Bringing Commercial Cellular Capabilities to Tactical Networks
George F. Elmasry · 2012
This chapter presents a comprehensive architecture that would support tactical deployment of smartphones while highlighting the critical areas needing attention. The architecture is designed to instantiate a cellular core framework that can support the evolution of both WiFi and cellular services. The proposed architecture relies on a tactical cellular gateway (TCG) and a domain guard to solve interoperability and access challenges. The chapter covers three possible use cases (scenarios) where cellular capabilities are to be integrated into tactical networks. Use case I uses a wire for the interface, and the TCG is fairly simple since the smartphone becomes another source of traffic over the tactical radio network. Use cases II and III interface 3G/4G/LTE components, such as base stations, microcells, and femtocells, into the tactical network, and their TCG requires additional functionalities. The chapter addresses the security and network management (NM) vulnerabilities and distributed technique for 3G/4G/LTE IP core services. Controlled Vocabulary Terms Land mobile radio cellular systems; long term evolution; military communication; smart phones; telecommunication network management