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Military System Offers Worldwide Cell Access
coondoggie writes to mention a technology in use by the U.S. military in remote regions of the world, which allows high-quality cell reception to reach troops. A portable box, called the Tactical Base Station Router, can serve as a gateway for cellular communications and VoIP network calls. Developed by Alcatel-Lucent, it allows deployment of reliable services in disasters, search and rescue operations, and (as has seen use in recent years) military encounters. "The TacBSR is available for U.S. government customers only ... Customers include the U.S. Army Reserve Command, which is using the TacBSR as a portable cellular system for forward-deployed operations and disaster recovery. The system allows U.S. Army Reserve Commands to take GSM-capable cellular systems anywhere they need to go ... Smaller than a laptop, the TacBSR can be used in a stand-alone configuration to enable communications for a small team or as part of a multibox mesh that supports a large geographical area."
Isn't this what the first mobile phones were? My grandfather used to have a big black box in his lincoln that had a phone attached to it and he'd plug into the cigarette lighter. It looked like one of these. Hard to say if he was doing a lot of global Special Focrces work though, that Lincoln never made it over 35mph.
As usual TFA is light on technical details. Did anyone pick up on how this works? I'm also curious about the encryption- they mention that it can be used for encrypted cell calls, so does that mean that the data/VOIP side is sent unencrypted?
One other thing just occured to me- if this is supposed to be for remote military operations, would it be of any use against an opponent who can track radio signals? I don't think cell phone protocols can do all of the fancy frequency hopping and other tricks that most military radios use...
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Isn't this just like the consumer-grade picocells the telecoms have been talking about placing in customer homes? Boosts local signal, routes to VoIP?
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Well, at least something good came from Katrina.
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You still can't get reliable, quality cell service in many populated areas in the U.S.A. yet the government is providing service so soldiers can chat on their RAZRs in Garblockistan?
Should this be a "Good to see where our priorities are" rant, or a "Yaay, the private sector sure solves all problems!" rant?
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I went to SWA twice while I was in the Air Force. Was never in combat, but those guys have radios between each other and the base that are more reliable than cell phones anyway.
The first time I was there I used a sat. phone briefly and it worked, but there was a noticable delay, the primary means of communicating to the states was Cisco IP phones and DSN.
The second time I was over there we bought regular gsm phones from a company call Mobal in England. Those had no noticable delay using commercial carriers (obviously we weren't discussing anything critical) and the only place they weren't reliable was Iraq.
On the other hand, in New Orleans after Katrina, about the only way I could communicate with the remote team I was working with was sending each other sms messages that ended up getting delivered about 10-15 minutes later.
I guess what I'm saying is that there is a use for this technology, but based on my experience they're not targeting it properly.
does the TacBSR interface with the rest of the world? The article suggests it uses a VOIP link, but is that link wireless or wired? Does it have an Ethernet port, can it interface with telephony equipment?
Also, it'd be interesting to see what happens when you start a TacBSR in an area that already has cell phone coverage. Can you specify who can and who can't use the TacBSR network?
Can it talk to the billing system of the local telco (not so interesting for military use, but may be a factor during disaster relief, when civilians will use the system)?
If it's any consolation, I just returned from Afghanistan in January and never even heard of this thing until now. Also, it's probably a hell of a lot easier to provide cell coverage to a few small areas with concentrations of US military personnel than to provide comprehensive coverage over North America. If you don't like your cell service, bitch to the company, not the military.
Many people did sign up for cell service on the base we were staged from, paying $40 or $50 per month for 500 minutes, though I think incoming calls did not count against that. I spent too much time out in the field for that to be worthwhile, though I did get internet access in my room whenever we'd come back to base for a week or two--again, $35/month for dial-up speeds (but worse latency; timeouts every fourth or fifth http request) with no English-speaking support and frequent DNS outages.
Yes, I'm horribly biased, but if DoD can provide something like this on the cheap for the guys downrange, more power to them. Very rarely was it worth it to me to wait in line for an hour to try to talk to someone from home for 15 minutes--assuming I could stay connected that long.
Oooohh, bitter much?
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Then let's saddle up and go hunt down Osama and his band of Koran thumping goat herders! Which gun clubs are doing this?
In the land of the blind, the one-eyed man is usually crucified.
the military fucks y...
I think I'll stop right there, thank you very much.
You know, there is a difference between trolling and pointing out the flaws in your reasoning. Just saying.
The US Military is the global first responder to natural disasters worldwide. Find a single natural disaster, even in countries where we're hated (Iranian earthquake anyone?) and you'll find the military and civil law enforcement doing search and rescue, communications, command, and control infrastructure. The tsunami in the indian ocean. The iranian earthquake.
And the exact response we get when we develop technology that has no real application to us making war, and only serves to make it easier for us to respond to disasters?
"fuck the military"
Yeah. Just die in the earthquake next time jackass.
Anyone have a guess on the range for one of these? I imagine it's gotta be farther than your run-o-the-mill router...
A little gun club called the 10th Mountain you lame twit!
Define enemy.
Yahoos like you would have us embroiled in WWIII with us as the "bad guys" within a year.
Sure. A few gun clubs against well-equipped locals who know the land, the language, and the culture. Do you read the news? Do you know anything about the history of Afhghanistan? These are not some local yokels waiting for some idiotic American cowboy to ride in on the dawn and rescue them from some despot. These are battle-hardened, experienced guerrilla fighters.
Good luck with that, may I suggest that you be the first to go?
"Trolls they were, but filled with the evil will of their master: a fell race..." -- J.R.R. Tolkien on Olog-hai
And all of the cool toys they get to play with.
What is important is what is happening in this era.
Besides, "b-b-b-but so-and-so did it first" doesn't excuse bad behavior.
"Trolls they were, but filled with the evil will of their master: a fell race..." -- J.R.R. Tolkien on Olog-hai
The "first thing to go out" in every emergency of any geographical size is the local cell phone system. (see Slashdot article just after Katrina) FEMA also carts around a mobile cell system in its fleet of emergency vehicles for post-emergency recovery and relief personnel. This article says it's referring to the Army Reserve, which generally shows up not too long after FEMA, as it has the largest inventory in-place. Also, the AR arrival is usually in the recover and relief phase, not the first responder phase. I think they are still having problems with the cell phone system down in south Louisiana.
You left out Katrina...oh, wait...probably better not to bring that one up...
My brother worked on the Iridium satellite phone project back in the day. It seems to me that it's just as effective as ever and would be superior to this in almost every way.
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In the land of the blind, the one-eyed man is usually crucified.
I think US millitary get use these types of technologies-it reminds me of GPS-that was originally setup by the Department of Defence-DoD. And USFIF and DAFIF are another mil-only things that come to mind. Again, if you want good reception-consumers probably won't get anything close to what Alcatel-Lucent is offering government customers.
We had one, and we used it quite a bit. However, they're pretty damned expensive--$1000 a pop, I think I was told--and are in supremely limited circulation for that reason. This sounds like something that could be in more widespread use and would probably be more practical for local point-to-point calling; using satellite phones to call the guy on the other side of the FOB is a bit much.
another tool for imperialist USA to oppress the world with.
Yes, that's right. Cower in fear as we oppress the world with our cell phones of doom!!!!! Idiot.
Downmodding is the refuge of the weak. Don't downmod, make a better argument!
Besides, "b-b-b-but so-and-so did it first" doesn't excuse bad behavior.
No, it doesn't. But it does mean that folks from those other countries could be a little less strident and self-righteous in their condemnation of the US, considering their own histories.
Downmodding is the refuge of the weak. Don't downmod, make a better argument!
"Trolls they were, but filled with the evil will of their master: a fell race..." -- J.R.R. Tolkien on Olog-hai
Is it really their histories? Considering that even their parents' and grandparents' generations weren't in power when most of those wars were started?
Well, then, do I get to disavow the actions of the Bush Administration, since I didn't vote for them, and I was against the (second) war in Iraq from the beginning, rather than waffling on it like nearly all of Congress?
Downmodding is the refuge of the weak. Don't downmod, make a better argument!
As an individual, yes. As an 'American', no, we all have to deal with what our government does.
"Trolls they were, but filled with the evil will of their master: a fell race..." -- J.R.R. Tolkien on Olog-hai
My impression from the article is that it is about using commercial networks. This is fine for FEMA, but not something I see the military using. It looks like a solution chasing a problem to me.
Not at all. A vast portion of the military isn't in the "spearhead," the people who are actually in contact with the enemy, it's in the shaft driving it: all the logistics / supply chain / transportation / etc.
That's where something like this would be really good for. You don't need everyone back in the rear using tactical, encrypted, frequency-hopping radios to call back to the mess tent to find out whether they're out of canned beans, or other stuff like that. First, because it's godawful expensive to provision everyone back there with expensive field gear, and second, because it creates interference and frequency-allocation problems with people who do have a legitimate use for the more advanced stuff.
A friend of mine just got back from a tour with the USMC in Iraq, and they had honest-to-god wire-line field phones (ones like this, although they were slightly more modern, probably Vietnam or Korea-era, not WWII) running between different positions within their FOB, because nobody wanted "housekeeping" traffic and banter on the tactical radios, and they were short on them and wanted to save them for patrols.
So there's definitely a need for this. Plus, in any modern (U.S.) war zone, you have tons and tons of non-military support personnel, contractors and DA civilians and USG employees and the rest, and it's a lot easier for them if they can just use regular cellphones to communicate with each other, than if they have to be given radios (and training on how to use them, or for high-ranking/value people, their own RTO to follow them around).
Being able to rapidly deploy a cell-phone network behind an army as it moves forwards, so that everyone behind the lines can just use regular consumer cell gear, would be a big step forward.
There are a lot of generally dumb, wasteful, and/or stupid ideas that get put forward by people looking to score a buck from the government, but I think this is one that could really have a lot of promise.
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