3.4 Seamless Communications

3.4.1 Warfighter Needs

The seamless communications subarea facilitates several of the warfighters needs and capabilities, including Information Superiority, Joint Readiness and Logistics, Military Operations in Urban Terrain, and virtually all other JWSTP areas. Communication is the mechanism to achieve secure, reliable, timely, survivable, command and control and superior battlefield know-ledge. This subarea addresses technologies needed by the warfighter to obtain effective access to, and utilization of, global uninterrupted communications services. Seamless communications connotes assured, user-transparent, secure connectivity between globally dispersed sanctuary locations and positions in theater — down to the lowest echelon foot soldier or marine and to each ship and aircraft. This connectivity will be accomplished using a combination of U.S. government, foreign government, commercial infrastructures, and military surface- and space-based RF networks. A range of transmission media, bandwidths, signal specifications or standards, and protocols will be accommodated automatically by the networks. Voice and all types of data (e.g., text, graphics, imagery, video) will be handled within a uniform, information transport infrastructure. These technologies will provide the commander with high-capacity, flexible, tactical communications to serve all categories of users (including mobile) and satisfy the need for high-confidence communications with anyone regardless of system limitations throughout all phases of the battle.

3.4.2Overview

3.4.2.1 Goals and Timeframes. The goal of the seamless communications subarea is an affordable, survivable, self-managing, MLS communications system that provides the warfighter with user-transparent connectivity for voice and C²I systems data over the entire combat/garrison operational continuum. The warfighter must have the confidence and ability to communicate to whomever and wherever needed throughout the phases of the battle, with no attention to different operational levels of security. The system must fully support wideband and narrowband OTM C²I data/voice interconnections throughout a land battle zone at least 100 km deep and provide robust and seamless connectivity between ground, air, and naval elements of the coalition combat force dispersed over distances up to 200 km. Achieving this goal will require significant enhancement of tactical communications systems; development of automated, seamless, interfaces between tactical systems and between tactical and global communications systems; development of sophisticated new radio and antenna systems for the airborne and ground OTM portion of the warfighting force; the evolution of theater/global broadcast systems as an integral element of seamless communications; and the development of artificial intelligence tools for network planning, engineering, management, and operations. General, time-phased goals that represent the collective effort for seamless communications are provided in Table III-8. A roadmap that focuses on the linkages and key relationships associated with the corresponding DTOs is provided as Figure III-13.

3.4.2.2 Major Technical Challenges. Major technical challenges in this subarea include:

• Communications equipment interoperability in multivendor, multinetwork, joint/ combined force, and commercial environments.

• Framing protocol for tactical asynchronous transfer mode (ATM) links.

• Protocols for high-data-rate subscriber loops subject to sporadic disturbances (i.e., Narrowband Integrated Services Digital Network (N-ISDN) and Broadband ISDN (B-ISDN) loops supporting OTM airborne/surface/subsurface vehicles).

• Forward error correction for tactical ATM.

• Building a fully Internet-compliant, tactical packet network using legacy radios such as Single-Channel Ground and Airborne Radio System (SINCGARS).

• Integration of data and voice over low-bit-rate links.

• Heavy multipath and deep fade effects.

• Security.

• Development of network management and control protocols that can withstand the onset of federated and nonfederated jamming attacks.

• Increases in transmit efficiency and jam resistance.

• Development of conformal arrays for airborne and OTM antenna applications.

3.4.2.3 Related Federal and Private Sector Efforts. Extensive research that supports the goals of this subarea is being conducted by the telecommunications industry. The military is leveraging literally billions of dollars of commercial investments in achieving its objectives by active participation in standards bodies, promotion of commercial development, and appropriate DoD-specific research.

3.4.3S&T Investment Strategy

3.4.3.1 Technology Demonstrations.

Digital Battlefield Communications ATD (Army). The DBC ATD will exploit emerging commercial communications technologies to support multimedia communications in the highly mobile dynamic battlefield environment. These applications will require advances in communications bandwidth and extensions in "untethered" technology to provide the global reach expected by the warfighter of the 21st century. These will leverage services introduced to the commercial world and will supplement some and replace other legacy communications systems. The replaced legacy systems are those unable to keep pace with the military's rapidly increasing demand for communications capacity and global reach in support of split-based operations on a worldwide scale.

The Army will evolve an integrated communications infrastructure that uses commercial standards and protocols to achieve seamless global interoperability. This ATD, begun in 1995, introduced a wideband packet radio called the Surrogate Digital Radio. This radio was procured to add additional capacity to the Tactical Internet in TFXXI. Commercial ATM technology will be integrated into Area Common User Systems (ACUS) such as the Army's Mobile Subscriber Equipment (MSE) to provide "bandwidth on demand" to support multimedia information requirements of the 2d Armored Division in preparation for thorough warfighter evaluation in TFXXI. Continued laboratory experimentation by the services will be supported using DISN LES interconnections. The ATD will research DBS technology through a series of coordinated experiments intended to develop a GBS capability for the services. Through cooperation with the other service laboratories and with DARPA's BADD ACTD, Tri-Service experiments with GBS are planned for TFXXI and other joint exercises. Leveraging supporting 6.2 technology base efforts in the services, low-profile SATCOM antenna technology for military UHF, SHF, and commercial (C, Ku, X) SATCOM bands will be evaluated in OTM applications using various tactical platforms. MLS requirements will be met by the Tactical End-to-End Encryption Device (TEED). Commercial surface-based and satellite-based PCS technology will also be demonstrated in TFXXI to support the need for wireless access to the ACUS.

In order to extend ATM multimedia services to forward tactical units, a radio access point (RAP) will be prototyped and tested. The RAP uses a high-capacity trunk radio (HCTR) to provide OTM communications through a wideband airborne relay communications package to the ATM-enabled ACUS. These airborne relay packages will be developed and tested through a coordinated tri-service effort and will be coordinated with the DARO and DARPA for platform availability. The airborne relay package and the HCTR will be tested initially at a bandwidth of 45 Mbps and then at 155 Mbps OTM and 600 Mbps for stationary use. These bandwidths are required to support ATM trunks designed for multimedia tactical battle management systems and their embedded M&S components. In its post-ATD form, each airborne relay is required to support primary and hot backup links to multiple OTM RAPs. Applicable technologies identified through the commercial communications technology program and through the Army battlelabs' ACT II program will be inserted where appropriate into this ATD. The ATD will conclude in FY99 by supporting the Corps XXI advanced warfighter experiments (AWEs).

Information for the Warrior ATD (Air Force). This ATD's objective is to demonstrate multimedia C² information reachback from a deployed force to the National Command Authorities and stay-behind resources using a high-performance, multinational civil infrastructure. DoD and the allied ministries of defense have concluded that extremely wide bandwidth communications needed to support the next-generation mission planning and execution functions cannot be attained without reliance on the rapidly emerging global commercial infrastructure that includes undersea and land-based fiber optic cables and SATCOM communications. This specific demonstration will provide in-transit visibility for deployed Air Mobility Command aircraft to the Tanker-Airlift Control Center through this infrastructure. This requires (1) the integration of Air Force legacy RF transmission equipment, (2) the rapid integration of the DoD's communications network management and control functions into the civil infrastructure to produce a virtual private military network, (3) the ability to interact cooperatively with participating allied coalition nations using this infrastructure at ATM rates, and (4) development of a process whereby DoD can rapidly tap into prepositioned entry points in the commercial infrastructure to extend connectivity hundreds of miles into an area of conflict or crisis. The goal of this demonstration is to provide the capability to use, monitor, and manage assets across all these dissimilar networks and maintain interoperability within a deployed JTF. This effort will develop and demonstrate control algorithms to maintain connectivity within a dynamic deployed environment under wartime stress.

Secure Survivable Communications Network Phase II. This phase of the SSCN program will integrate commercial ATM switching technologies into the surface, tactical wideband communication networks to support the multimedia information needs of deployed elements of the Air Combat Command such as the AOC. A fieldable package will be developed to investigate and resolve the technical issues associated with integrating ATM into the typical environment of tactical transmission systems. The driving motivation is to eliminate the duplication in current network deployments and improve the warfighters' capability to easily manage the scarce bandwidth.

Speakeasy. Speakeasy is a joint service R&D program sponsored by the Air Force Rome Laboratory (RL), CECOM, and DARPA. Speakeasy is planned to be the services' next generation tactical radio. More than "just a radio," Speakeasy will be a Modular, Multifunction Information Transfer System (MMITS) with application outside the DoD and military. Speakeasy will offer federal and civil agencies the opportunity to gain wide interoperability, flexibility through reprogrammability, and economical advantage through a system wherein vendors of various products compete at the module level to provide required capability. Speakeasy is an attempt to create the "PC" of the radio world. The MMITS PC/workstation holds potential for many vendors, not just radio manufacturers. Memory, signal processing, software, test and instrumentation, routing/networking, media processing, I/O interfaces, vocoders, programmable filters, encoding/decoding, RF engineering, and many other technical disciplines have a part to play in such an information transfer system.

The Speakeasy Phase II (6.3a) R&D program is developing the architecture for a six-channel (four programmable channels, one GPS receive-only channel, one commercial cellular phone channel) multiband, multimode radio. It will result in six ADMs available in late FY99. These Speakeasy ADMs are being designed with a peripheral component interface (PCI) bus backplane and using Personal Computer Memory Card International Association (PCMCIA) format modules. The Speakeasy program employs a model-year build-and-test strategy that will provide prototypes with increasing capability starting with a year-one model in late 1996, followed by a model in late FY97, and another in late FY98. The final model will be available at the completion of the contract in FY99. Using this strategy, the Speakeasy program hopes for feedback from users to ensure that the final units available in late FY99 are nearly production ready. The final units are expected to be approximately 0.4 ft³ in size, weigh 30 pounds or less, draw no more than 60 watts, and be capable of being ruggedized for use in most military applications.

The Speakeasy radios will be capable of simultaneously operating over four channels, in bands anywhere in the continuous 2-MHz to 2-GHz range, employing waveforms that can be either instantly selected from memory or downloaded from floppy disk as needed, or reprogrammed over the air. The reprogrammable nature of Speakeasy will allow users to load any legacy or future waveform software. The following waveforms are being implemented: HF; HF modem; SINCGARS; HQ Iⅈ UHF SATCOM (and Demand Assignment Multiple Access (DAMA)); commercial (AMPS) cellular telephone (not part of the four programmable channels); air traffic control and civil aviation waveforms (VHF bands); a ~2-Mbps wireless packet waveform; GPS-receive capability (not part of the four programmable channels); an LPI/D waveform; and the Enhanced Position Location Reporting System (EPLRS) waveforms.

Technology Reinvestment Project. Under the DARPA TRP (dual-use applications), six projects have been initiated in the area of digital wireless communications and networking systems: Advanced Communications Engine; Defense Applications for a Multiple Path Beyond Line-of-Sight Communications Network; Digital Wireless Communications and Networking Systems Program; High-Speed Digital Wireless Battlefield Network; Miniature Filters for Wireless Networks; and a government/industry Digital Wireless Testbed. These projects directly complement efforts on going in the services and are being executed by service laboratories and centers.

Global Mobile Information Systems. DARPA initiated the GloMo program in 1995 to develop and demonstrate technologies that address the continuing advances in high-speed communication, signal processing, and miniaturization. These technologies open new opportunities for advancing the state of the art in mobile, wireless, multimedia information systems. The program supports a number of projects at various organizations ranging from concept development to prototype demonstration. The program results will be integrated into ongoing development programs in the services.

3.4.3.2 Technology Development. The services are jointly developing feeder technology to enable the conduct of 6.3A technology demonstrations and the ATDs discussed above. The design of new waveforms is being pursued to provide LPI capabilities for both surface and airborne applications. A joint program is developing HCTR technology for wide-bandwidth point-to-point and OTM operations. To support a worldwide reachback capability for a deployed joint force, the services are developing small, rapidly deployable SATCOM ground station technology, data compression techniques, techniques for ensuring seamless connectivity by incorporating commercial standards such as ATM, and when necessary, common standards such as DAMA.

To enable rapid information access by OTM surface, subsurface, and airborne vehicles, all services are working jointly in the area of optical phased array antennas for SATCOM and air-to-surface use. Army, Navy, and Air Force 6.2 project lines are integrating and evaluating commercial high-speed network technology and protocols such as synchronous optical network (SONET), IPng, and ATM for performance in tactical applications. The overriding goal is the seamless interconnection of heterogeneous tactical communications systems utilizing, to the maximum extent possible, commercial communications standards and protocols. A driving motivation is to provide the deployed forces with the same communication services that they used as part of their training in garrison. Participation in various commercial and industrial forums ensures current knowledge and immersion of military laboratory personnel in emerging commercial market standards and maximizes the chances to influence the development path of commercial products. Tactical multinet gateways to be fielded by the Army in TFXXI evolved by modification and enhancement of COTS routing products, allowing ATM- and non-ATM-based networks to seamlessly exchange multimedia applications data. Hierarchical video routing will be investigated to automatically route limited resolution battlefield imagery to users with constrained bandwidth while, at the same time, allowing users with adequate bandwidth full-resolution video services.

A long-term focus of the technology base will be to provide dynamic and fault tolerant protocol functionality to enhance battlefield survivability and improve operations OTM. Dynamic network reconfiguration without user intervention will be required at all levels. Broadcast services over ATM, hierarchical video routing, and mobile, multicast IPs will be developed for integration into the Army's DBC ATD, the Navy's Tactical Internetworking Joint ATD for Littoral and Expeditionary Warfare, and the Air Force's Information for the Warrior Program. In later years, protocol enhancements for large networks will be evaluated for application to the next-generation joint military communications architecture. Lastly, all services are actively participating in the DISA/DARPA joint program initiative called the LES that provides wideband connectivity among all participants. All services will shortly be interconnected via the LES infrastructure and will be able to conduct joint experiments and share developments in a way never before possible.

3.4.3.3 Basic Research. The services support a broad spectrum of basic research topics in the seamless communications subarea including:

• Network-based simulation

• LPI/D waveform design

• Quality-of-service-based protocols for mobile environments

• Multitiered network structures

• Dynamically adapting protocols

• Multidimensional routing functions

• Metrics for network assessment and evaluation.