Ku-band SATCOM on-the move network

Military deployments over the last 10 years have demonstrated deficiencies in the ability of the existing communications infrastructure to meet the warfighter´s operational needs. Line-of-sight communications cannot easily support widely dispersed forces or forces in mountainous terrain. Quickly moving forces make traditional beyond-line-of-sight methods such as satellite-based on-the-pause cumbersome at best. Furthermore the move toward network-centric applications has made broadband network connectivity a necessity. The on-the-move (OTM) communications network described in this paper meets these operational needs using Ku-band satellites and is more scaleable than L-band approaches such as INMARSAT. In the paper we describe how the network is better suited to OTM operations than other architectures; in particular allowing smaller apertures than otherwise possible and better accommodating blockage as experienced in the land-mobile environment