Military Wifi, warzone connectivity

WiFi is a popular technology that allows an electronic device to exchange data wirelessly (using radio waves) over a computer network, including high-speed Internet connections. Wi-Fi has had a checkered security history. Its earliest encryption system, WEP, proved easy to break. Much higher quality protocols, WPA and WPA2, were added later. However, an optional feature added in 2007, called Wi-Fi Protected Setup (WPS), has a flaw that allows a remote attacker to recover the router's WPA or WPA2 password in a few hours on most implementations.

Wireless networks have been a tremendous boon to the network connectivity industry, in the corporate and the home markets. Wi-Fi, the moniker invented by a marketing company, is everywhere. Restaurants, college campuses, churches and even whole cities provide free Wi-Fi access to anyone who can connect with their wireless computing device. While this always-present availability of network connectivity has advantages, it is important to know that there are also some disadvantages.

Wireless computing has brought about a mobility that transcends traditional boundaries. Computers equipped with broadband cards connect to the Internet from virtually any location. Smartphone technology facilitates connection to the Internet, and from there to a business computer in the office or a desktop at home. This move toward mobility has also created a huge market for mobile applications that range from serious apps such as mobile banking, to not-so-serious apps that are just for fun.

The disadvantage  of WI-FI networks is their limited range, especially in buildings. In an office building or home the signal has a range of about a hundred and fifty feet. Outside, where there are no walls, the signal may travel as far as several hundred feet. You must place the wireless access point in a location that is central so that all computers can attach to the network.
The benefits of mobile connectivity has open communication channels for the general public to socially flaunt their social status and have instant assess to news networks and entertainment. While the general public are enjoying the benefits of mobile Internet access, the military are considering a similar avenue for their soldiers.

For example In the final days of the war in southern Lebanon in the summer of 2006, Israeli commanders were desperate. Nimble teams of well-trained Hezbollah insurgents had shocked the high-tech Israeli army.
There was a problem. Israeli communications systems didn't work very well in the mountains and ravines surrounding the Saluki River deep into Hezbollah territory. To get better comms coverage for its fixed command posts, the Israeli Command, Control, Communications, Computers and Information, or "C4I," directorate dangled radio transmitters to tethered balloons and floated them high over the Saluki. The Israeli army took a hard look at its tactics and equipment. For one, the army needed better communications.
Israel would need comms at least as flexible and reliable as Hezbollah's. It took four years of research and development, The key, as with Hezbollah's mix of commercial radios and cell phones, was resisting the urge to reinvent the wheel. The army's new "Afik Rahav" comms network is based on existing WiMax technology, with a twist.
While built on a commercial WiMax foundation, Afik Rahav boasts several unique features. Civilian WiMax typically beams 360 degrees from its router. For security, and to conserve power, an Afik Rahav system directs just two separate, encrypted "cones" of wireless connectivity. To avoid interfering with civilian Wi-Fi, the military network is tuned to special frequency set aside by the NATO alliance. Range is classified.

Before, Israeli commanders could count on only 1 or 2 Mb/sec of data through their landlines or point-to-point wireless connections. Afik Rahav supports up to 30 Mb/sec. Plus, it's mobile. In 2006, most Israeli commanders directed their troops from stationary command bunkers. By contrast, Afik Rahav works wherever its trucks can safely roam, and can go from standby to full operation in as little as 15 minutes.
In battle, the Wi-Fi trucks might remain a few miles behind the advancing tanks, providing connectivity between the combat troops and commanders riding in their own vehicles. When the tanks and commanders reach the limits of the network's range, the Afik Rahav operators shut down the routers, scoot forward in their trucks and resume operations, ideally within minutes. "We are working to eliminate gaps in the commander's access to information at any given time," explains Lieutenant Colonel Shimon Abutbul, who oversees training for the system.

With a relatively simple and inexpensive command system, the Israelis have achieved what bigger and wealthier nations have consistently failed to do. The United States and Great Britain both have struggled to develop mobile command networks to complement and eventually replace traditional communications.
In 2003, the US Army launched its "Future Combat Systems" program, which aimed to build a vast fleet of robots and new armored vehicles connected by a wireless-style data network. The basic component of the network was the so-called Joint Tactical Radio System, also known as "Jitters."
The British Army's Bowman radio, a scaled-down version of Jitters, performed only a little less miserably. It cost more than two billion pounds to get Bowman ready for fielding, which began in 2004 -- nine years late. The early models suffered "shortfalls in capability," according to the National Audit Office.
In contrast to the Americans and British, the Israelis were eager to blend civilian technology into their new command system. Israeli officers thinks that this blended approach to weapons development takes advantage of the recent explosive growth in the Israeli tech section. Recalling the days when his troops had to dig trenches for telephone wires, Abutbul praised Afik Rahav's hybrid design. "Today's Israelis are far more prepared to work these computerized system, thanks to our high-tech economy."

Ever since Apple Inc. introduced the iPhone in 2007, consumers have the chance to carry phones that amount to pocket computers, providing both Internet access and specialized software. Only recently the military are beginning so see the benefits of a multi purposeful tool such is a smart phone.
Darpa, the defense research arm that contributed to the development of the Internet, has launched an effort called Transformative Apps under which it has developed a few dozen smartphone applications that work on a number of mobile devices it is evaluating. In addition to mapping, the apps can do things like identify explosives and weapons and help navigate parachute drops.

 Darpa has also launched three programs aimed at developing fixed and mobile wireless networking systems working with traditional defense contractors. The Army doesn't have a plan to give every soldier a smartphone. But Gen. Peter Chiarelli, the Army's vice chief of staff, recently said that if the devices proved themselves in testing, the service would "buy what we need for who needs it now."
Many of the applications the Army wants to develop for instance, the ability to watch full-motion video shot from a drone can already be done with equipment now in the field. The potential advantage of smartphones and tablets is their lighter weight and ease of use.

DARPA are also working on the development of a wireless communications link that is capable of 100 gigabits per second over a range of 200 kilometers (124mi). Officially dubbed “100 Gb/s RF Backbone” (or 100G for short), the program will provide the US military with networks that are around 50 times faster than its current wireless links. Home WiFi network probably exceeds its top limit of 100Mbps, some hundred times slower.
Alternatively visible light links that operate at speeds up to 2.5Tbps but usually over a distance of one meter. Free-space optical communication isn’t reliable, because clouds tend to get in the way when you’re talking about 200-kilometer-long links. The only real option is RF, but again, transmitting 100Gbps over a 200-kilometer RF link is very tough.

In essence, DARPA wants to give deployed soldiers the same kind of connectivity as a high-bandwidth, low-latency fiber-optic network. In the case of Afghanistan, for example, the US might have a high-speed fiber link to Turkey but the remaining 1,000 miles to Afghanistan most likely consists of low-bandwidth, high-latency links. It’s difficult (and potentially insecure) to control UAVs or send/receive intelligence over these networks, and so the US military instead builds its own wireless network using Common Data Link.
Common Data Link (CDL) is a secure wireless protocol that networks together a US military deployment, for shuttling around imagery, intelligence, orders, and so on. UAVs, aircraft carriers, helicopters, forward operating bases they’re all connected together via wireless CDL links, bounced via high-altitude aircraft or orbiting satellites. Exact, up-to-date specs are hard to come by, but it seems like the US military’s existing CDL links max out at around 250Mbps. DARPA now wants to push these speeds up to 100Gbps, while using equipment that retains the same weight/power requirements of CDL i.e. these 100G systems must be deployable in the field.

The only RF link that is really comparable is ViaSat-1, a geosynchronous Ka-band communications satellite that sits above the USA, which has a total capacity of 134Gbps — but that’s the combined total of 56 Ka transponders, so the actual bandwidth per link is much lower. In all likelihood, DARPA’s 100G program will probably use the lower-frequency Ku band, which is less susceptible to rain fade (or degradation caused by other inclement atmospheric conditions). Assuming the right encoding/multiplexing techniques can be discovered, there should be plenty of bandwidth in either the Ka or Ku bands to hit 100Gbps. DARPA clearly states that the 100G program is for US military use but it’s hard to ignore the repercussions it might have on commercial networks, too.
The modern battlefield is evolving to a ad-hoc tech war, whereby problems in combat over terrain or tactics are overcome with electronic solutions. In the past the field of battle the gun could be your only friend, but in the modern war a smart phone and a strong line to the command center will be the best advantage. As each square area is reclaimed, UAVs will be uploading enemy positions or tagging hidden bases. Its hard to say if the modern battle field will drive the enemies with low technology underground or that a counter strike will overcome a modern army's hi tech arsenal. The advantage is that some of the tools of war filters through for the civilian sector to benefit, in other cases civilian tech is being used aid soldiers. In any case War is a high price to pay for better technology...

Electronic Airways, from Tesla to power and data transmission to radar

Tesla investigated harvesting energy from the air. He believed that it was merely a question of time until men would succeed in attaching their machinery to the very wheelwork of nature, stating: "Ere many generations pass, our machinery will be driven by a power obtainable at any point of the universe."
At the Columbian Exposition, Tesla demonstrated a series of electrical effects in a lecture he had performed throughout America and Europe. This included using high-voltage, high-frequency alternating current to light a wireless gas-discharge lamp. Tesla's theories on the possibility of the transmission by radio waves go back as far lectures and demonstrations in 1893 in St. Louis, Missouri, the Franklin Institute in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, and the National Electric Light Association. Tesla's demonstrations and principles were written about widely through various media outlets. Many devices such as the Tesla Coil were used in the further development of radio. Tesla's radio wave experiments in 1896 were conducted in Gerlach Hotel (later renamed The Radio Wave building), where he resided.

In 1899 Tesla performed experiments in the field of pulsed wireless energy transfer. Tesla’s Magnifying Transmitter, an early type of Tesla Coil that measured 16 meters in diameter, was able to transmit tens of thousands of watts without wires. In 1897, he filed his first patents dealing with Wardenclyffe tower. This tower was supposed be a pilot plant for his “World Wireless System” to broadcast energy around the globe. But he was not able to make it fully operational due to economic problems.
The Raytheon Company performed the first successful WPT (Wireless Power Transmission) experiment in 1963. During that experiment energy was transmitted with a DC-to-DC efficiency of 13%. In1975 the Jet propulsion lab of NASA carried out an experiment and demonstrated the transfer of 30 kW over a distance of 1 mile using an antenna array erected at the Goldstone facility. This test proved the possibilities of wireless power outside the laboratory. Rockwell International and David Sarnoff Laboratory operated in 1991 a microwave powered rover at 5.86 GHz.

Three kilowatts of power was transmitted and 500 watts was received. Electricity is needed to be transformed into a suitable energy form for its transportation. For wireless transmission, this has to be a form that can travel trough air. Microwave frequencies hold this ability. The microwave spectrum is defined as electromagnetic energy ranging from approximately 1 GHz to 1000 GHz in frequency, but older usage includes lower frequencies. Most common applications are within the 1 to 40 GHz range.

One of the disadvantages is that microwaves have long wavelengths that exhibit a moderate amount of diffraction over long distances. The Rayleigh criterion dictates that any beam will spread (microwave or laser), become weaker, and diffuse over distance. The larger the transmitter antenna or laser aperture, the tighter the beam and the less it will spread as a function of distance (and vice versa). Therefore, the system requires large transmitters and receivers. The used power density of the microwave beam is normally in the order of 100 W/m2. This is relative low compared to the power density of solar radiation on earth (1000 W/m2) and chosen this way for safety reasons.

Alternatively radio transmissions in the form of data other then music or audio signals became popular. The set of standards for implementing wireless local area network (WLAN) computer communication in the 2.4, 3.6 and 5 GHz frequency bands commonly known as EEE 802.11. 802.11 technology has its origins in a 1985 ruling by the US Federal Communications Commission that released the ISM band for unlicensed use. In 1991, NCR Corporation with AT and T Corporation invented the precursor to 802.11 intended for use in cashier systems. The first wireless products were under the name WaveLAN. Vic Hayes has been called the "father of Wi-Fi" by some, due to his involvement in negotiating the initial standards within the IEEE while chairing the work-group.

A large number of patents by many companies are used in 802.11 standard. In 1992 and 1996, Australian organization CSIRO obtained patents for a method later used in Wi-Fi to "unsmear" the signal. In April 2009, 14 tech companies agreed to pay CSIRO $250 million for infringements on CSIRO patents. This led to WiFi being attributed as an Australian invention, though this has been the subject of some controversy. CSIRO won a further $220 million settlement for Wi-Fi patent infringements in 2012 with global firms in the United States required to pay the CSIRO licensing rights estimated to be worth an additional $1 billion in royalties. In 1999, the Wi-Fi Alliance was formed as a trade association to hold the Wi-Fi trademark under which most products are sold. The key technologies behind Wi-Fi were developed by the radioastronomer John O'Sullivan as a by-product in a research project, "a failed experiment to detect exploding mini black holes the size of an atomic particle".

WiMAX operates on the same general principles as WiFi -- it sends data from one computer to another via radio signals. A computer (either a desktop or a laptop) equipped with WiMAX would receive data from the WiMAX transmitting station, probably using encrypted data keys to prevent unauthorized users from stealing access.
The fastest WiFi connection can transmit up to 54 megabits per second under optimal conditions. WiMAX should be able to handle up to 70 megabits per second. Even once that 70 megabits is split up between several dozen businesses or a few hundred home users, it will provide at least the equivalent of cable-modem transfer rates to each user. The biggest difference isn't speed; it's distance. WiMAX outdistances WiFi by miles. WiFi's range is about 100 feet (30 m). WiMAX will blanket a radius of 30 miles (50 km) with wireless access. The increased range is due to the frequencies used and the power of the transmitter. Of course, at that distance, terrain, weather and large buildings will act to reduce the maximum range in some circumstances, but the potential is there to cover huge tracts of land.

Signal transmission at in the microwave range from existing transmitters offers a radio source for a passive radar system. These systems are used in a variety of settings, and they have a number of benefits which make them targets of interest for many military technology developers. Essentially, a passive radar is a very finely tuned pair of ears, sensitive to high frequency radio waves rather than sounds which can be heard by the human ear. Many people are familiar with the way in which radar works:

A signal is transmitted, and a receiver waits for the signal to return, drawing inferences from the returned signal about what kind of objects the signal interacted with, and how far away they are. For example, a ship could use radar to look for potential enemy ships in the area. Unlike sonar, which uses sound, radar uses high frequency radio waves. Passive radar has the same ability to pick up microwave energy, but it does not transmit it. Instead, is uses reflections from other objects and the original source to gather information about targets, working passively rather than actively to identify objects in its vicinity. Using this information, the device can provide information about range, velocity, and location which can be used to make decisions. Passive radar on an aircraft, for instance, might be used to identify other aircraft in the area for the purpose of avoiding them. Using computational power to analyze small incoming signal disturbances, its possible to track speed, direction and possibly size.

British engineers from University College London have developed a passive radar system that can see through walls using the WiFi signals generated by wireless routers and access points. The system, devised by Karl Woodbridge and Kevin Chetty, requires two antennae and a signal processing unit (i.e. computer), and is no larger than a suitcase. Unlike normal radar, which emits radio waves and then measures any reflected signals, this new system operates in complete stealth.

The natural evolution of cordless toothbrushes and power mat chargers have progressed to the possible idea of wireless transmission within the home
Invented by Marin Soljacic from MIT, the technique can power an entire room, assuming the room is filled with devices capable to receive the wireless power. Unlike the products from the competition, charging station and charging devices don’t have to be close to each other in order to transfer energy. Instead, they depend on so-called magnetic resonance. Like acoustical resonance, which allows an opera singer to break a glass across the room by vibrating it with the correct frequency of the voice’s sound waves, magnetic resonance can launch an energetic response in something far away.

The system uses a shifting magnetic field which differs to a radiative field like microwaves or wifi, which makes it relatively a safer alternative then the current energy technologies so far. With 50% efficiency the ability to power a light bulb was achieved and allows the theoretical possibility of powering a laptop or device within a short distance. Applicants for short distance energy transmission could include mobile devices, electric car park and charge, medical devices and robotic domestics (autonomous Hoovers or lawn mowers). The emerging technologies of radio transmissions and the need to be mobile has evolved our Airwaves to intelligently solve our cable problems, for which I didn't find troublesome. As with all technology, health is a hidden issue which may need to be address as higher data transfers will occur in the future. But until then expect all kinds of electromagnetic bombardment from your home, your office or anywhere with a power socket...