Digital Strategic to Tactical Gateway Standard

The NC3A is developing the specifications for a NATO Digital Strategic to Tactical Gateway (DSTG), to form the basis for a NATO standardization agreement (STANAG), that will ensure digital voice and data interoperability. The aim of the STANAG is to prescribe a common set of digital services and the mapping of these services between both networking domains, that must be provided by DSTGs deployed by NATO nations. In doing so a minimum digital service interoperability between networks and users connected over these gateways is guaranteed. The specification leaves interoperability for individual nations to specify additional features to enable them to make maximum use of the functions implemented in their national strategic and tactical networks. At its strategic side the gateway interfaces to national strategic ISDN networks or public ISDN networks. At the tactical side it interfaces with the national tactical network, which may be based on European EUROCOM, US MSE/TriTac or French RITA systems. The gateway is described from a service point of view but also the network wide aspects related to addressing and routing, provisioning of communications security and requirements for end-user equipment are addressed