RAPID NETWORKING
plan and load a brigade’s worth of radios from four weeks to just minutes.
NONTRADITIONAL VENDORS As permitted in middle-tier acquisition guidelines, we did not need to wait for formal requirements documents and other time-consuming documentation, enabling our team to quickly perform market research with industry to speed develop- ment of the radio network management tool suite. Trough requests for infor- mation and technical exchange meetings initiated by the Network Cross-Functional Team, where we explained to industry the software capabilities that we were looking for, we were able to determine the best options for integrating existing capabili- ties with minimum development efforts. Where possible, we created capability that is not vendor-specific to spur innovation and keep costs down through increased competition.
To create the prototype capabilities, the other-transaction authority spurred us, when possible, to contact smaller vendors that traditionally do not support military efforts. Other-transaction authority also enabled us to continually assess experi- mentation results and Soldier feedback to see how these products could poten- tially support a more mature system that we could eventually field across the force. If results reveal that a product is not the right fit, we can look for something else that works better, before fielding the capa- bility to numerous units.
We had to bridge language barriers in technology and processes in order to make sure new vendors understood the military requirements, and we had to understand what the proposed commercial off-the- shelf technologies could do for us. In the end, when we applied the nontraditional vendor’s existing technologies to our evolv- ing military systems, the technologies
80 Army AL&T Magazine Winter 2020
INTEGRATING ELEMENTS TO EXPAND CAPABILITIES
The Army’s new, user-friendly software prototype tool suite for network operations planning and management can initialize, plan and load a brigade’s worth of radios faster than ever. Each integrated piece of software works in unison in a beginning-to-end network planning and initialization workflow. The software includes several components:
Integrated Planner is an overarching system that plans and creates network configuration files for numerous network elements, including the software-defined radios supporting the Army’s tactical network. This planner was developed to integrate or replace existing network planners.
Network Operations Management System is an overarching proto- type system used to manage the network and support unclassified, classified and coalition network enclaves with a common look, touch, feel and functionality.
Initialization Tool Suite enables Soldiers to manage and modify their data products on the ground in theater. Data products provide the information required to enable end-to-end network connectivity and interoperability across the Army’s tactical internet.
Codex is a database with a common data model and open application programming interfaces (APIs), enabling standard access to the data products. APIs enable applications to “talk” to each other.
Atom is a simplified radio planner that provides intuitive workflow and an open API that uses the data product network design to provide a radio waveform plan. The Atom prototype will inform enhancements and future capability and fielding decisions on the final solution to support existing and emerging planning requirements, potentially replacing the legacy Joint Enterprise Network Management Capability.
Black Sails is a simplified radio configuration tool that uses the wave- form plan through an open API to configure software-defined lower tactical internet radios. Atom and Black Sails work hand in hand: Atom creates the plan, and Black Sails generates the configuration files and loads the radios.
As DOD postures itself to retain advantage over near-peer adversar- ies, these new prototype software tools are expected to dramatically increase unit readiness, data exchange, agility, operational flexibility and network communication range, and to reduce unit burden on the battlefield.
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