Ground connections: mobile broadband for roaming troops: pipe dream or reality?

• Author: Erwin, Sandra I.
• Position: Space Technology

In the world of high-tech military communications, troops fighting on the front lines are known as the "disadvantaged users."

The tech-deprived troops typically are driving around in humvees and patrolling on foot. They have little to no access to the Internet and their ability to communicate is largely limited to line-of-sight radios.

In recent years, the Defense Department has spent billions of dollars on mobile satellite-based communications to bring connectivity to forward-deployed troops. But the available systems are scarce and too expensive for the military services to be able to field in large quantities.

Military officials insist that next-generation technologies--such as satellites that beam data via lasers and miniaturized antennas that can pick up signals from multiple satellites--will deliver the high-bandwidth networks that troops need. Some of these key technologies, however, are still on the drawing board or in the early phases of development. It also remains in doubt whether the Pentagon can build these new communications systems at a reasonable cost.

Satellite-based communications, or sat-corn, have been critical to military operations for decades. But only recently has the demand for mobile, high-bandwidth networks exploded as the military has become more dependent on streaming video, imagery and digital maps. For that data to be useful, they must be available in real time, which requires fast, high capacity communications pipes. Most sat-com systems currently deployed are made up of bulky terminals and large dishes. They are not easily transportable, so they are set up at military bases or command centers. Smaller mobile systems currently are used aboard some larger Army vehicles, such as the Stryker armored personnel carrier.

But the Pentagon has yet to figure out how to make mobile sat-com systems more widely available to the entire force, especially soldiers who patrol war zones in humvees around urban areas where line-of-sight radio signals are blocked by buildings.

Under a project known as "war fighter information network-tactical," or WIN-T, the Army is expected to sort out the technical requirements for mobile networking. Industry experts say the military's demanding goals for lighter, portable technology can only be met with a hybrid system of satellite communications and wireless terrestrial networks.

The Government Accountability Office concluded in a recent audit that the Army's wished-for mobile network "is largely to be invented at this point" as the technology is not currently available.

Some industry experts agree that the mobile sat-corn systems the military wants do not yet exist--the technologies are not mature enough and the components are too bulky. They also suggest that the Pentagon's traditional approach to buying hardware is unhelpful for...