LinkWayS2™– Latest advance in mesh satellite networking

Abstract

LinkWayS2™, the mesh IP satellite communication modem system for the U.S. Department of Defense, has proven itself over many years of fielded service to be the most flexible and capable mesh multi-frequency time-division multiple access (MF-TDMA) modem available for net-centric warfare. LinkWayS2 is currently used in the Army's Warfighter Information Network-Tactical (WIN-T) program, the Marine's Support Wide Area Network (SWAN) program and a number of other government programs. The latest development in the LinkWayS2 system take the IP network platform to a new level of performance, with improvements in efficiency, data handling capacity, and security, bringing even more capability to LinkWayS2-based SATCOM terminals. This paper discusses the history of LinkWay and how development has led to the latest improvements to the LinkWayS2 system and their positive implications for the warfighter. These improvements include, for example, a new turbo coded TDMA waveform, doubling the TDMA maximum symbol rate to 10Msps; 8PSK modulation for even higher speed TDMA; pseudo-spread BPSK waveform for mobile and/or disadvantaged terminals, configurable modulation and coding on a per-link basis; embedded TRANSEC; integrated DVB-S2 receiver; increased IP packet processing capability; and enhanced IP QoS. In addition, the overall system architecture has been improved with a new network control server supporting automatic geographic redundancy. Also discussed are recent communications on-the-move (OTM) demonstrations and future enhancements including a further-developed communications on-the-move (OTM) capability through the implementation of a spread spectrum waveform, and even higher data rate handling with improved hardware.