System-of-Systems
Interoperability
6WIND
Value-Proposition
for Defense Industry
6WIND
Customizable Solution for Defense Systems
Benefits
for Defense Systems
|
IP Communications
for Defense Systems
As part of the Net-Centric Warfare (NCW) vision, Defense systems
are and will be heavily impacted by the IP tidal wave:
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Increasing requirements for interoperability
between systems, for cost reduction by using widely accepted
standards have obviously pushed to develop new systems based
on open standards while fulfilling specific military and security
requirements. |
| • |
Thanks to its acceptance in telecoms
industry, IP is the natural candidate to be the foundation of
the new generation of Defense systems. Over and above its large
acceptance, IP recent improvements in security, QoS management,
mobility, multicast, ad hoc networking, header compression to
name a few provide generic solutions that can be integrated
and customized to meet specific military requirements. Military
industry is also driving further improvements such as transition
to IPv6 for pervasive and autonomous communications. |
However, Defense industry has specific requirements for IP transition:
| • |
Although there is a strong momentum
for IP adoption in military systems, operational mission-critical
military systems have been designed at a time IP was only an
emerging technology. System life cycle is very long even if
updates are regularly done. Migration to IP requires time and
smooth transition strategies. |
| • |
Military systems will continue
to use specific technologies such as radio communications, security
algorithms… to meet specific requirements for battlefield
communications, survivable networks, on-board real-time networking…
These technologies shall be integrated with a standard IP communication
layer. |
System-of-Systems (SoS) Interoperability
SoS interoperability for defense communications refers to large-scale
integration of many independent, self-contained communication systems
to achieve seamless information interoperability. For this to happen,
equipment and systems need to be compatible and interact with devices
from different suppliers, network with allied forces and integrate
heterogeneous protocols of legacy or new systems, non-IP with new
IP.
To let Defense systems benefit from the exponential growth of IP
services & applications such as VoIP, video streaming and wireless
connectivity, it is of first importance to support major military
communication technologies such as satellite links, low bandwidth
and high-speed radio links, etc. Recent IP improvements such as
security, QoS, terminal and network mobility, ad hoc networking,
compression techniques have to be incorporated to fulfill emerging
requirements.
Moreover, the new Internet protocol, IPv6, is now recognized by
the US DoD & European MoDs as a critical element towards enabling
infinite advancement of net-centric warfare nodes and capacities.
In short, a complete foundation for scalable communications must
incorporate the latest improvements of IP technology while providing
the capability to integrate specific features to develop a complete
communication solution for new military systems.
SoS interoperability also relies on system-level mission-oriented
management systems able to aggregate huge quantity of information
to ease fast human decision. Consolidation of information requires
using efficient policy-based network-level management tools that
hide network complexity and system heterogeneity.
The answer for defense stakeholders is to have
information superiority at their fingertips that translates into
fast and reliable decision making for combat and security power:
this is the Net-Centric Warfare (NCW) vision. But
information without seamless interoperability will not lead to such
superiority. Seamless information interoperability
will need to take into account required speed and bandwidth, capacity
for plug-and-operate communication systems as well as security-assured
networks. The Internet is the federator of the information
superhighway that continues to mature, facilitating convergence
for multi-media services and unearthing new communication possibilities.
6WIND Value-Proposition for Defense Industry
|
As the evolution of Defense systems towards IP-based communications
is widely accepted, there is a strong need for an application-ready
networking software that provides all the range of expected
network protocols for developing faster the new generation
of military systems while providing the expected level of
openness required by a smooth transformation of existing systems:
| • |
Full set of advanced IP networking
features. |
| • |
Open technology for smooth
integration with specific interfaces and applications. |
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Validated and ready to use
technology on market-leading processors for the embedded
market. |
|
 |
6WIND Customizable
Solution for Defense Systems
Using 6WINDGate™ for Defense Systems
First of all, 6WINDGate™ provides
a comprehensive set of IP features required
by innovative Defense systems including popular L2 technologies
(Ethernet, serial…), standard connectivity protocols (PPP,
DHCP, DNS, NAT…), IP security, IP QoS management, unicast and
multicast routing protocols, mobility and transition to IPv6.
6WINDGate™ Software is validated on a large
number of hardware platforms such as x86, FreeScale, ARM (Intel
Xscale IXP4xx) and MIPS64 (Cavium Networks OCTEON, Raza Microelectronics),
Intel Multi-Core.
More, 6WINDGate™
software architecture enables Defense system integrators to
perform unmatched end-product customization. Reflecting software
development best practices, 6WINDGate™ open software architecture
enables an easy integration of additional software components:
| • |
Driver Integration: Thanks
to the VNB (Virtual Networking Blocks) kernel framework provided
by 6WINDGate™, a specific driver can be integrated without
any change to instantaneously benefit from all 6WINDGate™
services. It can be used for instance to integrate military
radio technologies and legacy interfaces. |
| • |
L2 protocol integration:
L2 encapsulation protocol is a well-known mechanism to transfer
proprietary protocols over IP or IP packets over non IP protocols.
VNB framework provides a smart architecture to quickly develop
this kind of features. For instance, VNB framework has been
used to integrate IP over satellite links or HDLC synchronous
and plesiochronous serial links. |
| • |
Application Level Gateway Integration:
Transfer of data over IP can also often require application-level
gateway for protocol adaptation. |
| • |
Application integration:
It is possible to integrate proprietary, open source or partner
application-level software with 6WINDGate™, in order to
build mission-oriented differentiated applications. |
| • |
Management integration: 6WINDGate™
eXtensible Management System (XMS) provides full-featured
and highly-customizable configuration tools: industry-standard
CLI, Web-based management, XML configuration, SNMP. By separating
system configuration and user interfaces, 6WINDGate™ XMS
greatly reduces management development cycles and heterogeneous
management systems. |
Benefits for Defense
Systems
| • |
Faster migration to IP-based systems
to provide higher added-value services. |
| • |
Reduced development and integration
cycles and costs with comprehensive, pre-integrated networking
middleware and highly customizable management system. |
| • |
Optimized R&D resources for leveraging core competence
and differentiation |
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