Improving interoperability through gateways and cots technologies

Abstract

As the Software Defined Radio (SDR) terminals evolve the complexity of these terminals and the waveforms they host get more and more complicated. The network capabilities and the new features introduced in such terminals (as SNMP) shorten the differences between a traditional web approach and SDR-based networks. The typical command and control headquarter has evolve during the last few years, were the hardware based terminals has been replaced for SDR terminals working together seamlessly in different network configurations supporting voice and data and operating both in broadcast and point-to-point mode. As new systems have to coexist with legacy equipment most of the actual deployments suffers from interoperability problems. The situation gets worse in coalition or Military Operations Other Than War (MOOTW) because waveforms from different nations or military and civil or public safety equipment have to interoperate. The paper proposes the idea of Information Gateway, a system in which a set of waveforms can be loaded to enable communications among different communications network.