S-FAN: Small Form-factor Automated Networking

The interoperability implied by the Navy and DoD's migration towards IP-enabled tactical radios remains elusive. Though it is technically possible to create a tactical network that is comprised of different IP-enabled radios, such networks are fundamentally ill-suited to the changes in topology and link quality typical of a carrier strike group's networked air-, sea-, and land-based elements. ATCorp proposes S-FAN ? a low-SWaP, ruggedized router that can be mounted in carrier-based aircraft such as the E2 Hawkeye and even in much smaller airborne platforms. In addition to providing pervasive, adaptive communications over disparate communications links, the proposed S-FAN effort seeks to develop a dramatic improvement in router configuration that allows tactical networks, such as that employed by a carrier strike group, to be rapidly created and modified. The proposed effort leverages off-the-shelf, MIL-STD-810G hardware that ATCorp has previously flight tested.