ATM-providing broadband services to the warrior

Today's tactical communication systems are limited in data rate and use reserved bandwidth assignments which restrict data and video services. Operation Desert Storm demonstrated a much more extensive desire for distribution of video, imagery, computer text, and data files than existing tactical systems are capable of providing. The increasing need for imagery will drive the requirement for more bandwidth in tactical links. Desire for full-motion video will follow. Asynchronous Transfer Mode (ATM) allows allocating/re-allocating bandwidth on demand and the carrying of nearly any mix of voice, data, and video over a common communication network. The major difficulty in the application of ATM to the tactical environment is the high channel bit error rate on tactical radio links. There are also some features which must be added to a commercially designed ATM network to satisfy military requirements. This paper explores the feasibility of providing a basic communications utility for disadvantaged tactical users, with a specified residual cell error rate on a shared trunk. Users having more stringent error requirements can insert additional user-provided error protection in the information field. It is shown that the probability of cell misdelivery can be controlled by adding more CRC (cyclic redundancy check) bytes to the ATM cell header.<>