| 2005 Technology
Symposium > Communications and Networks
Communications and Networks
Communications covers developments in LAN and WAN network protocols,
system planning, management, traffic analysis, wireless technologies and
high bandwidth networks and the evolution of satellite communications
to networks of low earth orbiting satellites.
Adaptive Bandwidth Management in Challenged Communication Environments
Sham Chakravorty, Principal Investigator
Location(s):
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Advanced Tactical Networking
John Stine, Principal Investigator
Location(s): Washington and Bedford
Problem
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Alien Migration Interdiction Surveillance
Barry Palmertree, Principal Investigator
Location(s): Washington
Problem
The U.S. Coast Guard (USCG) and U.S. Border Patrol (USBP) are faced with miles of unmanned perimeter to patrol. Mitigating illegal alien migration is difficult, especially during nightfall and under adverse weather conditions. Increasing the number of border patrol officers in the short term is not realistic; providing means to help reduce illegal migration is far more attainable.
Objectives
Utilizing the pre-existing coastal markers located along the perimeter of shallow waters, mounted and wirelessly interconnected surveillance units will apply various sensor technologies to detect aliens entering the waters. The mounted units will provide wireless communication to USBP and USCG personnel, alerting them with video and/or images of the suspicious activity.
Activities
This program uses wireless relay communications nodes as independent, daisy-chained surveillance nodes reaching back to the patrol base station. It draws on emerging wireless communications technologies, applying advanced networking theory, and efficient power supplies. Integrating these devices into an end-to-end surveillance system and deploying it into an operational environment will provide USCG and USBP with a valuable tool.
Impact
Successful development of this system will significantly benefit USCG and USBP effectiveness in operations designed to interdict illegal alien migration. The system could be applied to other alien migration hotspots, such as the Bahamas, Caysal, and Western Puerto Rico. The results will provide justification for similar wireless surveillance applications in other environments.
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Atmospheric Mitigation Techniques for Free-Space Optical Communication
David Gervais, Principal Investigator
Location(s): Bedford
Problem
The atmosphere imposes many limitations on free-space optical communication (FSOC) links. By understanding and quantifying these limitations, we can develop mitigation strategies to overcome many of these limitations and extend the performance bounds for FSOC links.
Objectives
We will construct and deliver a modeling and simulation tool to characterize the atmospheric channel for FSOC. By capturing the results from these simulations, we will be able to construct a laboratory setup designed to replicate aspects of the simulations and to model and test several mitigation strategies within a representative laboratory environment.
Activities
A simulation tool will provide detailed models of clear-air turbulence and wave-optic propagation. Additional theoretical investigations of mitigation methodologies will be considered. The results collected and deduced from the investigations will be experimentally proven within a laboratory environment and will lead to the construction of an FSOC terminal. The terminal will optimize performance given user needs and the atmospheric channel response.
Impact
As more and more government programs and assets migrate to FSOC, atmospheric modeling, simulation, and mitigation techniques will become dominant themes for critical application areas ranging from increased communications bandwidth to covert sensor networks. Through our research, MITRE will play a key role in extending the currently accepted bounds of FSOC usability and practicality for our sponsors.
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Cognitive Spectrum Access
Bill Horne, Principal Investigator
Location(s): Washington
Problem
Communications, navigation, and surveillance systems depend on transmitting, receiving, or measuring energy transferred through the multidimensional space constituting the electromagnetic spectrum. Network-centric warfare, emergency response, and other emerging operational concepts require automated, dynamic, and adaptive decision making for spectrum use not satisfied by current spectrum management techniques. Consequently, improving spectrum access and developing cognitive radio is a valuable research area.
Objectives
The objective for this research is to develop spectrum-access architectures, algorithms, and radio device designs that utilize cognitive techniques to improve access to the electromagnetic spectrum. The scope of cognition includes: awareness of a system's context including policy, radiofrequency environment, and operational needs; the ability to make inferences based on the context and rules; and the ability to act.
Activities
Utilizing a multi-disciplinary approach to improve spectrum access, the project will: (1) define architectures for conveying contextual awareness including policy and operational constraints; (2) develop radio designs including autonomous inference tools; (3) develop a spectrum ontology and inference engine based on semantic web and related cognitive techniques for decision making; and (4) apply economic optimization and authorization transaction techniques.
Impact
This research will assist MITRE's sponsors to improve and automate spectrum utilization. This work can also maintain MITRE's continued leadership in spectrum and cognitive radio through publications, standards and technology organization participation, and improved staff skills. Finally, the research will provide knowledge that can be transferred to regulatory organizations, government agencies, and industry to develop new policy and design practices.
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Dispersion Management in Dynamic Optical System Environments and Mixed Fiber Systems
Bob Kimball, Principal Investigator
Location(s): Washington
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Disruption Tolerant Networking
Robert Durst, Principal Investigator
Location(s): Washington
Problem
Current visions of network centric warfare (NCW) depend on the use of Internet protocols, which assume low latency, abundant power, and a network constantly connected end-to-end. While these assumptions are valid in parts of the future warfighting network, tactical and sensor networks cannot always provide this environment. Resulting disconnections and changes in round trip times completely break Internet protocols or severely degrade their performance.
Objectives
DARPA wishes to develop a robust and secure networking architecture and protocols that support both constantly and intermittently connected operations. Disruption Tolerant Networking (DTN) also seeks to improve reliability and reduce latency by replicating data across multiple paths, and to do so while imposing only minimal overhead relative to Internet protocols. This will allow applications to use a single interface to any type of network.
Activities
Activities include developing the message overlay sytem and conducting research into fuzzy scheduling, network operation, new methods of infrastructure security, and deferred address binding. The project is incorporating advances in erasure coding so DTN can increase reliability and reduce latency, developing an approach that allows the receiver to fragment and forward messages when contacts terminate, and integrating these methods into a prototype DTN router application.
Impact
DTN solves a number of previously unsolved problems in NCW by providing communications in and between connected and disrupted environments. MITRE is an integral part of the DTN research community through the Internet Research Task Force's Delay Tolerant Research Group, and is also co-author of the current DTN architecture and protocol standard documents.
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Disruption Tolerant Networking (DTN) for C2 On-the-Move Network Digital Over-the-Horizon Relay (CONDOR)
Robert Durst, Principal Investigator
Location(s): Washington
Problem
Military tactical networks are subject to frequent disruption of end-to-end communications. Current Internet protocols on which the military relies for network centric warfare have evolved in such a way that they cannot function with these disruptions. This leads to unnecessary delay and unreliability in tactical communication networks.
Objectives
The project will demonstrate that key elements of the CONDOR (C2 on the Move, Digital Over-the-Horizon Relay) architecture can be implemented with the Disruption Tolerant Networking (DTN) architecture. It will also show that the DTN-enhanced CONDOR system can support suitable applications by providing consistent operation despite intermittent/changing connectivity and that DTN can provide a platform for heterogeneous system and application interoperability.
Activities
We will perform DTN network engineering and establish a candidate laydown, integrate DTN with existing tactical networking systems including the CONDOR gateway, and integrate DTN with existing connectivity measurement capabilities, extending those as required. We will deploy appropriate intra- and inter-region routing techniques and identify appropriate applications to demonstrate DTN-over-CONDOR benefits.
Impact
Immediate benefit accrues to the United States Marine Corps (USMC), with the ability to easily feed lessons learned into integrate results from the related DARPA program on DTN and integrate the results. The DARPA DTN program has a longer horizon, and is not service-specific. However, the USMC will be in a position to quickly utilize the results of the DARPA program. The project will drive significant extensions to Internet Research Task Force-sponsored DTN research, extend the breadth of existing research to meet DoD-specific needs, and extend the open source DTN implementation.
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HAIPE Augmentation, Routing, and Integration Technology Concepts
William Sax, Principal Investigator
Location(s): Washington
Problem
Internet Protocol (IP) encryptors will be used to protect future strategic and tactical networks. These devices will create problems with routing and native multicast support and have the potential to "break" the network. This will either require the continuing use of link layer encryption technology or development of new techniques that can overcome these shortfalls.
Objectives
We will investigate the development of protocols and networking architectures for High Assurance Internet Protocol Encryptor (HAIPE) devices and develop a proof of concept that will permit HAIPE equipment to work on a global scale and satisfy requirements for multicasting and IP routing. The project will devise a routing architecture for IP that provides efficient and reliable delivery of data when IP encryptors are used.
Activities
The project will include protocol design for routing, multicast, and tunnel brokers. A network impact study will include information assurance considerations. We will create proof-of-concept routing protocols and models, and evaluate potential operational and scalability issues. We will evaluate the impact of protocols using the prototype lab environment and make recommendations for the HAIPE Interoperability Specification (HAIPIS).
Impact
This project will influence near-term encryption architectures and overall routing design with HAIPE devices. The capabilities that we demonstrate will have an impact on the future HAIPIS and will provide capabilities/services that will be part of future HAIPE architectures for the Army. This effort has applicability for networks across the DoD.
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Hybrid Ultra-Wideband (UWB) Systems for Small Unit Operations
Jim Marshall, Principal Investigator
Location(s): Washington
Problem
Effective intra-squad communications and position determination must be provided in support of many different types of small unit operations. Ultra-wideband (UWB) systems show some promise for overcoming shortfalls of existing systems for these applications. However, the need to keep spectral emissions low could limit the effectiveness of UWB systems for small unit operations.
Objectives
We intend to develop an UWB system that complies with FCC emission limits and provides usable communications and ranging inside buildings. The objectives of this project are to develop a hybrid waveform UWB system and to assess the capabilities of such systems for communications and ranging to support small unit operations.
Activities
We will build and test a hybrid UWB system. System assessment will be based on analysis, simulation, prototype development, and laboratory tests in a project spanning two years. One pair of prototype transmit and receive units will be built by MITRE and tested in the second year of the project. We will evaluate performance and interference into other systems.
Impact
Development of a hybrid UWB system will provide significant enhancements to intra-squad communications and ranging. These systems are important to emergency first responders, Army platoons, and special operations forces. Results will affect the Future Combat System program (dismounted Objective Force Warrior), the DARPA NETworking in EXtreme environments (NETEX) program, our support to the FAA, and our support to emergency management and homeland security programs.
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Mobility Support for C2 Systems
Kevin Grace, Principal Investigator
Location(s): Washington and Bedford
Problem
Various mission scenarios (e.g., C2 Constellation, B2 and Global Strike Task Force, U2 reconnaissance) involve platforms that transit large geographical distances, thus requiring aircraft to join and leave multiple routing domains during an individual mission. Facilitating reliable information transport in the face of such mobility presents many challenges and requires new solutions.
Objectives
Our objective is to identify, evaluate, and recommend emerging mobility support protocols, such as the Network Mobility (NEMO) Basic Support Protocol and the Host Identity Protocol (HIP), and to provide guidance as to how and when they should be used.
Activities
Through analysis of protocol definitions and hands-on testing of protocols in an emulated wireless environment, we will determine how well emerging mobility support protocols perform. We will use these results to develop a roadmap for leveraging emerging mobility support protocols and will identify future research and development needs.
Impact
Our work is directly applicable to a number of important ESC programs, including the Multisensor C2 Aircraft, Joint Tactical Radio System-Airborne, Maritime, and Fixed-Site (JTRS-AMF), C2 Constellation, and the planned airborne network. Our results will feed into various requirement definition efforts and should help improve future net-centric capabilities for the Air Force.
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Multi-Carrier and Multi-Antenna Communications
Jim Dunyak, Principal Investigator
Location(s): Washington and Bedford
Problem
Because of the often unique perspective of both in situ and standoff signals intelligence (SIGINT) sensors, exploitation is usually complicated by excessive multi-access interference, reduced channel rank, and overlay interference. Military communications applications of these technologies must be resistant to jamming while providing secure and high-capacity links.
Objectives
This project will design signal processing techniques that provide effective and efficient communications and surveillance in an interference-dominated environment. Our research focuses on promising new technologies such as multi-carrier modulation approaches and multiple input-multiple output (MIMO) processing, which offer substantial improvements in the complex multipath environment found in ground-level wireless.
Activities
In this research project, we will focus on three tasks. We will develop SIGINT techniques for multi-carrier communications. We will develop communications and surveillance technologies for MIMO systems using multi-carrier communications. Finally, we will apply this research to communications and intelligence operations in an urban warfare environment.
Impact
Multi-carrier and multi-antenna technologies will provide a critical component of future commercial and defense communications. By applying core technologies in decision feedback equalization, we will develop new techniques in both SIGINT and high-capacity and high-reliability communications. Our research will lead to MITRE publications, open literature publications, transition of ground-breaking research results, and possible patents and technology transfer.
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Policy-Based Management for Predictable and Sustainable Airborne Networking
Steve Pizzi, Principal Investigator
Location(s): Washington and Bedford
Problem
The future Airborne Network will have to interoperate with a variety of platforms in a dynamic wireless environment very different from the fixed infrastructure of commercial networks. These platforms will integrate non-IP-based legacy communication systems and future IP-based networking systems. An overall management scheme must be implemented to control this network to provide a uniform management strategy across the entire network to enable consistent network behavior. Also, this management strategy must be effective in the dynamic wireless Airborne Network environment.
Objectives
We will develop a policy-based network management approach for the airborne network. This approach allows the network manager to utilize simple, high-level policy descriptions, typically to implement quality of service (QoS) and IP security (IPsec). These policy descriptions are then distributed throughout the network and translated into individual network device configurations. This removes the need for the network manager to individually configure each device using very technical, low-level command language. Along with providing this simpler device configuration capability, we must ensure that the policy descriptions and the policy distribution mechanisms will be effective in the dynamic wireless Airborne Network environment.
Activities
We will examine the commercial policy-based network management approach to determine typical capabilities, functionalities, and limitations in the airborne network environment. We will develop architecture guidelines for an airborne network policy-based network management system.
Impact
This work will allow MITRE to provide the lead for developing a policy-based network management architecture for the next-generation Air Force Airborne Network.
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Quantum Computing
Gerry Gilbert, Principal Investigator
Location(s): Washington
Problem
Quantum information science is a new, interdisciplinary field that holds the promise of providing the means for solving practical problems that would otherwise be impossible. Quantum computers solve certain types of previously intractable computational problems, such as breaking public key encryption systems, as well as a variety of challenging, computationally-intensive mathematical problems. The problem is to discover a scalable, efficient, fault-tolerant design.
Objectives
We plan to develop the world's first efficient, scalable, fault-tolerant quantum computer design.
Activities
We will perform theoretical and systems-engineering quantum computing analyses and develop quantum information processing components using the linear quantum optics or cluster approach. We will design and demonstrate a quantum memory device, prototype a non-linear sign shift gate or cluster fusion operator, and demonstrate the quantum computing component(s).
Impact
This work will have significant impact on MITRE's sponsors, as well as the academic and industrial scientific and technology communities. It will provide the basis for technology that will enhance our abilities in code breaking, real-time analysis of frequency-hopped spread-spectrum communications, steganographic analysis, and other computationally intensive problems. This work maintains and enhances MITRE's leading position in an important area of science and technology.
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Quantum Information Science
Gerry Gilbert, Principal Investigator
Location(s): Washington
Problem
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SATCOM/Wireless Interference Excision
Jim Rasmussen, Principal Investigator
Location(s): Washington and Bedford
Problem
The military relies heavily on unprotected satellite communications (SATCOM), which is susceptible to interference. Jam-resistant modems can be used to provide protection against interference at the expense of bandwidth. Other methods that do not require excessive increases in bandwidth are required to provide assured communications over unprotected SATCOM links.
Objectives
This project will develop and refine signal processing algorithms that can remove continuous wave and matched waveform interference from the intended signal. These algorithms will be incorporated into a hardware prototype that will demonstrate an autonomous capability to detect and mitigate the effects of interference on unprotected SATCOM links.
Activities
During FY05, we will develop a hardware prototype capable of mitigating the effects of matched waveform interference. Algorithms that will enhance and improve performance will be developed and refined in parallel for integration before the end of the year. We will test the integrated prototype to verify and demonstrate performance improvements in a continuous wave and matched waveform interference environment.
Impact
The effects of interference, either intentional or unintentional, cannot always be mitigated by traditional spread spectrum techniques. This system will provide the military with a passive means of mitigating interference and will increase the robustness of unprotected SATCOM links. The improvement in communications performance will provide more reliable communications to military commanders.
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Tactical Wideband Space-Time (TWiST) Communications
Robert Taylor, Principal Investigator
Location(s):
Problem
Multi-input multi-output (MIMO) wireless communications can enable massive increases in information capacity in dense multipath environments such as indoor and certain urban environments. However, unless the transmitter is informed of the channel, the MIMO capacity will be severely reduced whenever there is correlated fading, line-of-sight (LOS) transmission, multiple access interference, or jamming -- issues important to a tactical communication network.
Objectives
The objective of this work is to design wideband space-time algorithms that exploit a two-way (feedback) MIMO channel and are capable of maintaining constantly high capacity in all environments. These environments include non-LOS and LOS frequency-selective, space-selective, and time-selective multiuser interference channels. Closed-loop MIMO radios also admit a higher capacity (compared to open loop) and enable special covert communications.
Activities
We will analyze, design, simulate, and build (in hardware with field programmable gate arrays) a working two-way MIMO radio that employs space-time algorithms designed to meet the aforementioned objectives. We will develop direct-sequence spread spectrum systems and compare performance to orthogonal frequency division multiplexing MIMO systems. Issues such as multichannel equalization, blind source separation, synchronization, quantization, and gain control will be examined.
Impact
This project will produce a robust spectrally efficient multiuser tactical radio system that will give our military and intelligence forces constant high-speed wireless network connectivity that is insensitive to dynamic unknown environments (be they rural, urban, or indoor).
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UNMAN (Universal Controller for Mission Aware Networks)
Emaan Osman, Principal Investigator
Location(s): Washington
Problem
No capability currently exists for adaptive control of cross-layer network parameters in response to variations in mission circumstances, environment, and traffic loads. Current tactical networks are brittle with respect to such variations. Unexpected departures from configuration assumptions can prevent a network from forming at all and/or substantially reduce performance, and generally require updates that are manually intensive and error-prone.
Objectives
UNMAN will provide an automated network configuration capability adaptive to mission circumstances, the environment, and varying traffic loads by creating and integrating technology for distributed active learning, empirical optimization, and distributed reasoning. UNMAN will control networks at any layer of the network stack, be future-proof against evolutionary underlying stack improvements, and vastly improve the effectiveness of mobile ad-hoc wireless networks.
Activities
MITRE provides Broad Agency Announcement (BAA) support and systems engineering, fulfils the role of Simulation Test Director, and assists with overall technical management and technology transition to support interim and Objective Force environments. Systems engineering activities include defining requirements, developing scenarios, managing technology and technology transition, modeling and simulation, identifying requirements for reuse, investigating new technologies, and leveraging other programs.
Impact
MITRE's FFRDC role has been crucial for presenting the program manager with an unbiased perspective on requirements and emerging technologies. The resulting network management capability will yield an improvement in network resilience and performance in support of the Department of Defense's network-centric concepts of operations. MITRE will facilitate the transition of developed technology to other government agencies and industry.
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Wireless Relay Communications for Radio Frequency (RF) Challenged Environments
Barry Palmertree, Principal Investigator
Location(s): Washington
Problem
Sporadic communications and the resulting inability to utilize adequate force protection techniques challenge Special Operation Forces (SOF) operating in the urban environment. The intermittent situational awareness and C2 place operators at risk. Communications between operational elements are challenging due to structural blockage and traditional urban sources of noise and interference.
Objectives
We will enhance the baseline capabilities developed in FY04 and demonstrate secure, robust, assured communications that will increase SOF effectiveness during assigned missions in RF-challenged environments. We will demonstrate technologies that enable situational awareness and thereby improve force protection during SOF operations in high-threat, RF-challenged environments through the integration of improved wireless communications, simple sensors, and improved C3 technologies.
Activities
We will leverage the successes of FY04 efforts to provide assured connectivity and improved situational awareness for SOF units operating in RF-challenged environments. Robust ad hoc networking capability in the presence of sporadic extraneous RF links will be further developed, providing multicast and unicast routing. We will coordinate with our sponsor(s) to plan and conduct formal prototype testing in operational environments.
Impact
Wireless relay specifications and technology gaps will be developed. We will publish improved ad hoc routing algorithms for RF-challenged environments to academia and participate in the Night Vision Cave and Urban Assault ACTD.
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