Government Reference Architecture Extensions for Application to Base Stations

The Government Reference Architecture (GRA) is a reference architecture for modularized communications terminals. To date, the definitions in this reference architecture have centered upon the control plane and the data plane for software defined radios. This paper details the reference architecture components needed to extend the architecture to support tactical wireless base stations that can support different networks, potentially from different vendors, connected to the communications terminal. The advantages of utilizing commercial LTE (Long Term Evolution) cellular technology are described. Use of GRA to deploy LTE equipment for a military tactical base station is viewed as a near term application. As a long term objective, a plan for leveraging the security and integrity advantages of component based system design is described to make systems employing commercial cellular components more appropriate for military environments. The result is a communications node capable of supporting LOS (Line of Sight), SATCOM and wireless base stations, managing the flow of data going over varying bandwidth backhaul links or tactical radios, and all controlled locally or remotely via a single network manager. This paper provides a conceptual architecture for a fully interoperable and inter-dependent architecture supporting legacy and future communications equipment.