Adversaries of today’s armed forces are contesting all domains, including the electromagnetic spectrum and the information environment. To combat this threat, current defense research programs are looking towards multi-function RF and intelligent networking from distributed platforms – to ensure freedom of maneuver and dynamic access to congested and contested spectrum. Another key capability they are also looking to enable is distributed and adaptive technologies that outpace adversary decision-making.
Because RF communications on the battlefield are vulnerable and are frequently very low bandwidth, communications planners use a term called PACE, or Primary, Alternate, Contingency and Emergency, to describe the multi-mode methods to ensure communications. Today’s threats make utilization of PACE a mission-critical requirement. Intelligent networking solutions at the tactical edge offer new methods to implement PACE, addressing multiple RF communications issues.
To further plan for communications-denied operations, network programs must forward-deploy increasing amounts of technology to assist with situational awareness, analytics, and decision support. One such critical area is video exploitation and transmission, which is a bandwidth-intensive capability. Using new technologies that combine AI/ML edge-based scene interpretation and adaptive video codec control enables reshaping of video and associated intelligence to fit within available network capacity and increases simultaneous ISR.
Recent advances in small form factor and intelligent network solutions – based on virtualized software and hardware-accelerated algorithms promise to address some of the most pressing of these challenges: increasing reliability and performance of tactical networks and RF links.
Join David Schmolke, Director Advanced Networking, ViaSat, Mark Patrick, SVP Americas, Digital Barriers, and Charlie Kawasaki, CTO, PacStar, in this educational webinar exploring how improved communications and compute are enabling the next generation of applications that are bringing unprecedented situational awareness, including image recognition and multi-INT sensor fusion, while enhancing the warfighters ability to conduct rapid maneuvers, fires, and emerging capabilities such as telemedicine and telematics.