The Automated Digital Network System (ADNS) Interface to Transformational Satellite Communications System (TSAT)

The U. S. Department of Defense (DoD) is in the initial phase of building the Global Information Grid (GIG), a private secure internetwork connecting a number of its joint and service-specific IP networks. Two of these networks are the Automated Digital Network System (ADNS) and the Transformational Satellite Communications System (TSAT). ADNS provides network services and entry into the Defense Information System Network (DISN) for U.S. Navy ships, submarines and shore facilities. ADNS is the Navy´s primary tactical wide area network (WAN) and intends to provide optimal use of the bandwidth assigned by the system to Unclassified, Secret, Sensitive Compartmented Information (SCI), and Joint and Coalition networks. TSAT provides the space-based backbone transport segment of the future DISN. It is a joint, global network of geo-synchronous satellites and IP-enabled terminals. The interface between TSAT and the ADNS system represents a variation of the traditional provider-customer relationship developed in the commercial sector.