The Evolution of Untethered Communications (1997) / Chapter Skim
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3 COMMERCIAL-DEFENSE SYNERGY IN WIRELESS COMMUNICATIONS
3 COMMERCIAL-DEFENSE SYNERGY IN WIRELESS COMMUNICATIONS
Pages 108-148
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From page 108... ...
This chapter examines how this synergistic process might be leveraged to meet future military needs in untethered communications. Section 3.1 provides a brief overview of military use of commercial wireless products.
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From page 109... ...
Section 3.4 examines three broad issues that need to be addressed in the design of future wireless systems for defense applications. Section 3.5 reviews the relevant defense technology policy issues.
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From page 110... ...
The military uses a variety of commercial systems, including satellites developed in the mid-1970s to transfer weather data to computer processing centers and disseminate the processed data; commercial satellites and land-based services to transport military-encrypted communications links; VSAT networks operating over commercial satellites to disseminate logistical and weather data; satellite video teleconferencing networks to provide training and distance learning to the National Guard and reserve units and for telemedicine applications; and accessmanagement approaches such as TDMA. The ongoing synergy between the commercial and defense sectors is readily apparent in satellite communications.
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From page 111... ...
Second, commercial approaches to R&D reduce cycle time such that advances in technical performance can be integrated into field operations in a timely manner. The DOD therefore has both economic and functional reasons to adopt commercial products and approaches when they meet or could be adapted to meet defense communications requirements.
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From page 112... ...
The largest DOD acquisition of communications equipment is the SINCGARS radio: The DOD has purchased 75,000 units over 10
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From page 113... ...
The fifth subsection reviews how cycle time can be reduced, thereby moving technical advances into the field quickly and also lowering costs over the life of a product. 3.2.1 Design Reuse Commercial communications equipment typically is produced with a basic design that has a 2- to 5-year life span.
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From page 114... ...
Some efforts have been made to create software libraries for reuse. Increased reliance on common building blocks could significantly reduce design cycle time (see Section 3.2.5~.
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From page 115... ...
Cost management is practiced throughout the design and production of commercial products. For example, production volume typically needs to be known before detailed designs can be completed.
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From page 116... ...
After approximately one year of production, experience with field failures often has produced the feedback necessary to eliminate most design defects, reduce manufacturing defects to a level consistent with the current state of the art, ancr generally achieve the best product possible within price constraints. Consumers rarely, if ever, pay for the maintenance or repair of lowcost communications equipment.
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From page 117... ...
The additional maintenance costs associated with traditional defense acquisition could be reduced if manufacturers who can efficiently analyze all field failures, suggest redesign enhancements, and redesign components and modules to enhance cost effectiveness and other featuresprovided for maintenance and logistics support when appropriate. In addition, a reevaluation of military equipment maintenance practices may be warranted in light of the capabilities of advanced communications and transportation systems.
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From page 118... ...
This environment fosters the introduction of new and improved technologies at a very rapid pace, often at a low incremental cost to consumers. Companies gain additional reductions in cycle time by designing products to accommodate new features on each new production run, often every six months.3 These advanced commercial technologies are then available for rapid insertion into commercial or defense applications.
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From page 119... ...
There are additional concerns regarding industry's current capability to meet the unique requirements of some military systems. In the wake of cutbacks in some procurement programs, many defense communications suppliers have begun to develop a commercial orientation to preserve their technology and manufacturing base.
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From page 120... ...
Any weaknesses in the commercial communications infrastructure might be vulnerable to similar exploitation. One solution is to use communications equipment that is unavailable to potential adversaries.
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From page 121... ...
But commercial communications services are rarely based on the most advanced technology available. Rather, providers deploy technology based primarily on its cost effectiveness and affordability, that is, whether customers are willing to pay for the capability.6 Over time, production volumes increase and costs decline, but the initial costs of an advanced technology can be a barrier to its commercial application.
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From page 122... ...
Consumer products such as telephones are designed to survive reasonable levels of wear and tear and perform under moderate environmental conditions. 3.3.2.2 Quality and Testing Military communications equipment can be highly complex and pose difficult testing and diagnostic challenges.
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From page 123... ...
As a result, most of the environmental qualification tests for a car radio are actually comparable to tests conducted on a high-performance Navy jet fighter. As a result of these trends, some commercial products may be tested thoroughly enough to meet defense needs without further testing under military conditions.
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From page 124... ...
can offer tremendous cost and performance advantages. It remains crucial, however, to provide militarygrade security when using cellular communications or other wireless data services; such security measures need to be interoperable with the U.S.based military communications infrastructure, including the Secure Terminal Unit III (STU III; the government standard in secure telephony)
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From page 125... ...
3.4 DESIGNING WIRELESS SYSTEMS FOR MILITARY APPLICATIONS As noted previously in this report, some features required in defense communications equipment are not generally available in standard communications products and could be difficult to add. Some advanced features, such as LPD/I and AT waveforms, interoperability with the DOD's nearly two dozen legacy waveforms, or highly specialized spreading waveforms, may be attainable only in specialized military systems such as the SpeakEASY software radio.
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From page 126... ...
However, many commercial designs, such as the following eight examples, could have military applications. These designs would need to be analyzed and perhaps modified before their application to military systems.
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From page 127... ...
They are also suited to wireless local-loop applications because the round-trip delay is under 2 milliseconds, the quality of speech is comparable to that for wired services, and the short distances between hub stations and users generally result in low fade levels. Given these features, low-tier technologies could play a role in military communications.
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From page 128... ...
The frequencies involved are the 18-19 GHz band, known as the digital electronic message exchange; the 27.5-30 GHz band, known as the local multipoint distribution system (LMDS) , which is used in some locations as a one-way television delivery system ("wireless cabled; and the 38-40 GHz band, which can be used for line-of-sight (LOS)
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From page 129... ...
3.4.1.2 Bandwidth Requirements Battlefield communications currently consist mostly of voice and a very limited amount of text-message traffic. Communications equipment is not broadly available to individual soldiers below the noncommissioned officer ranks.~4 Approximately 10 percent of soldiers now have voice communications, and only satellites, certain aircraft, and smart missiles carry sensors for still imagery or video.
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From page 130... ...
Wideband applications such as remote surveillance systems are becoming common in the industrial sector, and video-on-demand and video games are potential commercial markets. But unless substantial markets emerge for high-bandwidth services, the commercial sector will be slow to produce high-bandwidth wireless communications products that exploit the results of the third-generation R&D efforts described in Chapter 1.
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From page 131... ...
3.4.1.3 Source Coding In current voice coding technology, speech is compressed with many different compression algorithms to bit rates ranging from 300 to 64,000 bps. Voice quality and compression factors have improved over two decades of research to the point that, in moving voice traffic, linear predictive coding (LPC)
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From page 132... ...
(Commercial-defense synergy is a tradition in source coding, as described in Box 3-3.) Image coding and video source coding technologies can compress a typical still image by a ratio of up to 100 to 1; newer technologies offer up to four times the compression of deployed systems.
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From page 133... ...
Continued improvements in source coding technologies are needed so that the bit rate required for faithful reproduction of information can be limited and the DOD can control the growth of its bandwidth requirements. An additional concern is the vulnerability of commercial source codes to jamming, an issue that could be addressed by research on adaptive waveforms.
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From page 134... ...
Commercial and defense communications networks face different threats. Commercial providers are most concerned about the fraudulent use (theft)
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From page 135... ...
A determined electronic attack on a military communications network could not be countered by any existing commercial equipment or any simple modifications to such equipment. Furthermore, it is unlikely that any future commercial system could satisfy military AT requirements to the degree offered by defense-unique systems.
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From page 136... ...
, and fiber-optic networks, all addressing and signaling information is left unprotected so that switching or routing equipment can also read and interpret addressing, routing priorities, and other information contained in the headers. Commercial service providers are not expected to expend significant resources to harden commercial infrastructures against attack, although they want to prevent losses resulting from fraud.
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From page 137... ...
There are more than 17 different U.S. defense communications networks, and the sharing of messages among them requires the deployment of many unique information gateways or bridges.
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From page 138... ...
The military version is intended to enable interoperability among defense networks, reduce logistics support costs, and provide the capability to add new functions to fielded equipment through software updates.~9 The commercial work is driven by the need to accommodate the large number of standards used in mobile telephony. The design of common hardware for a wide range of applications would offer convenience to consumers and simplify manufacturing; however, the ultimate popularity of these systems will depend on whether they prove to be cost competitive with multiple dedicated implementations.
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From page 139... ...
The increased availability, utility, and power of radio devices will create a new paradigm for military communications (see Table 3-2~. 3.4.3.2 Co-Site Interference Co-site interference, which is already a problem for military communications platforms, will worsen with the introduction of multimode, multiband radios unless new mitigation approaches are developed.
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From page 140... ...
New features and upgrades are implemented in software, with "few" hardware changes required. Communications network.
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From page 141... ...
Because of the unique conditions on military communications platforms, R&D in this area will likely need to be supported by the DOD. 3.5 DEFENSE TECHNOLOGY POLICY ISSUES The government influences private-sector technology development in a variety of ways.
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From page 142... ...
Future conflicts are likely to be "come as you are," and communications infrastructures will need to support immediate action. The recognition of this need has heightened interest in "instant infrastructures" based on satellite communications and mobile elements.
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From page 143... ...
For example, cellular infrastructure is difficult to hide and could easily be targeted for sabotage. Although stealth and LED are not always critical to defense communications, steps need to be taken to prevent adversaries
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From page 144... ...
3.6 SUMMARY The DOD has many reasons to use commercial communications products and practices whenever possible, building on a long tradition of
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From page 145... ...
The economies of scale achieved in mass production provide additional benefits and lessons that can also be exploited by the military. The selective use of commercial products and practices in DOD systems could help accommodate growing needs for global, untethered communications systems in spite of declining defense budgets.
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From page 146... ...
More precisely, throughout the design, fabrication, and deployment of commercial products, trade-offs are made among performance requirements, standards requirements, cost goals, and design approaches to define a product that would be the most attractive and competitive in the marketplace. International, national, and regional standards determine many commercial design parameters, including off-axis emission from an antenna, maximum power flux radiated to Earth from a satellite, the capability of system users to coordinate or coexist with other users of a frequency band in the same geographic location, and numerous electrical safety regulations (e.g., related to wiring, batteries, radiation hazards, and chemical exposure)
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From page 147... ...
15. The TCP/IP protocol suite would need to be supported on top of ATM because the DOD has identified TCP/IP as the means for ensuring interoperability across heterogeneous military networks and because the entire system is unlikely to be constructed from native ATM technology.
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From page 148... ...
This situation would never arise in the commercial cellular industry, where providers take a systems approach and make trade-offs between bandwidth costs and source compression costs.
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