US Navy plans deployment of LTE-like networks on board warships

Men and women in the Navy have to make a lot of sacrifices while out at sea, being cut out from land, their families and friends for months in a row. However, US sailors might enjoy a bit of extra comfort while on service soon, as plans of fitting Navy ships with LTE-like networks surfaced last week.

While US Navy ships are already connected to the Internet in one way or another, the speed of the service is a huge problem for sailors. Wired.com reported a while back that dial-up speeds are common while out at sea, making communication via the web difficult, to say the least, for US seamen. This is because the Internet is accessed via satellite links, which quickly get overcrowded. However, the situation might be alleviated by the deployment of a new type of communication network on board of Navy ships.

The U.S.S. Kearsarge assault ship, the U.S.S. San Antonio transport dock, and the U.S.S. Whidbey Island dock landing ship will be the first three ships to receive a brand-new microwave-based wireless wide area network (WWAN) by the end of the year. The ships will go through some tests and the WWAN network might then be deployed on several other ships in the US Navy. The main exercise designed to test the network will see the 26^th Marine Expeditionary Unit board a ship that was “hijacked” by pirates. Sailors will then attempt to use their smartphones to send video and data back to the ship.

“What we’ve collectively developed is a ruggedized, ocean-going LTE network similar to what you’d find with telecom providers like Verizon or AT&T” said Phillip Cramer, one of the VPs at BATS Wireless. BATS, founded in 2008, will be the company behind the project, helped by Oceus and Cambium.

According to official claims, the 4G LTE network will not be part of the ships’ communications systems, but will only help sailors easily communicate via smartphones and other gadgets. The ships’ personnel will most likely use regular Android devices with NSA-provided security systems and data encryption to access the new network.

BATS’ LTE network should work from distances of up to 20 nautical miles and offer a 300 Mbps data transfer rate. “From a speed standpoint, our aggregate throughput of 300 Mb is much greater when within line of sight than the existing satellite communications” said Doug Abbots, a spokesman for the Navy’s Naval Air Systems Command. These excellent data transfer speeds ensure time that personnel will have no problems in sharing video files, text, and voice in a matter of seconds.

Abbots has also told Wired.com that, if the test set to take place later this year (no date has been specified) will prove successful, “there are several agencies interested in the evaluation of the system in a Maritime environment”.

Keep in touch with our website to find out more about the development of the system in the next months.

Samsung cracks the 5G code, available to consumers by 2020

131

111

by Adam Koueider, 1 week ago

If you’ve come to the conclusion that 4G LTE simply isn’t fast enough for you, you’re in luck. That is if you can wait until 2020. On Sunday, Samsung announced that it had developed a…

Comments

Balraj

Wow nice
Atleast he is better than Apple
Who tells you to live with problems that came with iphone 5 body…….
mjolnirxz

Respect.
702Mike

And its no wonder as to why HTC is low on their profits. An apology is nice but what about the Rezound? If there’s one thing I’ve learned, its that nothing travels faster than word of mouth. If they want to sell more new product they need to start supporting the old much more effectively. Happy customers will return and spread the word. Its not that difficult. As for us HTC is done and Samsung is getting our upgrades. I’ve watched them right behind moto in jelly bean updates for devices that are older than the Rezound. Seriously get it together HTC.
- amine ELouakil
  
  Just a suggestion, NEVER buy carrier specific phones, because it’s the OEM loses almost any control they have on the phone. at least the DNA is a butterfly but for the rest … nah
lil bit

But this is just the tip of the iceberg, HTCs bad products goes way beyond the thunderbolt. Why on earth didnt they respond to warranty issues when they were on top, when they had the cash, why did they have to put defective phones in storage, silently, and then return them unrepaired when the customer was already so angry that they could see the smoke signals coming out their ears all the way in taiwan, instead of replacing them? They pissed people off so badly that it has no historic parallels, no apology can fix that, the customers never got a working product or any form of compensation.

Never trust HTC, they are so full of silent arrogance that its for the best for the buyers if they go out of business. A serious company like ZTE or Huawei should buy HTC to reset their bad merits, let their sins die on the cross of the current CEO.
- lil bit
  
  Just keep an eye on the button problems of HTC One, they will not go away, this is exactly the kind of thing HTC does, promises to fix with updates what is actually a manufacturing defect that cannot be fixed through software. Just wait and see, history is repeating itself, the problem will persist.
  - amine ELouakil
    
    switch your phone under warranty. I have no button issue
  - Garry DeWitt
    
    given that the latest OTA for INT versions seems to fix the sensitivity issue for the one (or at least it’s mentioned in the change log, and Ive seen good results on XDA, and for myself), I think your example may be a little bit off.