Sponsored by: Cohere Technologies
In the early days of wireless communication, Guglielmo Marconi demonstrated that invisible electromagnetic waves could carry information across vast distances, transforming human connectivity. Today, those same waves are being asked to do far more: not only to communicate, but to sense the physical world with radar-like precision—while remaining indistinguishable from ordinary cellular traffic. This dual capability, known as Integrated Sensing and Communications (ISAC), sits at the heart of emerging 6G visions and national security priorities.
In July, Cohere Technologies announced it had been awarded a $28 million contract funded by the FutureG Office within the U.S. Department of War (DoW) to develop a Multi-Waveform Radio Access Network (RAN) prototype specifically for mission-critical ISAC. The award, titled “Procurement of Multi-Waveform Radio Access Network (RAN) for Integrated Sensing and Communications (ISAC).” It aims to create a sovereign, software-based system that leverages existing and future commercial 5G/6G infrastructure to deliver persistent aerial and ground surveillance.
“ISAC is a mission-first priority for the U.S. Department of War to defend against drone swarms. Due to guidance from leadership to execute rapidly, we required a partner with the right technology ready today,” said Tom Rondeau, Principal Director for FutureG, OUSW(R&E). “As a proven innovator with a demonstrated ability to build multi-waveform platforms, Cohere Technologies offered a clear path that we could move on immediately. Their OTFS modulation carries information directly in the sensing domain, delivering massive communications and sensing performance advantages in high-Doppler environments. This solution rapidly delivers critical ISAC capabilities while building on our ‘innovate-first’ posture, demonstrating the tremendous opportunity for innovation brought by the FutureG Open Centralized Unit Distributed Unit (OCUDU) platform.”
At the core of Cohere’s approach is Pulsone™ Technology, powered by the Zak-Orthogonal Time Frequency and Space (Zak-OTFS) waveform. Unlike conventional Orthogonal Frequency-Division Multiplexing (OFDM) used in 4G and 5G—which operates in the time-frequency domain and requires additional overhead to add sensing—Zak-OTFS works natively in the Delay-Doppler domain. This is the same mathematical space that radar systems use to extract range (delay) and velocity (Doppler) information. The result is that communication signals themselves become high-resolution sensors, with zero dedicated sensing overhead.
A “Pulsone”—the fundamental carrier in this system—is described by Cohere as the fusion of a pulse and a tone, related through the Zak Transform. It maintains its shape under time or frequency shifts, making it particularly robust in high-mobility, high-Doppler environments such as those created by low-Earth-orbit satellites, hypersonic objects, or dense drone activity. Research and demonstrations associated with the technology have indicated advantages including approximately 4x better resolution in target detection, the ability to track 4x more simultaneous targets, and detection of smaller objects compared with OFDM-based approaches—all while supporting concurrent high-performance communications.
The multi-waveform prototype funded by the contract will run both traditional OFDM and Pulsone/Zak-OTFS on an open, extensible software stack (OCUDU). Key elements include a Mobile Test Platform for bi-static and multi-static sensing configurations, a Layered Inference Sensing system that converts raw Delay-Doppler data into real-time 3D tracks with classification and confidence scoring, and outdoor test environments supporting mono-static, bi-static, and multi-static operation. The system is designed for compliance with the FutureG OCUDU platform and Zero Trust security requirements.
“This ISAC contract from DoW represents a major milestone for Cohere and for the future of dual-use wireless technology,” said Ray Dolan, Chairman and CEO of Cohere Technologies. “By combining our Pulsone Technology with conventional Orthogonal Frequency-Division Multiplexing (OFDM) in a flexible, software-defined architecture, we can deliver high-performance sensing that is affordable, scalable, and operationally invisible—exactly what is needed to counter the growing threat of sophisticated drone and Unmanned Aerial Systems (UAS).” The operational concept is powerful in its simplicity: existing commercial cellular infrastructure becomes a network of “silent sentinels.”
Sensing activity occurs within commercial spectrum bands and appears indistinguishable from normal traffic, complicating adversarial detection or jamming. Primary defense applications include battlefield awareness, border security, and critical infrastructure protection. Parallel commercial opportunities identified in the program include Advanced Air Mobility, smart-city traffic management, and public safety.
This work builds on Cohere’s longer track record. Founded in 2011, the company holds extensive intellectual property in OTFS modulation and related Delay-Doppler techniques. Its Universal Spectrum Multiplier (USM) software has demonstrated spectral efficiency gains approaching 2x on existing 4G and 5G networks by applying Delay-Doppler channel modeling for improved multi-user MIMO and beam management—without requiring changes to handsets, radios, or antennas. USM and the newer Pulsone portfolio are designed to operate within Open RAN architectures and support emerging AI-RAN interfaces, aligning with broader industry efforts to move intelligence into the cloud and simplify network economics.
From a broader perspective, the award reflects the growing recognition that future wireless systems must serve both economic and security objectives. The FutureG Office’s emphasis on open, interoperable platforms and rapid innovation with industry partners illustrates one model for translating academic and commercial research into operational capability. Cohere’s participation in the OCUDU Ecosystem Foundation, hosted by the Linux Foundation, further embeds this work in collaborative, standards-aligned development.
As wireless networks evolve toward 6G, the ability to sense the environment as fluidly as they communicate will reshape everything from urban air mobility to resilient infrastructure. By turning the dense fabric of commercial cellular sites into a distributed sensing grid that remains operationally quiet, Cohere’s multi-waveform prototype offers a concrete step toward that future—one that prioritizes both performance and practicality.
“This ISAC project award validates Cohere’s long-term vision of building sovereign, future-proof wireless infrastructure that serves both national security and commercial markets,” Dolan noted.
