Planning an Airborne High-Capacity Backbone (HCB) an Operational Approach

Traditionally, the sizing of network links (pipes) has used a great deal of engineering discipline and some measure of judgment or "engineering art". Unfortunately human predictions for future needs tend to be unreliable. Key systems engineering and project management challenges occur when the projections for the amount of information flow over some planned pipes are uncertain and vary by orders of magnitude. Another challenge occurs when users are not sure how to use a new capability. This paper explores these problems in the context of how to design and build a High-Capacity Backbone (HCB) capability for the Airborne Network (AN) in a manner that allows for system evolution as user needs become clearer and as technology evolves. The approach taken includes a look at the basic assumptions driving much of the current activity in AN and HCB planning and challenges those assumptions with alternatives. It then departs on a series of analogies to "right-sizing" network pipes to allow for flexibility and system evolution, applies those best-practices and lessons-learned from complex systems engineering challenges to the HCB problem, and recommends a way ahead for planning the HCB for the AN.