| Communications traffic for the DoD is expected to experience enormous growth over the next couple of decades due mainly to the deployment of high resolution advanced sensors, rapid growth of communications users which not only includes humans but also a large number of manned and unmanned platforms, and the net-centric infrastructure overheads. Recent deployment of fiber-optic backbone under DoD GIG-BE program is intended to meet the traffic requirements of static backbone. However, the capacity bottleneck is likely to happen at the tactical communications edge, primarily supported today by RF communications technologies, limiting the ability to support end-to-end bandwidth-intensive war-fighting applications.
Extending high bandwidth connections from diverse end-user geographical locations to the GIG-BE through fixed and mobile optical wireless networks seems essential for realizing the net-centric vision. Although the fixed, fiber-optic communication technology has matured over the last couple of decades, the mobile free space optical (FSO) technology is still in its infancy. This paper will discuss critical technology, integration, and network architecture gaps and potential approaches for implementing FSO networks in the GIG.
|
| Dr. Anurag Dwivedi has over 14 years of experience in communications industry including positions at Corning Inc., Corvis Corp., RHK Inc. and Applied Physics Laboratory at the Johns Hopkins University. He has published extensively in the areas of fiber optics, traffic forecasting, traffic overheads, network planning and architecture, network optimization, analysis of new communications technologies and architectures, capital and operating expense analysis, network utilization, efficiency, network transparency, optical network market research, and forecasting.
Currently, he holds the position of Senior Professional Staff at the Applied Physics Laboratory at the Johns Hopkins University, and is Assistant Section Supervisor for RF/Optical Engineering Section. Dr Dwivedi is involved in both commercial and military communications networks studies with focus on optical networking, optical fiber, free space optics and under-water optical communications, hybrid optical-RF solutions, and net-centric architecture development and optimization.
|