History
TrellisWare Technologies, Inc. was spun off of ViaSat, Inc. in the fall of 2000 to commercialize advanced signal processing concepts pioneered there during the 1990s for ground-based communications. Beginning with Per-Survivor Processing (PSP) and Adaptive Iterative Detection (AID) concepts, the TrellisWare co-founders began developing a series of very advanced signal processing techniques specifically aimed at combating dramatic performance drops most communications system experience in harsher RF environments or at much higher data rates.
Throughout 2001 and 2002, TrellisWare added advanced turbo-like forward error correction (FEC) coding and highly efficient methods of single antenna interference cancellation to its list of products. Research into various situational awareness applications not only contributed to these products but also served to advance the maturity of the emerging theoretical techniques and aid in the exploration of methods for their practical implementation.
In late 2002, after presenting a paper at MILCOM on the advantages of trellis-based processing, TrellisWare was approached by one of the leading radio manufacturers to see if such advanced processing techniques could be applied to next generation military waveforms. Six months later, TrellisWare helped demonstrate the first Soldier Radio Waveform (SRW). Since then, SRW has become one of the most sought-after waveforms in the DoD’s Joint Tactical Radio System (JTRS) library and now includes several variants that operate at different data rates on a range of Software Defined Radio (SDR) platforms.
Over the years from 2002 to 2005, TrellisWare was the first and only company to discover how to incorporate very complex trellis-based processing techniques such as PSP and AID into practical products. TrellisWare took this talent and developed a set of advanced waveforms that optimized performance in high dynamics and multipath environments. Generically labeled “TopX”, for Topologically eXtreme applications, these waveforms consists of modern FEC codes including our own invention of extremely flexible codes, PSP and AID configurations, and optimized radio physical layer (PHY) design rules that enables TrellisWare waveforms to be optimized for almost any type of mission – from high speed aircraft, ground to air, ground to ground, and to urban and enclosed scenarios.
In parallel, TrellisWare’s FEC products kept expanding into high data rate Gbps designs as well as very high noise environments such as commercial HomePlug. Other high speed applications in need of robust, but inexpensive, receive technology were added to the portfolio including holographic storage, where the 2 dimensional holographic media creates challenges not unlike demanding wireless channels, and microwave and E-band point to point modems where the best of modern communications techniques have yet to be applied due to cost constraints.
By 2005, TrellisWare began experimenting with a second generation of TopX waveforms, dubbed TopX Gen 2, that were specifically designed to address cross-layer optimized PHY and MAC/Network layers for communications requiring faster environmental adaptations such as mobile mesh networking. Mobile mesh networking represents perhaps the most complex of communications challenges – addressing fast changing environments and rapid network routing decision making combined with latency sensitive applications such as voice and streaming video.
Starting in 2005, TrellisWare decided to add hardware developed in support of internal development and testing to its list of products, culminating in the development of a set of software-defined networking platforms capable of hosting a new level of advanced waveform. TW-Series SDR platforms are the first embodiment and proof that multicasting mobile mesh networking products are not only realizable but can simply deploy WiFi data rate coverage anywhere without relying on towers or access point infrastructure. TrellisWare is driving the future of communications – enabling connections when nothing else works.
