Joint tactical radio system common network services

The Joint Tactical Radio System (JTRS) family of radios will provide networking capability across the Department of Defense (DoD) by hosting networking waveforms designed to their intended operating environments. Additional networking functionality beyond what the service acquisitions and waveforms are currently developing will be required within JTRS to provide interconnectivity among the networked waveforms and with the other Global Information Grid (GIG) components (e.g. WIN-T). The JTRS family must provide a common IP convergence layer for all hosted networked waveforms. In this paper, we will present the JTRS Common Network Services (CNS) as a solution for this seamless interoperability in the JTRS. CNS provides interoperability by interconnecting disparate waveform networks at the IP layer. This will allow the military to plan and execute joint missions that deploy a wide variety of platforms, weapons systems and surveillance equipment, across services and with waveforms designed for their specific operating environments. In contrast to waveforms that operate at layer 1, 2 and sometimes at layer 3, CNS operates at layer 3 and above. This paper will describe the CNS and discuss challenging aspects of their implementation in a network environment of constantly moving platforms.