Mission-Critical Testing for Government

As government speeds towards digital transformation, the Defense and National Security communities are seeking new technologies and innovations that deliver battlefield advantages and enhance national safety and security. And as these technologies become more complex, it also becomes more challenging to ensure reliable and secure communications across joint force devices and networks at every turn – on land, at sea, in air, and space. The implementation of a Network Digital Twin, an emulated end-to-end software replica of the physical network or particular aspects of it, provides a cost-effective and flexible environment that can efficiently and proactively model, test, and validate key functions and services needed for mission-critical communications. It can accelerate deployment, reduce risks by testing “what if” scenarios, optimize decision making by modeling unlimited configurations and combinations, and continuously improve reliability by identifying design weaknesses and mitigation opportunities. Watch this webinar to explore how technologies such as 5G and Open RAN are evolving and how a Network Digital Twin can ensure their performance before being deployed in the most demanding field environments.

Whether you are designing battlefield radio hardware or software, building a military IoT device with an RF module, buying or evaluating devices, or developing network applications that use radios, you are probably grappling with the real-world challenges of successfully getting RF signals from point A to point B.

As the U.S. Department of Defense moves closer to 5G wireless technology adoption, leaders are working to ensure there is sufficient spectrum to enable an increasing demand for advanced data, video, and voice services. To confidently manage 5G DSS (Dynamic Spectrum Sharing) for defense and commercial uses, defense leaders must assure control of spectrum as well as service performance. They are actively testing and evaluating 5G DSS technologies and techniques to understand how well data, video and voice communications are performing today. The tests inform evolutions designed to ensure secure, reliable access and communications when the 5G spectrum is being shared.

As adversaries become more sophisticated about intercepting and disrupting mission-critical communications, the DOD has continued to advance the resiliency of their communications. 5G opens the doors to powerful network configuration options that increase the number of communication pathways and accelerate the time to access communications. In the battlespace, every communication is critical. If one base station or pathway is compromised, operators and warfighters rely on instant access to alternative lines of communication to convey critical information. The advent of 5G wireless technology presents a tremendous opportunity for the U.S. Department of Defense to strengthen resilient communications, with numerous network options and redundant communication paths to route messages quickly and covertly.

Deploying next-generation technologies faster than the adversaries can be a significant battlefield advantage. Defense leaders are eager to explore the promise and power of 5G for their tactical radio communication devices, mobile ad hoc network (MANET) performance and, ultimately, the field environment. The U.S. Department of Defense has focused its 5G wireless technologies exploration on smart warehouses, telemedicine, AR/VR and other support use cases. Since warfighters at the tactical edge rely on peer-to-peer communications to relay mission-critical messages and information, the sidelink enhancements are compelling the DOD to explore the viability of 5G for tactical communications, as well.

In recent years, commercial technology innovations have reshaped networks to be faster, more adaptive, and more interoperable than ever. 5G core networks place a far greater reliance on software and cloud environments than previous generations, rendering the old ways of managing hardware unfeasible – and making military adoption of this commercial advancement an inevitability. For the U.S. Department of Defense, 5G is a critical, strategic technology that promises to power advanced communications and ubiquitous connectivity for military advantage.