Efficacy of IEEE 802.16 Based Radio-WAN (Wide Are Networks) in Supplementing Satellite Communications in an Intra-Battlegroup and Amphibious Tactical Network

The concept of Network Centric Warfare (NCW) promises to revolutionize the manner in which warfare and military operations are planned and executed. While many information systems are in development, or currently in production, which seize on the NCW initiative with the goal of enabling United States and coalition military to share information on a scale never before seen, the pace of application development has outpaced that of transmission media development. As information systems become more complex and the amount of information that must be exchanged between units on every level of the military hierarchy has increased, units on the tactical edge that must rely on satellite communications or low bandwidth radio communications will increasingly find themselves on the outside of NCW environment looking in. This research effort will demonstrate the increasing communication needs of naval units within a battlegroup and amphibious distributed operations environment and discuss the significant limitations that these units face with respect to bandwidth and how that affects their ability to efficiently transfer information. This research will also propose a tactical network based on IEEE Standard 802.16 wireless technology as a means of creating a tactical network for use within the battlegroup reducing the reliance on satellites communications to facilitate all of the communications needs of the units. Based on previous research efforts and field experimentation conducted for this research effort, recommendations are also made for improving the protocols contained in IEEE Standard 802.16 to make them even more suitable for use in a tactical environment,