Pentagon eyes mobile MIMO networking capability

A Pentagon rendering of distributed tactical networks with D-MIMO-enabled communication nodes. (US Department of Defense )

Information and network technology specialists at the US Department of Defense (DoD) are poised to evaluate potential solutions to meet multi-input, multi-output (MIMO) requirements for on-the-move tactical communication networks.

Industry submissions for the distributed MIMO (D-MIMO) development effort are due to the department's Research and Engineering directorate by the end of June, according to the request for sources (RFS) solicitation issued in April. The D-MIMO programme is part of a larger DoD-led advanced mobile communications development effort known as the Innovate Beyond 5G (IB5G) programme.

Research and development (R&D) work conducted under the IB5G umbrella will focus on design, prototyping, and integration of “novel IB5G network concepts and components” to support the department's data-centric networked communication strategy.

Specifically, the IB5G initiative is looking to leverage advanced technology concepts like human-to-machine and machine-to-machine interfaced communications and scaling those systems and applications to the internet of things (IoT), according to the RFS.

“Besides the emphasis on new components and features, of equal significance are modes of management of such tactical networks in the presence of adversarial operations, which exploit advantages resulting from new 5G standalone network architectures as well as integration of intelligent, autonomous operations,” the solicitation said.

“Accordingly, IB5G is interested in novel advances and engineered solutions on the multiple fronts enabled by commercial 5G technology as a configurable jump-off baseline,” it added.