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:not here yet

[crowbarsarefornerdyg]

And public safety. It'll make communications a lot easier if we can use our handhelds, and have it eventually retransmitted to our dispatch center rather than having to run back to the truck to ask for an air ambulance or whatever. There are times that you just can't leave a patient.

Re:Is This Like The $5,000 Hammer?

[timmarhy]

you must suck at maths - unlike the army, Abdul doesn't need a mobile phone base station for each bomb.