Radio Over IP (Roip) Communications Management And

INSTITUTO SUPERIOR TÉCNICO, DECEMBER 2019 Radio Over IP (RoIP) Communications Management and Control System Pedro Miguel Martins Leitão da Costa, 78153, MEEC Academia Militar / Instituto Superior Técnico email: [email protected] Abstract— Currently, the Portuguese Army has the military forces when they are operating abroad in Theaters of Operations transceiver GRC-525 Multifunctional Radio which equips the tactical (TO) to accomplish their mission [1]. units within the operational component of the ground forces system. In the current organization of the Portuguese Army Tactical This equipment provides to the ground forces the ability to establish Communications System, when deployed in missions, whether in secure communications. The current version of the GRC-525 national or international territory, is structured as follows: there is Multifunctional Radio provides a transparent integration with IP data at least one Command Post (CP), where are the commanders and networks and specifically with IP telephone systems through SIP protocol. network managers who follows the maneuvering forces deployed The GRC-525 Multifunctional Radio allows bidirectional radio at the TO. These elements constitute the tactical network based on voice calls, however the confidentiality and simultaneity of IP technology. communications are not assured. This happens because the In order to grant radio communications between the forces communication is established over shared radio frequency and on a within the command post and the forces engaged in the TO given radio network at a time and only one user can transmit the performing the tactical tasks, the Army Deployable Tactical message while the others are only in reception mode (half-duplex Communications and Information System(SIC-T) has a specific system). communications module named Radio Access Point (RAP), which To solve these limitations, was developed Radio Over IP (RoIP) Communications Management and Control System, which allows users provides integration between the radio networks and the SIC-T IP at a command post to establish a call with any entity that is carrying data network., acting as a radio communications gateway [1], as it out its operational activity operating with the Radio Multifunctional is possible to observe in the figure 1. GRC-525, regardless of the radio network it is in, ensuring the confidentiality and simultaneity of communications. The present system has other features, among which are the recording of all calls to allow backbriefing, as well as the creation of a history with all events resulting from actions performed by the entities that use it (such as: entry and exit in the application, outgoing calls, etc.). Index-Terms — Portuguese Army; Radio Multifunctional GRC - 525; Radio Over IP Management and Control System. I. INTRODUCTION Figure 1 – Integration between the SIC-T IP network with the radio Regarding the military telecommunications networks, these network have significant importance in our society. They stand out because The RAP is a military tactical vehicle that carries a they can operate independently of civilian communication communications shelter equipped with communications assets, networks and can be used to support the population in the event of autonomous energy support systems, namely through an electrical disasters or crisis, as well as to support and control our military generator, as well as the possibility of interconnection with external power sources. In fact, the RAP plays an important role in 1 INSTITUTO SUPERIOR TÉCNICO, DECEMBER 2019 the development of this dissertation and therefore, this SIC-T operations, to avoid to broadcast communication and to occupy the communications module will be discussed in more detail later. entire radio network thus ensuring efficiency and confidentiality of A. Limitations of the actual Situation communication. Despite the RAP communications module, allowing It is also intended to provide the Radio Over IP integration between the GRC - 525 multifunction radios and IP Communications Management and Control System with the ability protocol based telephony (call establishment between the control to create a record of call details. station and a specific radio operator equipped with the GRC - 525 C. Proposed Solution Multifunctional Radio), this mechanism presents some tactical The GRC - 525 Multifunctional Radio has a remote-control limitations: feature when integrated into the IP network through which external The RAP module allows up to six simultaneous applications can place requests to the radio via commands without communications on separate networks, these are half-duplex and the need of an operator. These requests include: getting the preset PTT communications. However, in a situation where all channels channel on the radio (preset page - PP), sending Short Data are busy there is no system for call management and prioritization. Messages (SDM's) and getting the list of participants in the radio In a scenario where an element on a given CP wants to network. communicate with someone in the lower echelons and this As mentioned earlier, RAP allows up to six simultaneous communication takes precedence over the communications already communications on separate networks, of which four allow for in progress, there is no call manager that terminates one call with phoning and data and the other two are used for phoning only. In lower precedence and allows the establishment of the new RAP, all radios will be connected to the SIC-T's tactical IP data communication with higher precedence. network. At the level of radio users, which are elements operating from According to the needs of the mission there should be at least tactical vehicles or pedestrian equipped with the GRC-525 one radio equipment of the six in the RAP intended for the Multifunctional Radio, are able to communicate with the upper establishment of peer-to-peer communications, this is, between a echelons through a previously designated or defined radio network. PC entity and another battlefield entity. It’s not possible to guarantee the confidentiality of communication between the parties involved in the communication, since all other II. RELATED WORK elements belonging to this radio network can listen the A. Tatical Communications communication. In this scenario, a mechanism to signal the Everywhere in the world, the military forces face challenges communication is needed, in order to inform the originator of the that are increasing difficulty. The current operating environment is call, which channel he can use for that specific communication. characterized by its complexity and it is in these scenarios that the Earlier solutions of the RAP where provided with a data military must be prepared to act, as well as their communications terminal attached to GRC-525 Multifunctional Radio provided to systems. Therefore, information and communication systems the radio users in order to receive signaling information with the should provide timely and effective access to the information to procedures to be followed before and during voice facilitate the decision-making support. In order to reduce communications [2]. uncertainty on the battlefield these systems must ensure B. Objectives information superiority, which is a key requirement for the mission This Master's Thesis aims to develop a Radio Over IP (RoIP) accomplishment [3]. Communications Management and Control System that The SIC-T is a modular system of an adaptive nature that dynamically and efficiently allows monitoring, Management and connects from the lowest echelons of command to the top Control System of communications between radio networks and IP command structure of a military force, in a secure, flexible and networks, implementing the RoIP concept. efficient manner. For this reason, it is called a tactical system This system should also ensure the selectivity of calls between because it follows and supports the tactical force when in a the command post and the particular entity in the theater of campaign situation, as can be seen in figure 2. 2 INSTITUTO SUPERIOR TÉCNICO, DECEMBER 2019 packet switching networks and therefore does not require dedicated physical circuits. Its use has also been found in Internet-based communication applications, such as some social media (WhatsApp, Facebook Messenger,…), as well as at the organizational level with their implementation in telephony systems based on IP networks. Data processing in VoIP takes place as follows: On the sender side, analog voice signals are converted to digital signals, compressed and then placed into a specific format using a voice codec, such as: G .711, G.729 and G.723. The coded voice will be divided into packets of the same size, to these packets will be added RTP, UDP, IP headers and the data link layer header. Figure 2 - SIC-T Architecture D. VoIP in the Radio Multifunctional GRC-525 B. GRC-525 Multifunctional Radio The GRC-525 Multifunctional Radio has the functionality of The GRC-525 Multifunctional Radio is a tactical transceiver VoIP service. This feature allows the establishment of voice that currently equips the Operational Elements of the Land Forces communications with a VoIP user, such as a VoIP phone that is System (ECOSF) in various versions (manpack, vehicular and present on the IP network [6]. fixed station) [4]. In addition to this feature, the radio also has a remote control With regard to security, the GRC-525 Multifunctional Radio capability, which can also be used when the radio is operating

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