Emerging Radio and MANET Technology Study: Research Support for a Survey of State-of-the-art Commercial and Military Hardware/Software for Mobile Ad Hoc Networks
Glen R. Henderson, William Pase · 2014
Abstract : This paper documents the results of a study into the architectural options for a situationalawareness and command and control (SA C2) device that could be used by tactical units. Thisdevice would connect individual unit members through a mobile ad-hoc network (MANET)based mesh topology to relay tactical information in a secure and robust manner while retainingthe mobility needed for dismounted soldier operations. This study presents six architecturaloptions for the proposed device each of which includes a graphical display and radiocommunications component. The currently available commercial off the shelf (COTS), militaryoff the shelf (MOTS) and open source technologies in the areas of tablet devices, Wi-Fi networkdevices and broad spectrum radios are evaluated in the context of the proposed architectures. Ofspecific interest is the degree to which these components can be modified at a device or firmwarelevel to support the development of additional situational awareness applications in support oftactical missions. The benefits and limitations of fully open architectures available through theopen source community as compared with the closed architectures of vendor based products arediscussed. Based on the interpretation of the information gathered, a recommended SA C2device hardware and software configuration is provided. Additionally, extensions to thearchitecture that would support enhancements to the baseline SA C2 capability are proposed.