US Military Develops P2P Wireless Network Sniffer

Merlin83 writes "As being reported on The Register, the US Military is developing a new system for monitoring enemy battlefield communication. Called WolfPack, each node is a 6"x4" cylinder, launched by missile or dropped from aircraft. Once the node lands, it stands up, extends its antenna and contacts other nodes. The nodes can also jam cellular communications by transmitting a signal themselves. "

Comments

Homebrew Cellular Phone Jammers

[Anonymous Coward]

Schematics and technical info here:

Cellular Phone Jammers

Slashdotted - here's the article

[Anonymous Coward]

US forces to target enemy mobiles with P2P WLANs
By Tony Smith
Posted: 15/08/2003 at 11:22 GMT

The US military is developing a weapon based on peer-to-peer technology to take out mobile phone communications, the US Department of Defence has revealed.

The system also has the capability to covertly monitor cellular traffic.

Codenamed 'WolfPack', the device is intended to prevent an enemy from using its communications technologies, including cellular, without hindering US forces' own communications systems.

WolfPack is a 6 x 4in cylinder weighing 6lbs, capable of being dropped by parachute or fired into the target area as a missile payload. Each device zaps mobile phone communications within a radius of half a kilometre.

"The idea is to litter the battlefield with these small objects," WolfPack programme manager Preston Marshall in a statement.

The battery-powered device contains an inflatable antenna. Fins mounted inside the cylinder extend from the device on touchdown to lift it into a vertical position. Once in place and with the aerial up, each WolfPack until begins communicating with any others it can detect.

Together, they quickly establish a network. Other networks in range can tie in too, creating, if you will, an 'Internet' of WolfPack nodes, which ultimately allows data from any single device to be routed across the network of networks to the command centre.

Each cylinder can generate radio signal to disrupt cellular traffic, said Marshall. "Each WolfPack is very small, but collectively they gang up on the signal," he added.

Equally, the units can used to monitor enemy communications signals. Think of it as a Napster for military intelligence - each device can share the signals it picks up with all the others.

Units can stay powered for up to two months in the field, and can be later collected and re-used. Each node costs around $10,000. Together, they are cheaper, less like a huge warm cock and a much less obvious target for enemy intervention than the aircraft-based systems used to jam or monitor communications at the moment.

WolfPack prototypes will be put to the test with in the next 18 months, the DoD said. (R)

Re:RIAA

[Anonymous Coward]

did you even read the article? it isnt about sniffing existing p2p file sharing networks, it is about CREATING a p2p network that is used to intercept and/or jam enemy cellular communications...

Seems like an unfortunate choice of name

[mkweise]

The term Wolfpack will forever be associated with the Nazi German Kriegsmarine.

Re:Seems like an unfortunate choice of name

[Detritus]

The U.S. Navy used wolfpacks in submarine operations against Japan in the Pacific during World War II.

Size & Mass

[yardgnome]

Did anyone else connect the reported dimensions with the reported mass? It's supposed to be a 6" tall x 4" wide cylinder...that weighs SIX POUNDS. That's incredibly tightly packed! Which I guess makes sense if you're going to fit a balloon antenna, motors for standing up via the fins, and a CPU in that small package. I wonder if/when the public will reap the benefits of that kind of miniaturization?

Re:More questionable govt garbage (Pork?)

[bravehamster]

The defenceindustry comes up with something new and sexy, and off course the top brass goes along with it

Damn man, I thought I was cynical about the leadership during my time in service, but you take the cake. The *primary* concern of the majority of the people at the top is, and always has been, "Will this save our troops lives and/or kill more of the enemy?" Every other consideration comes after that, and if you think otherwise you're insulting the hell out of a lot of people who care deeply about the lives of the men under their command. Granted, there may be the occassional officer who thinks nothing of the lives under him, but these are a rarity.

American troops are constantly told that they are the best equipped, most highly trained military force on the planet. Making sure that it's true is a big chunk of military morale, and is official policy. Having that equipment be "sexy" also helps with morale. Nothing is ever as simple as it seems, certainly not as simple as developing sexy military equipment to impress one's mistress.

Give the brass *some* credit for not being total dipshits.

Igloo White - 1966 Sensor Net (mildly OT)

[Embedded Geek]

There's been suggestions by other posters about putting sensors in these cylinders and also questions about making the packages survive the drop. The fact is this has all been done before.

The U.S. military actually used a lower tech version of the sensor net along the Ho Chi Minh Trail in 1966. The program was called "Igloo White" and involved a number of audio and seismic sensors. Check out this link and look at page 11 for details. Very interesting read.

Some bits:

• Initially unit cost was $2145 and battery life was two weeks. By the end of the program, the battery was improved (the paper doesn't say by how much, though) and the units costed as little as $15. Presumably, costs would drop similarly when the modern version gets fielded.
• IBM 360-65 mainframes were used to correlate massive amounts of data and choose targets for strikes, although the effectiveness of the system (like almost everything deployed in Vietnam) was likely exagerated.
• Some sensors were booby trapped to prevent tampering. Nevertheless, some North Vietnamese troops developed countermeasures - shooting dropped units out of trees, playing tape recordings of trucks near them, or (presumably for chemical sensors) placing bags of livestock urine nearby.