Spread Spectrum Telemetry Data System for Indy Car Racing

Spread Spectrum technology was given impetus in the USA with the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) allocating Instrumentation Scientific and Medical (IS&M) bands for commercial use. Many other countries provide band spectrum for this technology. The merits of this spreading technique provided system immunity to interference, jamming and multipath that provided the robustness needed in a telemetry data system required for a race car environment. A Time Division Multiple Access (TDMA) protocol with an High-Level Data Link Control (HDLC) format was the mechanism that provided an organized system of reliable and accurate data.