Following a number of successful demonstrations over the past year, the Army is pressing forward with efforts to bring high-bandwidth 4G LTE telecommunications networks to the tactical edge. Planners say improved networks could boost tactical awareness by delivering video, mapping and other critical data to forward operations.
"The driver for 4G LTE comes down to bandwidth," said Thomas Sepka, Jr., chief of the Army Commercial Technology Evaluation & Integration Branch, within the Communications-Electronics Research, Development and Engineering Center (CERDEC)'s Space and Terrestrial Communications Directorate. "It's about bringing more bandwidth down to the soldier so they have access to more information."
It's a simple mission, but not so simply achieved. To reach widespread LTE deployment, the Army needs to mobilize networks designed to sit still; ensure high-grade security; and manage the networks to ensure enough capacity is available, without turning on a firehose of throughput.
If all these potential hurdles can be overcome, 4G LTE may take a prominent place in the Warfighter Information Network-Tactical (WIN-T), the Army's flagship telecommunications network.
In their mission statement, WIN-T managers state that a 4G LTE transmission infrastructure capability will support soldiers' handheld needs across the tactical environment by enabling greater flexibility in the command post infrastructure. In this way, 4G LTE could help the Army to implement "right-sized, scalable and expeditionary command posts that enable mission command at every point of an operation," according to an Army press release.
"It is convenient, easy to use, and un-tethers soldiers and commanders from their on-base workstations so they can be more productive," said Paul Mehney, director of public affairs for the Program Executive Office Command Control Communications-Tactical.
Telecommunications watchers say LTE could deliver a range of new capabilities as part of WIN-T. As a wireless solution, it would cut down on today's excessive demand for cables. LTE would also make it simpler for a soldier to transition from base to battlefield communications and could offer greater robustness and make it easier for the Army to interface with diverse commercial systems.
"Soldiers guarding base entry could use the 4G LTE to reach back to data to help identify incoming visitors for increased base security. Soldiers could use it for virtual training and to troubleshoot equipment on the battlefield," Mehney said.
Putting the network to the test
Last year the Army demonstrated the possibilities for battlefield 4G LTE at its Network Integration Evaluation 14.2, held in March at Fort Bliss, Texas, and White Sands Missile Range, New Mexico.
Fielded as part of the Army's Tactical Network Transmissions, known as TNT, the demonstration showed how a 4G LTE infrastructure could give greater coverage, more speed and greater bandwidth to forward operating bases and tactical operations centers.
The NIE showed that developers are successfully overcoming one of the major hurdles on the road to LTE: the ability to adapt an off-the-shelf technology for specific military uses.
"We've taken a commercial architecture and made it much smaller and much easier to operate in those environments," said Jeff Harman, COO of Oceus Networks, which took part in the demonstration. "We have made it relatively lightweight, brought it down to a small form factor and made it work as a mobile network."
Such trials are ongoing, as the Army seeks to fine-tune 4G LTE for eventual deployment. At Fort Dix, for example, researchers are testing the impact a high-bandwidth network might have on the delivery of battlefield medical care.
"The whole idea there is to get that information back, updating the aid station with the status and condition of the patient. The more information they have, the better they can treat," Sepka said.
Next-generation 4G LTE may be ideally suited for that, as it can take advantage of the latest innovations in both technology and medicine. Sepka pointed especially to the rising use of telemedicine — the ability to bring a doctor's virtual presence bedside. It would be an ideal fit for the battlefield, but only if you have the bandwidth to sustain such high levels of data throughput.
In a recent trial, the Army took advantage of a Wi-Fi demonstration in Hawaii to test 4G LTE capability with Nett Warrior, a handheld smartphone-like device usually used in combination with software-defined Rifleman Radios, Mehney said.
As it explores the possibilities, the Army is seeking end-user input. "As we are transitioning these technologies out of the lab and into the field, we are working closely with soldiers to get early feedback on what is working and what is not working," Adam McCauley, chief of the systems engineering and integration branch at CERDEC Space and Terrestrial Communications Directorate's C4ISR Ground Activity.
While all these initial forays have met with some success, a number of technical challenges remain on the way to widespread network deployment.
The main challenge: Connecting moving dots
One of the most profound challenges may be described as structural, arising from the very nature of cellular networks. In the commercial world a wireless network is architecturally fixed: towers placed at points. But the military is highly mobile and decentralized, a structure that would seem to be at odds with more conventional arrangements.
"It raises challenges in spectrum use, it raises challenges in backhaul architectures. How do we interconnect these different cell network components?" Sepka said. "Mobility [of the network infrastructure] is a big issue. It's much easier to handle a handoff when you are a stationary."
While the Army is still taking baby steps toward a solution, a methodology is emerging, Sepka said. Research teams are first lighting up networks at the halt, then extending gradually out into more dynamic situations, staking out temporary midpoints as the network infrastructure is expanded.
For some, the goal in all this is to open the pipe as wide as it will go. Others caution that a highly robust network, if not properly managed, could end up being too robust, with channels of communication awash in needless data.
"You don't want to buy a system that will light up a football stadium, if you only need to light up a platoon or a squad," said Glenn Briceno, an engineer with Space and Terrestrial Communications Directorate's C4ISR Ground Activity. "You can get the signal out there, but what benefit is that to the end user? You want to provide coverage just where you need it, which is a little different from what is done on the commercial side."
As planners consider the complexities of mobilized architectures and potential information overload, they must also contend with the perennial concern about security. CERDEC planners have opted to address the issue by building to the spec laid out in the National Security Agency-approved Commercials Solutions for Classified standard.
The Army is not alone in its efforts to tame the complexities of LTE. The Navy, for instance, is exploring the issue of over-crowded spectra, and is looking at the possibility of having to piggyback local carriers' networks when operating close to shore.
As the Army continues to move nearer an LTE-enabled telecom environment, especially within the WIN-T infrastructure, close observers say the war fighter will be the ultimate winner.
"You get more situational awareness down to the lowest level, the actual soldier who has a mission set to go achieve," Harman said. "You are enabling them with more information at their fingertips so those ground commanders can make better decisions."
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