Personal Communications Services: Improving Theater Deployable Communications for the 21st Century

Abstract

Personal Communications Services (PCS) may be the key ingredient for vastly improved military communications capabilities at the turn of the century. The Federal Communications Commission (FCC) defines PCS as a family of mobile or portable radio communications services which could provide services to individuals and businesses and be integrated with a variety of competing networks ... the primary focus of PCS will be to meet communications requirements of people on the move. Today's generation of Theater Deployable Communications, which provides joint tactical communications to deployed forces, is the Tri-Service Tactical Communications (TRI-TAC) system. A description of TRITAC's family of equipment, network topology, typical employment, and critical limitations is presented in this thesis. Five commercial Mobile Satellite Services (MSS) are described as viable candidates for augmenting existing communications systems. Cellular design principles such as frequency reuse, cell splitting, channel access methods, and propagation factors are also addressed. Finally, a framework for comparison of the candidate MSS systems is proposed as a baseline for further studies into the most beneficial implementation of PCS into theater deployable communications systems for the future. TRI-TAC communications, Theater deployable communications, Cellular technology, Mobile satellite services.

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Document Details

Document Type
Technical Report
Publication Date
Jun 01, 1994
Accession Number
ADA283465

Entities

People

  • Ronald C. Cournoyer Jr.

Organizations

  • Naval Postgraduate School

Tags

Communities of Interest

  • Space

DTIC Thesaurus Topics

  • Air Force
  • Artificial Satellites
  • Command And Control
  • Command And Control Systems
  • Communication Systems
  • Control Systems
  • Digital Communications
  • Military Communications
  • Mobile Communications
  • Mobile Phones
  • Multiple Access
  • Network Topology
  • Radio Communications
  • Radio Equipment
  • Satellite Communications
  • Tactical Communications
  • Warfare

Fields of Study

  • Computer science

Readers

  • Economics
  • Maritime Combat Support and Expeditionary Logistics.
  • Radio communications and signal processing.

Technology Areas

  • Fully Networked C3
  • Fully Networked C3 - Command and Control
  • Space
  • Space - Satellites