After successful interoperability demonstrations, what's next for MORA-based systems?
Over the past several years, the Modular Open RF Architecture (MORA) has evolved to address the challenges of increasingly complex radio frequency (RF) systems through an open standards-based infrastructure. With several industry partners working together to develop a collaborative framework, MORA’s interoperability and modularity has been realized, resulting in successful demonstrations of multiple manufacturers’ technologies working together.
So, we asked some of our open standards partners: What’s next for MORA-based systems and the embedded computing community, now that interoperability demonstrations have been successfully deployed?
Contributor: Shaun Fischer, Division Vice President Business Development, Abaco Systems
Over the past several years, MORA’s evolution has demonstrated the power of open standards in solving the challenges presented by increasingly complex RF systems. The successful demonstration of MORA’s interoperability across multiple manufacturers' technologies is a significant achievement, underscoring the viability of open, modular architectures, but how do we continue to advance?
Moving forward, broader system integration is the key to unlocking MORA’s full capabilities. While initial demonstrations have focused on simple use cases, MORA has the potential to enhance more advanced applications, such as electronic warfare (EW) and signals intelligence (SIGINT). These areas present new opportunities to validate the architecture’s versatility and scalability. By expanding into these sectors, we can fully evaluate MORA’s potential across a variety of operational environments.
However, technical progress alone is not enough. Increasing the number of soldier touchpoints will be critical to refining MORA’s usability and effectiveness in the field. By capturing insights from those on the front lines, we can ensure that MORA-enabled systems are optimized for the conditions they’ll face during real-world operations.
In addition to expanding MORA’s scope, aligning its development with other key open standards, such as the Digital Voice and Radio Management efforts in the Sensor Open Systems Architecture™ (SOSA™) Technical Standard, will be essential. This alignment will allow MORA to extend its reach, providing greater cohesion across platforms and subsystems.
In summary, the future of MORA lies in broader system integration, expanded use cases, and deeper alignment with existing standards. By advancing these priorities, we will continue to push the boundaries of what’s possible within the embedded computing and RF communities.
Contributor: Lorin Sandler, Sr. Director of Applications Engineering, Epiq Solutions
We have seen the systems based on the SOSA Technical Standard begin to proliferate in the DoD space, and MORA is an integral part of this equation. MORA provides the standard interface to RF resources, defining resource discovery, capability profile, management, control, data, and context messaging.
Today, MORA provides the common interface to discover and operate an RF resource, but it does not yet offer the capability to run a higher-level application within an SDR Plug-In-Card (PIC) as an example. Future versions of MORA will support these mission-based applications within the PIC and will do so in such a way that a standard open interface definition is maintained.
Integrating applications will generate a higher density of functionality, thus lowering the SWaP of the system. Using MORA in the future will enable tighter integration without the typical restrictions of a vendor-locked proprietary architecture.
Moreover, we see tighter integration beyond the system chassis to other devices like radio heads, which can now be MORA devices. A digital radio head provides multiple advantages over an analog one, such as eliminating distribution over heavy RF coax. As a MORA interface is implemented on the digital radio head, it becomes a direct extension of the system and can be controlled by a standard MORA interface.
Contributor: Travis Doll, CEO/President, Sciens Innovations
With the community's increased MORA adoption, RF hardware interoperability is becoming more common, shifting focus further down the processing chain to the connection between MORA-aligned devices and applications to create mission systems. Exploring this connection has resulted in ongoing efforts to develop well-defined integration patterns between the MORA specification and existing DoD waveforms, other open architecture frameworks, and deployed user interfaces to expedite the fielding of interoperable capabilities.
This includes topics such as SDR solutions with tightly integrated waveform applications and capability solutions distributed across an RF payload and GPU or SBC. As for the next steps, we expect the community’s activities to continue to evolve the MORA specification through the rapid development of advanced capabilities made possible by well-defined interfaces that enable greater collaboration and partnering between disparate engineering teams while reducing the risk and investment costs.
Contributor: Ken Grob, Director, Embedded Technologies, Elma Electronic
The SOSA standard and the MOSA design approach continue to prove their utility. SOSA offers a rich set of boards that are interoperable, and when you actually see that you can do it, becomes a driver for time to market. We can integrate much more quickly than we could before. Add to that MORA, the de facto RF standard driven by the Army, and you have commonality across software modules that enable rapid technology insertion and accelerated deployment of new technology into the hands of the warfighter.
Putting the different components through a rigorous integration test helps us build a successful ecosystem of available elements that can deliver far more rapidly than anything that is built from scratch. The interoperability is key in this equation, and literally in line with the Modular Open System Approach. Through our interoperability demonstrations, we’re showing how quickly systems can be designed and deployed using the building blocks that are called out in the SOSA Technical Standard, including CMOSS and MORA.
For detailed information on how we collaborated, the webinar link below will give you more insight.
