ISDN Mode for Near-Term Digital Radio (NTDR)

Tele-SyS, Inc. proposes to develop an Integrated Systems Digital Network (ISDN) mode capable of providing rapid, reliable, and low cost digital communication links between U. S. Army Near Term Digital Radio (NTDR) stations. The goal is to permit direct communications between high-speed digital (Group 4) fax machines, television surveillance equipment, digital telephones and other ISDN equipment over the NDTR network. Tele-SyS, Inc. will use commercial software protocol stacks and evaluation hardware to minimize development efforts and ensure reliable performance. Radio frequency communications over the NTDR will utilize the ethernet port provided by the NTDR. The ISDN/NTDR interface devices to be provided by Tele-SyS, Inc. for this purpose will be called ISDN/Ethernet Conversion Modules (I/ECM's). In addition to demonstrating functional connectivity between two NTDR terminals using I/ECM's, the Phase I project will demonstrate digital data transfer and real-time full-duplex digital voice transmission. Deliverable hardware will consist of two I/SCM's, and the transmission and protocol analysis hardware which is necessary to debug problems and quantify transmission performance. Deliverable software will be the software embedded in I/SCM's. Deliverable documentation will be a user's manual to include installation instructions for the I/ECM's and operational training instructions. BENEFITS: The principal benefits of this project will be expanded functionality and improved communication reliability of the NTDR network due to use of commercial ISDN hardware. This will permit real-time audio, video, and text communication between battlefield vehicles. Commercial applications will focus on communication of ISDN equipment over existing industrial and military ethernets.