Networks in the Sky

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MIT 2009 Volume: 13 Issue: 8 (September)

Satellite Phones Embrace Advanced
Networking Capabilities Designed to
Support Command and Control and
Advanced Situational Awareness.

Rapidly evolving from its first incarnations—when it offered little more than an expensive rugged personal communications device to its users and a tenuous business opportunity to its providers—satellite phone technology is becoming embedded in every part of military life from the foxhole to the Internet cafe.

The latest wave of improvements in satphones include reductions in size and weight while simultaneously embracing advanced networking capabilities designed to also support command and control and advanced situational awareness via always-on networks available throughout the globe.

One of the latest developments is the recent award by the Naval Surface Warfare Center (NSWC) to Iridium for Phase 2 of the Distributed Tactical Communications System (DTCS), an extension of “Netted Iridium.” DTCS takes telephony out of the loop, and makes Iridium into a packet switch network in the sky. Furthermore, it enables true tactical communications by providing push-to-talk, one-to-many, voice and limited data distribution to disadvantaged users.

“DTCS is a paradigm shift in many aspects of tactical comms, not only on the availability of satellite assets, but also in the way we do business,” said Igor Marchosky, DTCS technical manager at NSWC Dahlgren Division. “The DTCS radios represent a much smaller form factor than other tactical radios, require far less training and add opportunities that were not available before. DTCS also provides a platform for learning how to operate outside the traditional VHF/UHF bands.

“The lessons learned from the implementation and development of this system present opportunities for other programs in DoD where these shifts could be challenging,” Marchosky continued. “One very important aspect of DTCS is to capture how we procure and manage commercial satellites, how we enable disadvantaged users to use these new assets, and how rapid development and deployment can be accomplished while effectively incorporating warfighter feedback directly from the field.”

Despite its technological roots, it is important to keep in mind that the DTCS is not a phone. “The DTCS radio system will be completely removed from the 9555 or any other COTS Iridium products,” Marchosky emphasized. “The DTCS family of radios, which includes the RO, ROA, C2, C2A and eventually the C2S, will be capable of operating in the Iridium network, but will truly operate as a tactical device, and not as a COTS commercial phone.”

DTCS will be transitioned into the Enhanced Mobile Satellite Service (EMSS) program under the Defense Information Systems Agency (DISA). DISA will provide DTCS service as one additional service in the EMSS product line.

The roadmap for development and fielding of DTCS beyond Phase 2 at this point is not finalized, but demand is high, Marchosky said. “Today there is a stated need for a large quantity of units in the field. As OSD and Congress figure out what the portfolio will be, DTCS is tasked to satisfy urgent needs outside the POM cycles. Our intention is to satisfy as many of these requirements as possible within the next 12 months.

“Although time will tell, I believe DTCS-Operational stands a good chance of being mainstream for years to come. DTCS fills a niche in the C2 arena, and it is unlikely it will ever be more than that. However, it is a very important niche that has become more relevant in the world of irregular warfare. The utility that DTCS will present to the warfighter will exceed how we intend to employ it today, not only complementing PORs, but also proving new capabilities in other areas, such as sensors and asset tracking,” he predicted.

NETWORK CAPABILITIES

Iridium’s relationship with the Department of Defense dates to the EMSS contract with DISA, which has been the conduit through which Iridium continues to provide its hardware and services into the war fighting community, both for the U.S. DoD and allies. DISA has established its own Iridium DoD gateway in Hawaii, separate from the firm’s commercial subscriber site in Arizona.

EMSS services were first negotiated in December 2000. Iridium is now on its third such contract, with the most recent negotiations leading to a contract signed in March 2008, which with options will continue until 2013.

“We anticipate that our relationship with DoD will continue well into the future,” said Scott Scheimreif, vice president of government programs for Iridium. “Requirements and global military activity will determine to what extent. We expect that the U.S. DoD’s reliance on commercial satellite communications, specifically Iridium, will continue to expand as their missions and applications evolve.”

In addition to providing conventional satphone capabilities across DoD, additional network capabilities are being developed. Iridium and the Marine Corps Warfighting Laboratory (MCWL) at Quantico, Va., began an engagement in 2001 to address the needs of communications- disadvantaged Marines, who did not have access to military UHF tacsat channels and needed additional tactical narrow band communications.

Scheimreif outlined the process by which the Marines addressed this. “The MCWL chose to look at space-based networks, and specifically Iridium, to try to solve their ship-to-object maneuver problem; their interest in our network focused on our complete global footprint, low latency and secure architecture. Plus in terms of cost, DoD had already made the investment into Iridium in respect to the gateway and subscriber devices.”

Using Iridium, the lab created the Expeditionary Tactical Communications Systems (ETCS), originally designed as a proof of concept, although approximately 400 systems were deployed into the Iraq area of operations as well as into the Horn of Africa. Feedback on potential improvements to ETCS was then fed back into MCWL and the NSWC. Warfighter feedback and engineering improvements led to the evolution and change of the system architecture to what became Netted Iridium or DTCS. A limited technical assessment was conducted on the first phase of the system in October 2006, focusing on quality of service, range and the stability of the network. The MCWL continues evaluating this capability to support concept-based experimentation.

To support this activity, a formal relationship was established between Iridium and DoD. “In 2005, Iridium entered into a cooperative research and development agreement with the MCWL to discuss how a system like this could be architected to meet the growing requirements for these communities. We surveyed interested parties, reaching out to the services and combatant commands, including Strategic Command, based on their interest in ensuring tactical narrowband SATCOM availability, and to operational combatant commands, specifically PACOM and CENTCOM, asking for their input,” Scheimreif explained.

GAPFILLER SYSTEM

This led Iridium to envisage adapting the system as a near-term capability gapfiller between the legacy UHF tacsat and the forthcoming next generation Mobile User Objective System.problem; their interest in our network focused on our complete global footprint, low latency and secure architecture. Plus in terms of cost, DoD had already made the investment into Iridium in respect to the gateway and subscriber devices.”

Feedback on potential improvements to ETCS was then fed back into MCWL and the NSWC. Warfighter feedback and engineering improvements led to the evolution and change of the system architecture to what became Netted Iridium or DTCS. A limited technical assessment was conducted on the first phase of the system in October 2006, focusing on quality of service, range and the stability of the network. The MCWL continues evaluating this capability to support concept-based experimentation.

"In the military tactical environment, a commercial satellite telephone isn’t necessarily the optimal tool to support the need for real-time tactical communications in a challenging environment,” Scheimreif observed. “As we have seen over the past 10 years, a satellite phone does provide a critical back-up communications solution. DTCS changes everything. Improvements and modifications to the radios, the satellites and the gateway create a new capability that for most users can now be used as a primary tactical voice and data solution.

“Changes to the subscriber device, supported by ITT NexGen, offer a more robust, ruggedized tactical radio, known as the Radio Only device. Our customer is also working on an encryption path to take the handheld radios from a commercial AES 256 up to a National Security Agency-accredited system, while making sure that it remains flexible enough so it can be distributed out to NATO and coalition allies, supporting communications interoperability.”

Under Phase 2, Boeing is updating software for the Iridium satellite fleet, as well as performing systems integration and testing. One of the biggest differences to the tactical user moving from ETCS to DTCS capabilities will be its networking. “In Phase 1 we created a network based on a single beam in which the user could establish a net around himself with an approximately 100-mile footprint with high reliability,” Scheimreif said. “In the next phase of the spiral development, we will leverage multiple spot beams by lighting up adjacent beams to the user, therefore expanding the footprint from 100 miles to 250 miles. Basically, it is now a pocket radio with a 250-mile footprint. Under Phase 1, we could employ 250 nets simultaneously anywhere in the world. Now, we expect to increase that to 2,000 simultaneous nets, deployable anywhere in the world at the same time.”

Under Phase 1, the networks were primarily voice and position location information (PLI), but under Phase 2, the program provides netted data as well. “In Phase 2, we are still able to support voice and PLI, but have added the ability to push data over the multi-cast architecture. This includes text, chat, medevac request and so on. If somebody wants to send out a low-resolution imagery target of interest in real time to multiple users in the net, distributed over 250 miles, regardless of whether they are dismounted, in a ground vehicle, or a fast-mover, DTCS will be able to support that,” Scheimreif said. This data capability is being envisaged as a benefit to platforms as part of command and control on-the-move initiatives. Iridium has already been installed on a variety of platforms, such as LAVs, HMMWVs and MRAPs, and has been flown on everything from fixed to rotary wing tactical aircraft, as well as installed at fixed locations like command centers and forward operating bases.

As the need for commercial satellite communication networks increases within the DoD community, DTCS presents a viable capability well into the future, Scheimreif emphasized. “Today, I believe DTCS is viewed by many as a gapfiller. But once MUOS and other systems come online, will the need for Iridium and DTCS go away? No, I don’t think so. MUOS and other military satellite networks will continue to provide attributes and capabilities that commercial networks cannot. However, the growing warfighter communication requirements in the future will still demand access to networks such as Iridium. “That is what led Iridium and our industry partners to invest our own internal R&D dollars into DTCS Phase 1, which was in essence a completely industry-funded effort,” said Scheimreif. “This resulted in a limited technical assessment in 2006, in which we and the government focused on measuring specific attributes of the capability, including range, scalability and quality of service.”

That success led to the award of DTCS Phase 2 in June, as a fiveyear effort funded by the Navy. This work will fundamentally change the nature of the Iridum/EMSS service, which was hitherto limited to point-to-point, global telephony services. This next stage enhances each of the three nodes of the network: space, ground and subscriber equipment to provide greater capabilities in terms of networked operations while still retaining the legacy global point-to-point capabilities.

“In the military tactical environment, a commercial satellite telephone isn’t necessarily the optimal tool to support the need for real-time tactical communications in a challenging environment,” Scheimreif observed. “As we have seen over the past 10 years, a satellite phone does provide a critical back-up communications solution.

DTCS changes everything. Improvements and modifications to the radios, the satellites and the gateway create a new capability that for most users can now be used as a primary tactical voice and data solution. “Changes to the subscriber device, supported by ITT NexGen, offer a more robust, ruggedized tactical radio, known as the Radio Only device. Our customer is also working on an encryption path to take the handheld radios from a commercial AES 256 up to a National Security Agency-accredited system, while making sure that it remains flexible enough so it can be distributed out to NATO and coalition allies, supporting communications interoperability.”

Under Phase 2, Boeing is updating software for the Iridium satellite fleet, as well as performing systems integration and testing.

One of the biggest differences to the tactical user moving from ETCS to DTCS capabilities will be its networking. “In Phase 1 we created a network based on a single beam in which the user could establish a net around himself with an approximately 100-mile footprint with high reliability,” Scheimreif said. “In the next phase of the spiral development, we will leverage multiple spot beams by lighting up adjacent beams to the user, therefore expanding the footprint from 100 miles to 250 miles. Basically, it is now a pocket radio with a 250-mile footprint. Under Phase 1, we could employ 250 nets simultaneously anywhere in the world. Now, we expect to increase that to 2,000 simultaneous nets, deployable anywhere in the world at the same time.”

This data capability is being envisaged as a benefit to platforms as part of command and control on-the-move initiatives. Iridium has already been installed on a variety of platforms, such as LAVs, HMMWVs and MRAPs, and has been flown on everything from fixed to rotary wing tactical aircraft, as well as installed at fixed locations like command centers and forward operating bases.

“The DTCS system significantly changes how DoD communities use our network. We are excited about DTCS and truly see the value and advantages it brings to the warfighter. We are working closely with the NSWC and our industry partners and are committed to provide this service,” he added.

GLOBAL BROADBAND

Inmarsat has a longstanding relationship with DoD in terms of personal communications. The company’s most recent capability is provided by its Inmarsat-4 (I-4) constellation, which enables the Broadband Global Area Network (BGAN) family of services.

“You can toss a BGAN terminal in a man pack,” noted Rebecca Cowen- Hirsch, a former DISA official who currently serves as vice president of global government services for Inmarsat. “Special operations and other military users employ BGAN for their voice communications, but they are also using this capability for high streaming data and situational awareness capability. This is a highly portable capability, and special ops communities have found it especially valuable for highly disconnected, mobile communications for small units.”

In addition to frontline applications, BGAN is also widely used for welfare communications in theater back to the United States, providing an Internet cafe environment for off-duty forces. Cowen-Hirsch said, “It is deployed in a wide variety of applications, such as command and control, but also supporting different types of assets, from intelligence and battle damage assessment to morale communications and telemedicine, and virtually everything in between.”

Access to Inmarsat’s BGAN is offered through a demand-assigned capability. “We are a very different commercial satellite system,” Cowen-Hirsch explained. “Our core services don’t require leased transponder bandwidth. You use it as you require it, rather than having capacity that sits idle when you don’t use it. We have seen a significant penetration in Southwest Asia, and we know that our streaming IP traffic in that particular region is very high, not only for U.S. forces but for coalition operations too.”

BGAN has the ability to support a mobile ad hoc networking capability, so that a small unit can go into an environment, use BGAN to create and set up a small network, and then tear it down just as rapidly and deploy it into another region. Inmarsat is currently working on a multi-cast capability that ensures that multiple users receive the same information, simplifying command and control issues.

Traditionally, Inmarsat has simply managed the satellite network, with interface criteria provided by hardware manufacturers such as Thrane & Thrane and Hughes Networks. This is now changing, with Inmarsat due to launch its own global handheld satellite phone in 2010, using the I-4 constellation. “It is our intent as well to provide a secure satellite phone specifically for military operations,” Cowen- Hirsch said.

Encryption is key to providing this, and moves to certification are well advanced. Inmarsat is currently registering with NSA for its comsec encryption program. “We are looking to ensure that we have FIPS 140-2—AES 256—commercial grade encryption,” she noted. “Then for the U.S. market we are currently in discussions with NSA to pursue their Suite A or B certification—the new type certification NSA is introducing.”

Cowen-Hirsch cited Suite B certification, which is sufficient for secret and below traffic, as Inmarast’s goal. The U.S. military satphone is anticipated to be made available shortly after the commercial device in 2010.

To date, Inmarsat has already injected the highest level of NSA security into its overall system. “One thing we offer specifically for the military is to encrypt our command signal for our satellites, so that it is consistent with NSA comsec requirement for Type 1 encryption. This ensures that no one else can command or control our satellites. That is an investment we have made to ensure that it is consistent with military requirements, but certainly there is a commercial advantage to that as well,” Cowen-Hirsch said.

Other developments have seen Inmarsat enter the software defined radio (SDR) field, working with Gatehouse to instantiate the BGAN waveform on the company’s SDR to demonstrate future Joint Tactical Radio System-type capabilities. In addition, earlier this year Inmarsat and Harris announced that the BGAN waveform has received type certification on the latter’s AN/ PRC-117G Type 1 radio.

NEW CONTENDER

In July, TerreStar Networks successfully launched TerreStar-1. Described by the company as the world’s largest, most powerful commercial communications satellite, TerreStar-1 has been developed while liaising with the government to ensure its capabilities can meet defense and homeland security requirements.

“We have been looking at the requirements of the government, specifically looking at first responders, understanding their requirements so that as we develop our systems, we have addressed their needs, so that they can take advantage of our solution as we move forward and get it into service. With the launch of TerreStar 1, which is the linchpin for the network that will utilize the 2 GHz spectrum in North America, they will be able to use that satellite’s all-IP communications networks for the devices that we are going to be delivering,” said Dennis Matheson, chief technology officer of TerreStar.

The handset for TerreStar, developed in conjunction with Finnish firm Elektrobit, is due to be available by the end of the year. Similar in size to any other consumer smartphone, the TerreStar- Elektrobit devices represent the world’s first secure quad-band GSM and tri-band WCDMA/HSPA smartphone with integrated all-IP satellite-terrestrial voice and data capabilities.

“As we worked the design of the smartphone, anything that needed to be incorporated for DoD was done as much as we could. Being an all-IP phone, we have the ability to add in functionality if they need different encryption, and we will be able to add those things on top of the general handset,” Matheson said.

“Satellite terminals don’t have to be big and clunky. They can be in a more consumer package size,” he added. “At the same time, there is always going to be a need for ruggedized, specialized devices. What we are going to do is to take the smarts in our consumer unit and wrap it into the packaging that is needed for that particular application as requested by our government clients.”

Another company in this field is Globalstar, which provides a wide variety of mobile and fixed satellite voice products to various U.S. government agencies, including DoD. Globalstar also provides those agencies with satellite data solutions using both satellite simplex and duplex data products for a variety of asset tracking and remote data monitoring or system control applications.

Martin Neilsen, vice president, new business ventures for Globalstar, outlined the company’s capability growth path: “Later this year, Globalstar expects to begin taking delivery of its secondgeneration satellites, with deployment of the second-generation constellation expected to finish in 2010. Combined with the ground segment upgrades, the new network is designed to provide high-quality voice and data services beyond 2025 and increased data speeds of up to 256 kbps, in a flexible all-IP configuration.

“Products and services supported are expected to include push-to-talk and multicasting, advanced messaging capabilities such as multimedia messaging or MMS, mobile video applications, geo-location services, multi-band and multi-mode handsets and data devices with GPS integration,” he continued. “Globalstar is also expanding its satellite coverage area in both Southeast Asia and Africa, and the company continues to evaluate other potential markets.”