DARPA 2009

[David Farber <dave () farber net>]

Begin forwarded message:

From: Randall Webmail <rvh40 () insightbb com>
Date: May 24, 2009 5:37:40 PM EDT
To: johnmacsgroup () yahoogroups com, dewayne () warpspeed com
Cc: dave () farber net
Subject: DARPA 2009

[[Article is full of geeky goodness. Here's the Money Shot:

"* DARPA's neXt Generation (XG) Communications [7] program has been  
developing technology to make ten times more spectrum available by  
taking advantage of spectrum that has been assigned but is not being  
used at a particular point in time. XG technology senses the spectrum  
environment in real time and then, in response, dynamically uses  
spectrum across frequency, space, and time - searching and then using  
spectrum that is not busy at the moment. XG is designed to resist  
jamming and not interfere with other users. XG was demonstrated to the  
House Armed Services Committee on January 29."


http://www.networkworld.com/community/node/26035

DARPA chief outlines expansive array of future networking projects
By Layer 8
Created Mar 14 2008 - 5:09pm

The Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency [1]'s incredible array  
of futuristic research projects - everything from advanced network and  
communications implementations to powerful laser and unmanned aircraft  
development [2] as well as developing techniques to help military  
personnel survive myriad dangerous situations [3] - was on display in  
a report [4] delivered to the House Armed Services Committee today by  
the agency's director, Tony Tether.

While Tether's [5] testimony focused on the extremely broad areas of  
research and development under DARPA's purview, what follows are some  
of the hottest networking-related programs the agency is working on.  
Tether said DARPA has many networking programs to help achieve its  
goal of linking tactical and strategic users through networks that can  
automatically and autonomously form, maintain, and protect themselves.

DARPA is developing technologies for wireless tactical net-centric  
warfare that will enable reliable, mobile, secure, self-forming, ad  
hoc networks among the various echelons that make the most efficient  
use of available spectrum, he stated. Among them:

* To connect different tactical ground, airborne and satellite  
communications terminals together, DARPA's Network Centric Radio  
System [6] (NCRS) (formerly Future Combat Systems-Communications)  
program developed a mobile, self-healing ad hoc network gateway  
approach that provides total radio/network compatibility on-the-move  
in any terrain - including the urban environment. NCRS has built  
interoperability into the network, rather than having to build it into  
each radio, so any radio can now be interoperable with any other.  
Today, using NCRS, previously incompatible tactical radios - military  
legacy, coalition, and first responder - can talk seamlessly among  
themselves and to more modern systems, including both military and  
commercial satellite systems.

* DARPA's neXt Generation (XG) Communications [7] program has been  
developing technology to make ten times more spectrum available by  
taking advantage of spectrum that has been assigned but is not being  
used at a particular point in time. XG technology senses the spectrum  
environment in real time and then, in response, dynamically uses  
spectrum across frequency, space, and time - searching and then using  
spectrum that is not busy at the moment. XG is designed to resist  
jamming and not interfere with other users. XG was demonstrated to the  
House Armed Services Committee on January 29.

* Building on DARPA's XG and adaptive networking technologies, the  
Wireless Network after Next (WNaN) [8] program is developing  
technology and architecture to enable an affordable and rapidly  
deployable communication system for the tactical edge. The low-cost,  
highly-capable radio developed by WNaN will provide the military with  
the capability to communicate with every Soldier and every device at  
all operational levels. WNaN networking technology will exploit high- 
volume, commercial components and manufacturing processes so that DoD  
can affordably and continuously evolve the capability over time. DARPA  
is working to put this affordable, tactical communications technology  
into the hands of the warfighter as soon as possible.

* Looking to bridge strategic and tactical networks with high-speed,  
high-capacity communications network, the Department's strategic, high- 
speed fiber optic network, called the Global Information Grid (GIG  
[9]), utilizes an integrated network whose data rate is hundreds to  
thousands of megabits per second. To reach the theater's deployed  
elements, data on the GIG must be converted into a wireless format for  
reliable transmission to the various elements within the theater.

* DARPA's Optical and Radio Frequency Combined Link Experiment (ORCLE  
[10]) program demonstrated a means for relaying GIG information to  
operational assets at the edge - even if some high data-rate links are  
degraded by atmospheric or physical obstructions - by teaming high- 
speed free-space optical communications with high-reliability radio  
communications. Now, building on this DARPA is planning to design,  
build, and demonstrate a prototype tactical network connecting ground- 
based and airborne elements. The agency's goal is to create a high  
data rate backbone network via several airborne assets that nominally  
fly at 25,000 feet and are separated out to ranges of 200 kilometers,  
which provides GIG services to ground elements up to 50 kilometers  
away from any one node.

* All-optical technology will be essential for ultra-fast strategic  
networks in the future. A foundation for this will be integrating  
multiple functions onto a single chip for all-optical routers with  
highly scalable capacity and throughput. DARPA's Data in the Optical  
Domain-Network (DOD-N) [11] program has demonstrated a monolithically  
integrated, compact time buffer with waveguide delays up to 100  
nanoseconds. Temporarily storing high-speed data is a critical power- 
consuming bottleneck for electronic routers, and this first  
demonstration of an all-optical buffer is a significant step toward  
overcoming the storage limitations for future data routers.

* For several years DARPA has been developing a miniature atomic clock  
- measuring approximately one cubic centimeter - to supply the timing  
signal should the GPS signal be lost. The Chip-Scale Atomic Clock [12]  
will let a network node, such as a Soldier using a Single Channel  
Ground and Airborne Radio System (SINCGARS), maintain synchronous  
operation with the network for several days after loss of the GPS  
signal. The CSAC microsystem derives its timing stability by coupling  
a miniature laser, with associated electronic circuits, to an atomic  
transition in a reference gas. Recently DARPA demonstrated an  
innovative application of an alternative laser-atomic state  
interrogation scheme that allows more than an order-of-magnitude  
increase in the system's stability. This new scheme should enable an  
accuracy equivalent to the loss of less than a tenth of a second error  
in timing over 100 years of operation. DARPA currently has plans to  
insert a CSAC into a SINCGARS radio to demonstrate that it can provide  
a time signal if GPS is not available, Tether said.

* Computer worms that have never been seen before (zero-day worms  
[13]) pose a specific threat to military networks because they have  
been shown to exploit thousands of computers using previously unknown  
network vulnerabilities in seconds. The Dynamic Quarantine of Computer- 
Based Worm Attacks program has been developing dynamic quarantine  
defenses for U.S. military networks against large-scale malicious code  
attacks, such as computer-based worms, by creating an integrated  
system that automatically detects and responds to worm-based attacks  
against military networks, provides advanced warning to other DoD  
enterprise networks, studies and determines the worm's propagation and  
epidemiology, and immunizes the network automatically from these  
worms. The final system will quickly quarantine zero-day worms to  
limit the number of machines affected, as well as restore the infected  
machines to an uncontaminated state in minutes, rather than hours and  
days, which is today's state of the art.

* The High Productivity Computing Systems (HPCS) [14] program is the  
Federal Government's flagship program in supercomputing. HPCS is  
pursuing the research, development and demonstration of economically  
viable, high productivity supercomputing systems for national security  
and industrial users. Phase III of the High Productivity Computing  
Systems (HPCS) program, encompassing design, development, and  
prototype demonstration, has been underway for a little more than a  
year. The program will culminate in a prototype demonstration at the  
end of 2010.

* DARPA's "Slow Light" program [15] is exploiting the quantum  
properties of materials to control the speed of light and slow it to a  
tiny fraction of its normal speed. Such tunable control will allow  
storing and processing of optical information. This past year, the  
program demonstrated that slow light materials can slow, stop, and  
store two-dimensional images. The ability to slow, store and switch  
entire images before they are projected onto film or electronic  
detectors could lead to intriguing methods of capturing images, and  
further opens the door to novel approaches for ultrahigh- speed image  
processing. One example of a material that exploits quantum effects is  
superconductors, which conduct electricity with no energy loss due to  
electrical resistance.

* The Optical Lattice Emulator (OLE) [16] program will construct a  
scaled artificial material - an emulator - whose mathematical and  
physical behavior is governed by the same underlying quantum mechanics  
as the superconductors of interest. This emulator will use  
approximately 10 billion ultra-cold atoms held in a lattice formed by  
laser beams. Controlling the states of the atoms in the optical  
lattice will help DARPA understand properties directly related to the  
desired behaviors of real materials.

Tether said the need for DARPA's mission - to prevent the  
technological surprise of the United States and create it for its  
adversaries by keeping our military on the technological cutting edge  
- remains the agency's operating principal.

Source URL: http://www.networkworld.com/community/node/26035





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