Rapidly Deployed 5G Communications System for Military Operations

Months

Partners

Phases

Test Cases

Overall Concept

Modern warfare requires the delivery of secure communication on the battlefield based on real-time high-speed data. Current military communication systems rely mostly on high frequency (HF) communications, which cannot provide such capability due to limitations imposed by the ionosphere. 5G-MILNET proposes the design of a portable, secure, and cost-effective 5G-based communications bubble, which can be rapidly deployed on the battlefield. The backhaul links with the headquarters (HQ) will be established through the deployment of airborne units of drones guided by swarm intelligence and positioned in strategic locations that, through secure device-to-device communication, will backhaul the signal between the forward operations and the HQ.

Overall Concept

5G-MILNET proposes the design of a portable, secure, and cost-effective 5G-based communications bubble, which can be rapidly deployed on the battlefield. The backhaul links with the headquarters (HQ) will be established through the deployment of airborne units of drones guided by swarm intelligence and positioned in strategic locations that, through secure device-to-device communication, will backhaul the signal between the forward operations and the HQ.

Objectives

Objective 1

To study and design a zero-touch, robust, secure, cost-effective, rapidly deployable communication system that supports improved network performance on the battlefield via 5G and beyond technologies.

Objective 2

Facilitate joint mesh backhauling of airborne 5G base stations and side-link of 5G User Equipment (UEs) for coverage extension and resiliency.

Objective 3

Adopt graphene-based materials for improving the performance and portability of the 5G-MILNET system.

Objective 4

Facilitate increased system resilience to cyberattacks and RF jamming attacks.

Objective 5

Validate the capabilities and performance of the 5G-MILNET-enabling technologies in the lab.

Objective 6

Maximise the impact of 5G-MILNET through exhaustive means of dissemination, communication, exploitation, standardisation, and capacity-building activities.