Application of the Burst Switching Technology to the Defense Communications System

At present the existing commercial long distance transmission networks are not easily integrated to support national emergency and military survivability requirements. Point survivability improvement techniques are being addressed, but mechanisms to improve the overall survivability of emergency communications capabilities by making use of the available multiple gridded CONUS transmission networks have been lacking. Using a new integrated voice/data switching technology called Burst Switching, a capability is described by which specific transmission paths making up an end-to-end connection can be addressed. While not critical for commercial purposes, path addressability permits emergency communications between end points as long as a series of transmission segments between them still exists. In developing this concept, an overview of Burst Switching Technology and network control and routing concepts are also presented.