Soliton antenna
A soliton antenna was a sensor device used for ship-to-ship tracking in hyperspace. It operated by detecting the soliton wave produced by vessels during a lightspeed jump. It is not clear whether it was possible to locate ships accurately with this device, or simply to observe when they moved between hyperspace and realspace, an event known as a soliton change.
The device could lose accuracy if it was not cooled down between uses, and the compression wave produced by the tracking ship could also obscure the signals from other vessels.
By 17 ABY, soliton antennae were in use aboard warships in the Imperial Core, such as the Gorath and Tobay of the Grand Imperial Navy. It is not clear if the New Republic had comparable technology.
Behind the scenes
The soliton and compression wave are both types of real-world waveform.