[Satellite News 04-09-09] For the Defense Information Systems Agency (DISA), the inevitable transition to an IP-based military satellite communications system has been disruptive for the military, according to DISA Principal Director, Richard Williams, who spoke on a panel of executives in charge of military IP applications in Washington D.C.
    "The breakthroughs in the speed and capability of IP forces our ground troops to demand more and more every day. This is an important trend for the government. We cannot wait 10 years to build systems. The demand for more bandwidth is coming from the edge – from young officers in the field, not from the officers in the [Pentagon]. When these soldiers grow up and get promoted, they’re going to demand even more," said Williams.
    Surrounded by company representatives who are pushing to establish more business with government and military customers, Williams described what he called, "a virtually untapped growth market" for IP."About ten years ago, DISA went through a debate between using ATM and switching to IP in the terrestrial world. Guess who won? IP. Why? Because we saw that the commercial world was going that way. There are so many operational advantages with IP over the old circuit-based technology. With IP, we’ll be able to convert the equipment we give to ground forces into two or one box for classified and unclassified information. Less equipment translates to less training, which translates to financial viability," said Williams.
    According to DISA, the military is using 8 to 10 gigabits worldwide and only 40 percent of that is on an IP-modem, which means 60 percent of its bandwidth is trunked. Williams said that DISA wants to prove its case to the U.S. government that the military can transition to IP and ditch legacy technologies. "The market for IP and the military is clearly a growth environment. We want to be interoperable with our neighbors and through our standards process, we can drop the of the systems we require. It’s an untapped resource for the military to grow to IP. We have lots of open space in the military to transition."
    The panel explored issues beyond the switch to IP. Daniel Losada, senior director of defense and intelligence systems at Hughes Network Systems said that like many other companies, Hughes has planned ahead for the eventual switch to IP version 6 (IPV6). "We put IPV6 into our Spaceway satellites to act as a transparent switch. As we rolled out IPV6 over Spaceway 6, all we would have to do is upgrade the terminals on the ground. Look at the decisions on what is going onto the U.S. Air Force’s TSAT system. The decisions as to what is going to be put on those satellites are being made right now, despite being scheduled to launch in 20 years. You have to plan ahead to be insured for the future," said Losada.
    Timothy Lorello, senior vice president of marketing for TeleCommunication Systems, believes that the roll-out of IPV6 will be slower due to compatibility issues. "To run IPV6 efficiently, you either have to have a critical mass or a control over it from end to end. If one of the elements of your system is not IPV6 compatible, it will affect the entire system," said Lorello.
    Williams confirmed that DISA is also looking towards IPV6. "On the terrestrial side, we have a fully-integrated IPV6 office. We are IP V6 capable there. On the satcom side, we’ve made demonstrations but to a small niche. The truth is, we have had no user requests from our military users for IP version 6. What will drive this sort of request, in my opinion, is some sort of killer military application," said Williams.
    For the current status in IP military applications, the panel provided the executives with a chance to pitch the benefits of developing IP projects to its military customers. Dan Brown, vice president of hosted payloads programs for Intelsat General, explained his company’s new IRIS system, set to launch this year, as well as the benefits of signal processing in space. "We’re looking at the next generation of IP in space – an IP switch on the space segment. One of the advantages of a processing payload is that you can start doing end-to-end quality of service on the satellite. You can also do multi-casting from the satellite, where you can upload in C-band and download in Ku-band," said Brown.
    Richard Skinner, vice president of Lockheed Martin strategic planning, expanded on the advantages of signal processing in space. "You halve the size of your terminal and double its speed. Once the operator digitalizes the signal on the satellite – they can make these signals harder to intercept or jam. The jammer, in this case, would have to be 1000 times larger than the terminal. There’s a lot of flexibility on the process payload, but that’s not to say it’s not expensive," said Skinner.
    Williams said that in the end, the military users in the field just want reliable, fast communications. "When you’re in a foxhole, you don’t care how the communication gets to you, as long as it gets to you. Whether it’s by satellite or terrestrial, it has to be seamlessly integrated," he said.