SURVIVABLE ADAPTIVE TACTICAL MULTIMEDIA COMMUNICATIONS

U.S. ARMY CECOM HAS IDENTIFIED THE NEED TO DEVELOP AND DEMONSTRATE IMPROVED TRANSPORT TECHNOLOGIES FOR MULTIMEDIA C3 COMMUNICATION SYSTEMS. BENEFITS TO BE OBTAINED INCLUDE ENHANCED SECURITY AND ANTI-JAM SURVIVABILITY, HIGH DATA FLOW EFFICIENCY AND GREATER USE OF WIRELESS TO REPLACE HARD CABLED NETWORKS. THE PROPOSED PROGRAM BRINGS TOGETHER UNIQUE CAPABILITY AND DOD COMMUNICATIONS SYSTEMS EXPERIENCE OF EPSILON LAMBDA ELECTRONICS AND HARRIS GOVERNMENT COMMUNICATIONS SYSTEMS DIV. TO DEVELOP AND DEMONSTRATE A REAL-TIME MULTIMEDIA NETWORK CONTROL PARADIGM. DURING PHASE I, THE RESEARCH WILL ADDRESS MULTIMEDIA QUEUING THROUGH A CLOSED FORM TYPE OF ANALYSIS RATHER THAN TIME CONSUMING COMPUTER SIMULATION METHODS. THE APPROACH INVOLVES USE OF PROBABILISTIC ROUTING BETWEEN NODES AND MESSAGE CLASSES WHERE NO PARTICULAR TRAFFIC ENTITY TRAVELS ALONG ANY SPECIFIC ROUTE IN THE NETWORK. THE ROUTING ALGORITHM WHICH IS DEVELOPED WILL BE EXERCISED USING A SIMULATION PROGRAM DEVELOPED SPECIFICALLY FOR THAT PURPOSE. A FINAL TASK AREA WILL BE TO DEVELOP A COMPREHENSIVE TEST AND DEMONSTRATION PLAN FOR PHASE II IMPLEMENTATION. DURING PHASE II, THE DEMONSTRATION WILL INVOLVE A TWO MEDIA (VHF-FM AND EHF-FSK) MULTIPLE NODE NETWORK DISBURSED OVER A WIDE AREA HAVING SMALL HIGH SECURITY CELLS. THE DEMONSTRATION WILL INVOLVE NOVEL ANTENNA TECHNOLOGY AS WELL AS INNOVATIVE NETWORK PROCESSING AND MANAGEMENT METHODS.