L. Economou, Pantjiaros C.A, Christofi L Monitoring of HF Spectral Occupancy in Cyprus: First results, APS/URSI Symposium Toronto 2010.
  18. . Haralambous, L. Economou, Vryonides P Monitoring of HF Spectral Occupancy over the Eastern Mediterranean, APS/URSI Symposium Chicago 2012.
  19. . Haralambous, L. Economou, Vryonides P Diurnal and seasonal variability of HF Spectral Occupancy over the eastern Mediterranean, APS/URSI Symposium Orlando USA 2013.
  20. . Haralambous, L. Economou, H Papadopoulos, Vryonides P Modelling HF Spectral Occupancy over the eastern Mediterranean, APS/URSI Symposium Orlando USA 2013.
  21. H Haralambous, L. Economou, M. Koutalianos HF Spectral occupancy over the Eastern mediterranean XXXI URSI General Assembly and Scientific Symposium of International Union of Radio Science August 2014 Beijing.
  22. Haralambous, L. Economou Developments on the analysis and modeling of the usage of the HF Spectrum within COST 296, European Geosciences Union General Assembly (EGU2009) April 2009 Vienna.

The project consists of 6 work packages:

WP1: Project management

WP2: Dissemination and exploitation of results

WP3: Installation of the monitoring system

WP4: Measurements across the whole spectrum

WP5: Parameter and model investigation

WP6: Development and access to the HF service

The main objective of the project is the installation of a HF spectral occupancy monitoring system that will initiate a novel service of added value to HF communication networks that can support critical functions like public information, humanitarian relief aid, disaster mitigation and military operations as a virtue of adequate performance merits at low cost and short deployment time.

The final output of this research is anticipated to enhance HF related services by studying extensively and consequently, mitigating the effect of interfering transmissions emanating from distant locations. As a result the complex undertaking of monitoring the usage and the degree of spectral congestion in the HF frequencies which is the main objective of this research proposal has economic, political, social and military elements associated to it.

Researchers

Dr. Haris Haralambous | Frederick Research Center
Dr. Photos Vrionides | Frederick Research Center
Dr. Harris Papadopoulos | Frederick Research Center
Dr. Michalis Makrominas | Frederick Research Center
Dr. Marios Lestas | Frederick Research Center

Lefteris Economou | Centre of Applied Research and Technology

Partners

Frederick Research Center
Centre of applied sciences and technology
Ministry of Defence