Mar 25, 2004 12:00 PM, Glenn Bischoff

LAS VEGAS-- Adapt4 introduced the Phantom Radio, a cognitive radio that operates in the 217-220 MHz band under a nationwide FCC secondary user license, said Paul Greenis, Adapt4's president. "It's a standard license, not an R&D license," Greenis said. Currently, only a fixed version of the radio is available, but Greenis said a mobile version would be available before the end of the year.

The radio is data-only at this point, but Greenis said Adapt4 would add a voice-over-IP capability "early in the fourth quarter, probably." Data throughputs currently are 40 kb/s, good enough to provide frame video. The radio is targeted to the critical infrastructure and homeland security sectors as a security device. "With a motion sensor and a camera, a public utility could capture an event and relay the information back to a command center over the Phantom Radio," Greenis said, adding that Adapt4 anticipates data throughputs of 256 kb/s in the "next 18 months."

The radio uses "dynamic frequency selection" to avoid interfering with primary license holders, Greenis said. "It's ideal for urban areas where there aren't a lot of channels," he said, adding that the Phantom is "hack resistant and jam proof." As the radio moves continuously from channel to channel, a hub senses the movement and downloads the intelligence the radio needs to operate over the airwaves. "It moves so quickly from channel to channel that you can't listen in and you can't jam it. It's gone in the blink of an eye," Greenis said. Because of this capability, the radio also will be targeted to the military, which has a significant desire and need to protect troop movements. "This will help protect soldiers in the field," Greenis said.

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