Delivering the Promise of CJADC2 with Multi-Path Comms
As warfighting environments become more contested and restricted, key decision-makers at the tactical edge must have reliable communications, connectivity, and relevant sensor data to execute missions successfully. The U.S. Department of Defense’s Combined Joint All-Domain Command and Control (CJADC2) initiative is playing a critical role in the aggregation, processing, and dissemination of mission data at the network edge by leveraging multi-path communications.
During a recent online event, Vice President of Technology and Innovation at Sigma Defense, Jaime Beere, and Vice President of Federal Sales at Cradlepoint, Mark DeVol, sat down with SIGNAL Magazine’s Director of Digital News Media, Kimberly Underwood, to discuss how their two companies are helping to fulfill the CJADC2 mission through multi-path comms at the tactical edge.
Defining multi-path comms
Underwood opened the discussion by asking how DeVol and Beere both define multi-path communications at the network edge. For DeVol, it starts with identifying all technologies and solutions that are available in the mission environment. Because the availability and types of communications can be drastically different based on where a warfighter is located geographically, DeVol explained that users at the network edge must take immediate stock of what they have at their disposal. This can include SATCOM, MILSATCOM, COMSATCOM, cellular, and mesh networks.
He went on to say that having a comms inventory enables teams to develop a PACE plan for their missions. This, in turn, assists them in designating which of their available comms, networks, and solutions are best suited to the execution of their mission. DeVol explained that simultaneously using the different available networks ensures that there is no single point of failure, which improves the chances that data reaches the intended recipients in a secure and protected manner.
Beere agreed with DeVol that teams need to first assess which comms technologies are available in their area. He added that teams must also determine whether communications in their operating environments are contested or restricted. That determination will also inform which comms paths will be woven into PACE plans. The next step would be for these multi-path comms to seamlessly integrate into the operational systems so that data from all sensors can be gathered, processed, and analyzed in a central computing node.
“Defining multipath communications at the tactical edge is to…pull [data] in for edge compute and processing, so that it can be analyzed and disseminated to the right people,” Beere explained. “Because if we’re talking about CJADC2, it’s that dissemination that leads to information dominance.”
Delivering decision dominance
When asked how Sigma Defense and Cradlepoint are enabling decision dominance through inter-communications across services, partners, and allies, both DeVol and Beere pointed to ingesting and processing data at the tactical edge.
DeVol explained that solutions and technologies that enable intelligent routing based on parameters set by network administrators are key to delivering decision dominance. “It’s really this built-in intelligence that allows the network to ingest different types of data from different sources, such as ISR…and be routed within a local domain or extended across domains,” said DeVol. “With these types of capabilities, the end-user is no longer restricted to only one or two types of network transport, giving them more options to deliver that information where and when they need it.”
Beere agreed with DeVol that leveraging software-defined networking in a way that can cognitively apply environment-dependent routing protocols is the key enabler to decision dominance. He also maintained that innovating with industry partners, like Cradlepoint, to integrate purpose-built, resilient, and robust comms solutions into a vendor-agnostic platform is essential.
“It’s going to require all of industry to connect this myriad of edge sensors and other data-producing devices,” said Beere. “Then these edge compute nodes…can be deployed across that operational environment to include even the lowest level warfighting element.” To Beere, being able to amalgamate all sensor data from the warfighting environment, and then apply locally hosted tools to process and analyze that data is at the heart of CJADC2 and will enable real-time data analytics for real-time decision-making.
Benefits of multi-path comms
Multi-path comms is pushing the CJADC2 vision forward in a plethora of ways. For DeVol, one of the greatest benefits of multi-path comms is the redundancy of communication pathways. “Multi-path communications really gives the end-users more options than they’ve ever had,” said DeVol. “More options means not having single points of failure.”
DeVol explained that when warfighters are in a contested environment, having multi-path comms reduces the chance of end-users being completely isolated without communications. Multi-path comms reduce single points of failure by providing various options to pivot to.
For Beere, mission success is dependent on multi-path comms. “The most critical challenge and critical link in the entire CJADC2 strategy is that communications link,” said Beere. “We can have the most novel sensors, the fastest vehicles, and the most advanced weapon systems ever seen. But if the systems can’t transmit, receive, and share that data across the joint and partner forces…then we’ll always be in a state of reaction.”
Beere pointed out that U.S. adversaries are always seeking out and searching for single points of failure within communications pathways. This poses an incredible threat to warfighters carrying out a mission. “Instead of using weapons, [adversaries] could just render our weapons useless by going after other things, [like] communications,” he said.
Beere explained as warfighters enter more competitive landscapes, having dispersive, multi-path integrated communications is going to be a critical component to the CJADC2 mission, and the U.S.’ overall dominance in warfighting environments.