Modern naval vessels rely on sophisticated IP-based transmission for both short-range (Line-of-Sight - LOS) and long-range (Beyond Line-of-Sight - BLOS) communication with other ships and shore-based stations.
Modern naval platforms are increasingly reliant on IP-based services, moving away from traditional serial technology. This surge in IP systems, coupled with growing data demands and user expectations for faster, more secure access, is placing significant strain on existing infrastructure. Serial technology is now primarily relegated to backup roles.
Therefore, future naval vessels must meet these escalating demands, highlighting the urgent need for advanced IP management solutions beyond current capabilities.
A robust system for dynamic, concurrent control of all on-board IP transmission, with integrated Quality of Service (QoS) management, is crucial for both current and future naval operations.
The IP Management System from Rohde & Schwarz offers users the following:
The German Navy successfully tested the prototype in May 2023, laying the foundation for future naval deployment scenarios.
Adaptive load balancing, which intelligently distributes traffic across available transmission systems, optimises workload and maximises capacity, mitigating peak load challenges.
Integrated Quality of Service (QoS) scheduling further refines this process by prioritising services on individual transmission systems, ensuring smooth traffic flow with minimal deviation. This combination of adaptive load balancing and QoS scheduling optimises workload distribution and maintains peak capacity.
Multiple IP based transmission systems can be used simultaneously by allocating traffic flows that take QoS requirements into account. QoS scheduling allows users to prioritize different services assigned to the same transmission system so that all traffic flows can be exchanged with as little impact as possible on overall service.
The quality of service of the various connected transmission systems is recognized and taken into account when the load balancer makes planning decisions. The optimization system for load balancing and WAN supports a load balancing approach with QoS support in the classified and unclassified, or public, domains where the load balancing instance (traffic flow control) of IP management is located.
The traffic flow controller can account for QoS traffic flow classification from classified domains within the QoS scheduler located in the unclassified/public domain, even though traffic flow and its QoS classification are encrypted in the unclassified domain. This is a major achievement because it means that information exchange between the classified and unclassified security domains is neither possible nor necessary.
Compressing classified data traffic (before encryption) ensures optimal use of the available IP based data rate through the various transmission systems.
Support for brownout scenarios (i.e. partial but not total transmission system failure) is provided by seamlessly transferring current traffic flow to another transmission system if the transmission system currently in use fails.
