Transforming Network Management for the Future Army Networks

Network management has been used in daily operations for decades to maintain Army networks. With the inclusion of Mobile Ad hoc NETworks MANETs as tactical networks, we believe that the role and function of network management need adjustment. MANETs can provide the agility required by the future Army force however, their topology will not be static, their wireless radio connectivity will not be stable, and their bandwidth capacity will not be abundant. Given that several ongoing programs including FCS, WIN-T and JTRS are jointly shaping the outlook of the future Army tactical networks with MANETs, it is imperative to ensure that the future Army networks will be integrated seamlessly so that they can deliver desirable communications performance to support network centric warfare. We envision that network management will play a key role in ensuring communications performance. Since network centric warfare will require the highest possible performance from the networks, the focus of network management must transition from maintaining network operations to providing optimal communications services. In this paper, we describe the issues and challenges in providing seamless communications services for the future Army networks, and discuss the path forward for supporting the vision of network centric warfare by means of transforming network management.