MANET for Combat Operations under Conditions of Interrupted Communication

The Creomagic Company is working on the development of a mobile ad-hoc network that would provide wide bandwidth communication for applications running at near real-time speeds

MANET for Combat Operations under Conditions of Interrupted Communication

Photo: IDF

The Creomagic Company is developing a mobile ad-hoc network (MANET) capable of providing substantial bandwidth even for critical applications running at near real-time speeds. "The MANET market in Israel does not offer many solutions. We want to address autonomous applications, too," explains the CEO of the Creomagic Company, who prefers to remain anonymous. For now, Creomagic operates only in Israel and has already sold some of its systems to defense market clients.

"The robotics market, which includes robots and drones, as well as the IoT market, do not currently offer a simple and easy to apply ad-hoc communication solution. These small autonomous products require a substantial bandwidth. Another important point is the dependence on external signals for the operation of the network. In many of the existing solutions, the product depends on such external signals as GPS, and that is a weakness. Our infrastructure does not require an external signal for synchronization."

Connecting between Different Theaters

"Some of the existing solutions rely on the LTE (Long Term Evolution) technology, which has a major weakness as it is a star type network that is not decentralized. With our product, each unit is completely independent," they explain at Creomagic. "The algorithms are decentralized and the network sets itself up so that a central device is selected at random every time. In this way, the network may divide repeatedly, as many times as necessary, and each time a different central device will be selected at random to serve as the hub of the network. If that hub is cut off from the network, another hub will be selected without adversely affecting the communication continuity."

Sources at the company informed us that their solution enables the establishment of an ad-hoc communication network between different theaters. Devices on the ground, in the air, and at sea may communicate with one another, depending on the physical limitations of the electromagnetic medium. Additionally, the network supports logical breakdown into groups (similarly to the application VLAN) for compartmentalization purposes.

Another layer enables dynamic connection and disconnection of groups. Combat operations in urban areas, for example, call for frequent changes in the group structure of the forces and the network is required to support these changes. "Our devices provide a communication infrastructure for a network that includes human soldiers as well as such machines as robots, drones or other machines. This is P2P communication without weaknesses that supports the continuity of the data transfer process," the company sources added.

"We know how to provide wide and narrow bandwidths and the network adapts to the bandwidth requirements of the specific application. In the event that the network includes a drone and the decision was to have the video sent to a certain group, it will be sent only to that group through the appropriate bandwidth. In this case, the traffic routing algorithm will create a path for each user to whom the video should be sent, using the exact bandwidth so as not to overload the network. Once someone decides that the video should no longer be sent to a certain member of the group, the path to that user will be disconnected."

Real-Time Missions

One of the most complex challenges facing ad-hoc networks is the need to provide datalink communication within near real-time intervals to support critical applications. In a military scenario, one such application is the sensor-to-shooter setup that requires data transfer from and to the sensors within a time interval that is shorter than the target life-cycle interval. In such cases, the application calls for a wide bandwidth along with a short delay.

"In critical missions, the algorithm will transfer the data through different channels, for redundancy purposes," the Company sources explained. "The network can transfer a bandwidth of dozens of megabytes per second to distances of hundreds of meters to dozens of kilometers, depending on the topology of the area. If a certain device in the network needs to receive the information but is at a range where reception is poor, the algorithm will find the devices closest to it and use them to route the information.

"Our solution supports real-time video applications as well. Admittedly, the delay depends on the number of nodes along the way and on the topology, but under suitable physical conditions, we are looking at a delay of dozens of milliseconds."

You might be interested also