Tactical Applications of Heterogeneous Ad Hoc Networks – Cognitive Radios, Wireless Sensor Networks and COTS in Networked Mobile Operations

Military tactical communications systems will be facing great challenges in the near future. Performance of commercial-off-the-shelf (COTS) technologies is improving at fast pace while at the same time life cycles of military equipment seem to remain long. The goal of this paper is to highlight a few interesting applications where development efforts of cognitive radio (CR), wireless sensor networks (WSNs), mobile ad hoc networks (MANETs) and commercial communications technologies would provide practical solutions from military point of view. The further work will focus on evaluation of CR as a part of heterogeneous military network. Importance of situational awareness on tactics and different technologies and their correspondence to tactical applications are discussed. Cognitive radio will find many applications in tactical networks but technical readiness is still lacking in some areas. A key issue in understanding the requirements of tactical networks is that the latest technology that is the most capable is not necessarily the most appropriate alternative. The focus should be on technologies whose effects on own actions and systems are understood thoroughly. This paper sets the groundwork for the research that aims at answering the question of what kind of military communications system should be built in the future if there are several requirements that limit the solution alternatives. The requirements to be considered are: 1) cost limitation, 2) limitation on number of units, 3) interoperability requirement, 4) mobility requirement and 5) performance requirement. Keywords—MANET; tactical networks; cognitive radio; wireless sensor networks; COTS; situational awareness