DSTO Technologies Improve Information Flow

DSTO Technologies Improve Information Flow In The Field

The Defence Science and Technology Organisation (DSTO) is developing two new technologies that will assist the Australian Defence Force (ADF) to maintain its capability edge in the information age, Parliamentary Secretary to the Minister for Defence, Peter Lindsay MP, announced today.

Mr Lindsay said technologies will ensure the flow of critical military information in the field and improve command and control.

“Military Bandwidth Broker (M-BB) is a distributed management system that gives mission-critical information priority treatment during periods of excessive network congestion,” he said.

“M-BB was developed under the Capability and Technology Demonstrator (CTD) program and DSTO has licensed the technology to Tenix Defence Systems for transition into a new Defence capability.”

Mr Lindsay said greater demand will soon be placed on Defence communications environments using Internet Protocol (IP) to carry bulk multimedia traffic including data, voice and video of varying military importance.

He said that currently during times of congestion, mission-critical and non-mission-critical information suffer the same high level of dropouts and/or increased delays.

“To resolve this problem, Military Bandwidth Broker controls and prioritises information and its flow according to the commander’s operational policy. While important information is delivered quickly, delivery of less important information is delayed,” he said.

Meanwhile, DSTO is developing another technology aimed at improving Command and Control (C2) for the ADF members in the field.

Mr Lindsay said DSTO’s Agreement Technologies are electronic “protocols” to improve the accuracy and reach of mission commands communicated by networked forces to ensure they are fully understood, accepted and actioned.

“The technology operates in a similar way to the internet based market-place eBay where buying and selling takes place through a formal process of offers and acceptance,” he said.

“Agreement Technologies could be used to support multiple government and non-government agencies to reach agreement for unified actions when working in coalition and in major relief operations.”

Mr Lindsay said a prototype of the new technology is set for trial with the Australian Army and Singapore Armed Forces over the next two years.

ENDS

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