By Allen Gibson, HomelandDefenseStocks.com
Nov 2004

Just as we’re all getting used to the number of wires we have to deal with in our daily lives, it seems that wire-less is about to make its big breakthrough.

From wearable computers, to using your cellphone to monitor your factory video cameras, to ‘the internet in space,’ we are in the midst of a technological revolution that looks to be about to change our lives the way the internet already has.

In war, as in a civil disaster such as 9-11, good communications is a key to responding in a timely and effective manner. And that can save lives!

So the US military is spending $17 Billion dollars to create the first stage of a global, hi-bandwidth, internet-protocol-based communications network that will use satellites to create ‘the internet in space.’

One of the drivers of this new GIG (Global Information Grid), has been John Stenbitt, a former Secretary of Defence for Command and Control Systems and Intelligence. Stenbitt is “a great visionary. Without him we wouldn’t have the GIG,” says Christine Anderson, who is the Director of the MILSATCOM Joint Program Office for the Air Force and who is responsible for $2 Billion dollars a year in DoD spending.

The GIG is described as a “Transformative Communications Architecture,” because it’s going to allow every soldier in the field access to all  the information that’s available, unlike today’s systems where an analyst somewhere has to decide what’s important and when to send the info down the line.

Until 25 years ago, says Stenbitt, the communications model for militaries hadn’t changed since the Greeks at Sparta. It was what he called “smart push,” which meant you had to know what to say, and exactly who to say it to.

Stenbitt points to the “Pueblo” incident with North Korea in ’68 as a classic example of the drawbacks of the old systems. It took the US 36 hours to decide on a response to the storming of the boat and get that response back down the line. Unfortunately, it only took the Koreans 30 hours to hijack the Pueblo and get it back to their port.

“We missed the boat,” says Stenbitt. Literally. And that forced the first big change in the communications architecture, which was to go to a “smart push” approach, where you broadcast the information, without knowing who was getting it. The broadcast paradigm worked much better. Still, somebody had to decide what was important enough to broadcast.

The GIG system, however, will eliminate that gatekeeper. Instead, the system will be ‘smart pull,’ where all the data is available all the time through a global wireless internet. Before long, a Humvee with a 1 foot antenna will be able to pull information out of the air at megabits per second. And for those without the antenna, an IP and software-based MESH radio system will do the trick.

The key to making it work? Bandwidth. Specifically, cheap bandwidth. Because a lot of people may want the same bit of information at the same time! And none of this is far off: the ground-based intranet version of the system will be up and running by next year. The wireless, satellite based version will follow close behind.

Will there be a role for private enterprise in the space-based system? Absolutely, according to Rick Sanford, director of the Global Space Initiatives group at Cisco Systems, who says “the communications industry has something to contribute, but the business model as they move into military applications is still a question mark.”

Cisco spent $3.8 Billion last year working on the complexities of an architecture that must merge the technical communications requirements of 20 different protocols from groups as varied as the DoD, 1^st responders, and the Intelligence community. And this summer their architecture made it into space with the launch of a sat equipped with an IP-based router.

“Satellites,” he says, “will have to become software-based, updateable ‘flow-through’ components of the Net, with the ability to change protocols on the fly as someone who’s on your team today becomes the enemy tomorrow.”

Getting satellites to adapt that quickly is a huge challenge. It has taken 10 years to upgrade the communications protocol on our sat systems, while on the ground it takes only 2. But the change is coming. According to Adrian Morris of Hughes Spaceway System, sat transfer speeds will more than double within the next year and a half. And while “sats are a hub and spoke system now, they will be a Mesh system in the future.”

Such a Mesh system, with 10 Gigabyte capacities, will allow selective multicasts of information, local broadcasts, point-to-point, or whatever other structure is needed, all with a signal quality that is ‘close to HDTV’, according to Morris. 

In the meantime:

Those of us who aren’t IN the military, however, don’t have to feel all that left out. In fact, it is the corporate and commercial worlds that are driving much of the innovation that is leading to the GIG.

Cisco Systems notes that commercial enterprises have a role to play in space-based systems now because the needs of users – military and otherwise – have converged. In the not too distant future, they suggest, every manned and unmanned vehicle in the world will be a node on a network, as the OnStar system previews today.

Which business applications are going to be winners in this new wireless world are still to be determined, but many companies are working to position themselves now to take advantage of this lucrative market.

For most of us, before our car gets net-connected, it will be our cell phone that links us to the world net. And already we are seeing innovative new applications emerging for the cell.

A small company called Snocone Systems has developed a server-side software package that turns any WAP-enabled cellphone ( which is most new phones) into a remote monitoring device for closed circuit television cameras. A factory owner can now see, in real time, the images from his security cameras, and even control camera movement through his cell. The benefits are obvious.

Also using cellphones as part of their information solution, Roaming Messenger puts together ‘smart packets’ of info that will search through the wired and wireless worlds until they find who they’re looking for, in order to provide critical information in a real time environment.

Another company, Aegis Assessments, has developed products that provide wireless security solutions that essentially make buildings talk! Recognizing that the most significant life threatening public safety incidents, take place in or around large buildings, the Company designed and built products that assist first responders in being able to protect life and property. Sensors within a building such as a school or government office will give police and fire responders crucial information about the state of the building and its occupants in the event of an emergency.

And if smart phones and smart buildings aren’t enough, how about a smart handbag, or smart curtains? Both are possible, thanks to some new technology coming out of MIT’s MediaLab. To make a bag that prevents people forgetting things, scientists at the Lab have equipped  fabric modules with  radio antennas or receivers. The fabric is programmed to listen for signals from radio frequency identification (RFID) tags – on objects like cellphones, keys and wallets. Other modules detect when the bag has been picked up, which triggers a reader to check the objects the module has been programmed to look for. If it does not detect a required item, it uses a voice synthesiser module in another patch to warn you’ve forgotten your keys. The modules are held together with velcro that has been coated to relay the electrical signals between modules.

Dozens of other uses for wireless technology are also going to emerge, obviously. One of the keys to success, according to a recent article in The Economist called ‘Make it Simple’, will be to design products that don’t add to the increasingly overwhelming complexity of modern life. From venture capitalists who specialise in funding tech to the boss of the desktop for Microsoft, experts pretty much agree that technology has not made life simpler. “Moreover,” the article notes, “the boundaries between office, car and home will become increasingly blurred and will eventually disappear altogether. In rich countries, virtually the entire population will be expected to be permanently connected to the internet, both as employees and as consumers.”

If we don’t get our wires crossed, we are headed for an interesting future!

Allen R. Gibson

Allen R. Gibson has over twenty-five years of experience in media and corporate communications.  He has been a reporter, television producer, and marketing communications consultant for public companies in both the US and Canada.  

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