MISSION AREA SUBNETS

VIASAT AND THE COMMAND AND CONTROL SYSTEMS DIVISION OF ROCKWELL ARE PLEASED TO PRESENT THIS PROPOSAL TO DEVELOP A MISSION AREA SUBNET (MAS) CAPABILITY FOR NAVAL TACTICAL DATA SYSTEM (NTDS) SUBSCRIBERS ON THE NAVY'S COMMUNICATION SUPPORT SYSTEM (CSS). MAS CAPABILITY PROVIDES A METHOD FOR MANAGING ADAPTIVE RELAYS AND ROUTING AMONG MOBILE PARTICIPANTS IN NTDS NETWORKS. ADAPTIVE RELAYS ADDRESSES A MAJOR SHORTCOMING OF THE CURRENT LINK-11 SYSTEM WHICH ASSUMES FULL BROADCAST CONNECTIVITY AMONG ALL PLAYERS. MAS PROVIDES A CONTEXT FOR MANAGING THOSE RELAYS WITH MULTICAST CONNECTIVITY TO CONSERVE SCARCE NTDS TDMA TIME SLOTS. THIS PROPOSAL IS INTEGRATED INTO A COMPREHENSIVE VIASAT-ROCKWELL MULTI-TOPIC, MULTI-PHASED PLAN TO UPGRADE THE NTDS SYSTEM INTO THE MULTI-MEDIA CSS ENVIRONMENT. THE MAS MESH SEAMLESSLY WITH CSS NTDS UPGRADES FOR DYNAMIC TDMA, AUTOMATIC NET INITIALIZATION, INTERNET ROUTING, AND TACTICAL DATA COMPRESSION. THEY ALL BUILD ON A WEALTH OF PAST NTDS WORK ON LINK-11, HFAJ/LEIP, MILES, NILE, UNT, AND ELS. THE PROPOSED WORK ALSO BENEFITS FROM ONGOING VIASAT PROGRAMS UNDER CSS SBIR PHASE II AND ROCKWELL'S ELS ACTIVITIES. THE PROPOSED WORK INCLUDES SIMULATION TO QUANTIFY MAS IMPROVEMENTS IN NTDS CAPACITY AND RESPONSIVENESS IN CSS AND ELS, AND TECHNICAL PRESENTATIONS ON HOW TO INTEGRATE MAS INTO THE CSS FRAMWORK.