DARPA Looks To Adaptive Battlefield Wireless Nets

An anonymous reader passed us a NetworkWorld link about an effort at DARPA to succeed in combat through networking. The idea is to keep soldiers in a position of informational superiority through a tactical radio network that would 'link' everyone together on the battlefield. "Project WAND, for Wireless Adaptive Network Development, will exploit commercial radio components, rather than custom ones, and use a variety of software techniques and algorithms, many of them only just now emerging in mature form. These $500 walkie-talkie-size radios will form large-scale, peer-to-peer ad hoc nets, which can shift frequencies, sidestep interference, and handle a range of events that today completely disrupt wireless communications ... [right now] 'The average soldier on the ground doesn't have a radio,' says Jason Redi, principle scientist for BBN's network technologies group, and the man overseeing the software work. Radios are reserved for platoon and company commanders, in part because of their cost: typically $15,000 to $20,000 each, with vehicle-mounted radios reaching $80,000."

Comments

Re:Charging requirements?

[iamacat]

I suspect tanks/army carriers have cigarette lighter adapters that provide more than enough wattage for recharging. And real cigarette lighters for that matter. What's a remote possibility of lung cancer when you are carrying depleted uranium shells and can die any minute of a bullet anyway?

Bread crumbs

[flyingfsck]

Loaded with all these electronic devices, a soldier will never get lost anymore, since they can follow the trail of dead batteries back to base.