Tactical Wireless Communications and Networks: Design Concepts and Challenges

10.4 Deployment Use Cases

The three use cases enable the connection of cellular based handhelds into the tactical environment. Use case I uses a wire for the interface, and the TCG is fairly simple since the smartphone becomes another source of traffic over the tactical radio network. Use cases II and III interface 3G/4G/LTE components, such as base stations, microcells, and femtocells, into the tactical network, and their TCG requires additional functionalities. All three use cases assume that the 3G/4G/LTE IP core component (a crucial part of deploying 3G/4G/LTE technology where admission control, call routing, etc. occur) is deployed at an SBU enclave at the root node network. If we take the WIN-T (Warfighter Information Network—Tactical) architecture as an example, an HQ node will have this 3G/4G/LTE IP core component at its SBU enclave. In the proposed architecture, we will use a proxy server that will proxy the 3G/4G/LTE IP core component functions through a domain guard to the local 3G/4G/LTE access point. The proxy server will be an embedded component of the TCG package, enabling greater robustness, reliability, and scalability through minimizing core network access by decentralizing or localizing the cellular infrastructure.

10.4.1 Use Case I: Smartphone Tethered to a Soldier Radio Waveform (SRW) Radio

In this use case, a dismounted soldier is carrying a smartphone, tethered to a JTRS soldier radio waveform (SRW) radio, via a USB (universal serial bus) port on the phone, ...