Command and Control, Computers and Communications
Network-Centric Warfare/Interoperability
Near term:
- Networking and network management that support mobility inter- and intra- network
- Management of heterogeneous networks
Mid term:
- Ready and secure access to relevant information by appropriate users
- Distributed cyber warfare
Far term:
- Full system interoperability
Over-the-Horizon Communications/Gateways
Near term:
- Multi-function software radio payload
- Multi-band satellite communications on the move
Mid term:
- Improved high-frequency (HF) communications
- Directional networking
Far term:
- Highly connected mobile platoons and individuals
Small Unit Technologies
Near term:
- Migration of capabilities to mobile commercial-based platform
- Extension of services to wireless ad hoc networks
Mid term:
- Automated provision of tactically relevant information
- Radios and antennas that automatically adapt to the environment
Far term:
- Highly efficient and robust handheld communications
Objective
Technologies to provide tomorrow’s small unit naval expeditionary warfighters with the capability to exchange the precise information they need, when they need it.
Imperatives
- Network-centric warfare/interoperability
- Information efficiency—considering the following elements together to provide the user with only needed information when needed: information abstraction (hiding complexity from users); information assurance; and interaction with the communications network
- Provide only needed information, reduce retransmissions, reduce overhead and stage information locally to lower user workload, improve latency and decrease load on precious network resources
- Over-the-horizon communications/gateways
- Advanced HF application of modern signal processing techniques, such as multiple input, multiple output non-contiguous spectrum use and compact antennas to greatly improve the performance and throughput of HF communications
- Small unit technologies
- Communications efficiency—minimizing joules/bit in all circumstances and minimizing detectability
- Improved quality of dynamic channel estimates
- Increased spectral efficiency and reuse
- Directional networking
Research Challenges and Opportunities:
- Managing the user’s expectation for infrastructure-intensive commercial smart phone services on sparse, intermittent, low-throughput military networks
- Managing dynamic networks—optimization with sparse, possibly dated information
- Distributed, provable authentication and information security with no physical key mat
- Reducing size of broadband antennas (Chu and Fano limits)
- Improved channel models and estimates (non-Gaussian)
- Automated determination of “value of information” and managing and disseminating information content
- Applicability of cyber warfare to distributed small units
- Fully homomorphic encyption
- Interference alignment
- Photonics for RF processing
Point of Contact:
John Moniz
john.moniz@navy.mil