Joint Tactical Radio System: Tactical Network Planning and Management

The Joint Tactical Radio System (JTRS) is the tactical edge communications system and a key enabler for the Department of Defense's (DoD)'s migration toward a Net-Centric Warfare vision. JTRS provides a family of next generation, software-defined military radios that will support future battlefield tactical communications for all services. JTRS is the tactical edge supporting the GiG's net-centric environment; therefore the Network Management tool(s) for JTRS can not work as a stovepipe environment. Network Management at the tactical level must move towards a universal approach for Network Planning and Management. This is a change from today's tactical networks. The effectiveness of the JTRS portion of network centric warfare will depend largely on the operator's ability to plan complex mobile networks, share the network planning data across a joint battlefield, view network performance data and provide situational awareness data across the different tiers of the JTRS networks. The future JTRS network management tool must enable the war-fighter to operate in this net-Centric environment without overburdening the network planners and mangers with unachievable complexity.