Layered architecture considerations in the development of a network-centric SATCOM waveform definition for the mobile tactical environment

Under contract to the Project Manager, Warfighter Information Network $Tactical (PM WIN-T), PEO-C3T, and Communications Electronics Command (CECOM), Titan is developing a tactical military Ka-band earth terminal (ET) and waveform definition to support future mobile network-centric operation over conventional bent-pipe satellites. The need to provide reliable full-mesh IP over satellite (IPoS) communications requires that the SATCOM waveform address the unique characteristics of the mobile environment while enabling support for a given quality-of-service (QoS) policy. A multi-frequency time-division multiple-access (MF-TDMA) demand-assigned multiple-access (DAMA) implementation, with an advanced physical-layer, and appropriate link-layer protocols, readily addresses the general requirements while also accommodating the needs of strategic and transportable tactical terminals for network-centric connectivity. A critical factor in this development, however, is the partitioning of terrestrial network information layers in the logical elements of the ET and SATCOM network. A switch model has been selected to isolate provisioning of link-layer and network-layer requirements within the ET architecture. This paper discusses the pros and cons of this approach, versus that of a router model, including attendant communications security (COMSEC) and transport-layer implications, and indicate why we believe the decision simplifies waveform and ET development, both in the near and far term.