US military takes aim at secure wireless

US researchers have developed a secure wireless Ultra Wideband (UWB) data communication network that can be used to help monitor US Air Force bases and Department of Energy nuclear facilities, in addition to wirelessly controlling remotely operated weapons systems.

Sandia National Laboratories, a Lockheed Martin company working for the US Department of Energy's National Nuclear Security Administration, created the infrastructure in co-operation with Time Domain Corporation and KoolSpan.

The secure wireless system uses UWB with the encryption protection of the 256-bit Advanced Encryption Standard to form UWB/AES.

According to its creators, the technology can enable the deployment of advanced sensors created by fusing UWB communication with UWB radar that can be used to detect intrusion for the protection of tactical forces and forward bases.

"In an age of electromagnetic warfare and increasing threats from malevolent radio frequency (RF) attacks from high-tech adversaries, UWB is of strategic value providing stealth for covert operation by hiding within the noise floor to prevent detection and where other forms of RF communication find it virtually impossible to operate," said Sandia.

"UWB's probability of survival increases in a toxic RF battlefield when compared to many other forms of RF."

The researchers explained that UWB, also known as impulse radio, is different because it does not use a carrier as do other forms of RF for wireless networking or communication technologies.

Instead UWB transmits a flood of ultra-short microwave pulses of energy on the order of 100 pico-seconds in duration that extend over an extremely wide band of energy covering several gigahertz of frequency.

"With the spreading of impulse energy over such a wide frequency spectrum, the signal power falls near or within the noise floor making these signals extremely difficult to detect, intercept or jam and, when combined with AES, virtually impossible to crack," said H Timothy Cooley, senior scientific engineer at Sandia.

"Utilising the immense available spectrum of UWB also improves wireless performance to accommodate the increased data rate needed by advanced sensors."

Among the key wireless features of the UWB/AES are its IP network compatibility and its 'per-packet' rotating 256-bit encryption keys for even greater crypto-protection.

The UWB/AES network architecture requires no computing infrastructure, provides real-time hardware encryption, and requires zero maintenance for complete self-recovery if interrupted or when a sensor goes down, Cooley added.

Based on tests conducted at the KoolSpan Encryption Laboratory in Santa Clara this spring, Sandia with KoolSpan demonstrated a wireless UWB network bridge with real-time 256-bit AES encryption for live-streaming video images generated from a surveillance camera or thermal imager.

The tests used only microwatts of transmitted power, approximately 1,000 times less power than typically used by conventional wireless IEEE 802.11b or Wi-Fi.