New gear upgrades comms in war zone - Army News, news from Iraq, - Army Times: "The Army’s newest tactical network gear promises to keep combat units connected everywhere they go — much like the popular cell-phone ad promise.
Communications experts will soon put the latest version of the Warfighter Information Network-Tactical through its final test phase before fielding it to combat units beginning in 2013.
WIN-T Increment 2 will give brigade combat teams the equivalent of a broadband Internet connection designed to keep commanders plugged in whether they’re in a command post or on the move.
The collection of line-of-sight or terrestrial radios and satellite communications radios, antennas, routers and network management hardware and software form what’s known as a “self-healing” network. The high-bandwidth, terrestrial radios form the primary connection, and they are backed up by lower-bandwidth satellite radios whenever terrain or other factors block connectivity, said Col. Chuck Hoppe, program manager for WIN-T.
“The network pushes everything to terrestrial first; when ... [that link] goes down, the network automatically establishes a sat-com link so you are never out of the network,” Hoppe said.
When the interruption clears, Increment 2 “breaks down the sat-com link,” he said."
