Satellite helps battlefield info flow
by Staff Sgt. Tim Volkert
FORT HUACHUCA, Ariz. (Army News Service, May 10, 2002) -- Soldiers from the Fort Huachuca's 11th Signal Brigade are the first to train with and man a new communications system that is touted to greatly increase the speed at which information travels across the battlefield.
A five-soldier team from the 40th Signal Battalion, 11th Signal Brigade, will complete their training and testing exercises in late June on the Theater Injection Point system, the latest evolution of satellite communications.
The TIP is a transportable satellite broadcast system mounted on two Humvees that will enable one-way communication to travel at a bandwidth much greater than the conventional satellite communications used on the battlefield today, said James Patterson, TIP instructor.
This new system will operate with the Global Broadcast Service and supplement the current tactical satellite systems the Army uses, said Spc. Mayo Vandyck, a satellite communications operator and maintainer with the 40th Signal Battalion. Vandyck is a member of the brigade team learning how to operate the system.
The TIP will operate with a concept similar to satellite television, he said. A theater commander will decide what programs, files and other information he will need to send to units under his command. That information will be scheduled into the TIP and then the satellite will send only that specific information to the designated units.
The TIP will then send the information to the subordinate units via a Receive Broadcast Manager, a receiver that is a little larger than a personal computer, Vandyck said. These RBMs will be connected into the Tactical Command Post Local Area Networks so the information can be disseminated as needed at the local level throughout the command post.
This is where the TIP's technology is a great improvement over current technology used in the field, he said. The theater commander can decide which unit needs specific information and can target individual computers. When the information is sent out from the TIP, only the designated computers will receive that information.
The tactical satellite systems used in the field currently have to combine all voice, video and data information into one stream to send it to a satellite. The people who need information have to download the entire stream and then filter out what they need, said John Warren, another TIP instructor.
Because the TIP will use a different satellite system to transmit and has a greater bandwidth, it will reduce the time needed to transmit information faster, eliminate the time needed to filter information and free up large amounts of space on the tactical satellite's system, he said.
TIP can handle up to 23 megabits per second while the brigade's largest tactical satellite systems run at a maximum of only about 4.5 megabits per second, Vandyck said.
With the increase in speed and capability to handle large amounts of information, the TIP will be able to send large files, such as detailed maps, photos, video and other information much quicker than a tactical satellite, he said. Use of the TIP will free up the tactical communications resources, which will in turn, increase the tactical system's ability to more efficiently handle the daily nonsecure and secure internet, teleconferencing and voice communications, Vandyck said.
Although this is new technology, Patterson said that it is not revolutionizing Army communications "It's another tool in the toolbox; one that really didn't exist before," he said.
In addition to the 11th Signal TIP, current plans include the fielding of a TIP system to Europe and another to Korea.
(Editor's note: Staff Sgt. Tim Volkert is assigned to the 11th Signal Brigade Public Affairs Office, Fort Huachuca, Ariz.)
|
NEWSLETTER
|
| Join the GlobalSecurity.org mailing list |
|
|
|
