Tactical radio network whiteboard application
J. Fernando Naveda, Harvey E. Rhody, Ana L. Boburg, Jonathan E. Freiermuth, Richard Weilacher, David A. Brown · Proceedings of SPIE, the International Society for Optical Engineering/Proceedings of SPIE · 1998
Collaborative communications can be a very effective tool in the support of tactical operations, especially when graphics, text and voice are supported. Tactical communication networks often include several low-speed digital radio links. The transmission rate is often limited to 2400 bits per second, which makes it difficult to use graphics in interactive communications, RADIOContact is a prototype whiteboard application that operates efficiently over a network that uses the TCP/IP protocols even when the network contains low-speed links. The application was developed in Java and utilizes distributed object libraries to achieve efficient distribution and management of graphics and text communication objects. The prototype system has been implemented and demonstrated on a heterogeneous network that includes multiple low-speed radio links. It is a demonstration that effective whiteboard collaboration can be supported in such an environment. This paper presents user requirements and design issues for such applications, and describes the design of the distributed system to meet the tactical user requirements.