The US Department of Defense (DoD) has placed production contracts in excess of $11m with ViaSat to provide Joint IP Modem Network Control Centers (NCCs), remote modems, and Joint IP Modem upgrades.
Under the contract, the company will modernise the Joint IP Modem to ensure efficient regional connectivity within a wider global network presence.
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The orders will help the DoD complete the introduction of interoperable network services to warfighters from teleports and strategic tactical entry points (STEPs).
ViaSat Tactical Satellite Networks general manager Bill Connelly said: "The US government relies on commercial satellites for nearly 80% of its leased transponder capacity needs.
"Given the current inefficiencies resulting from the operation of multiple, incompatible DoD networks, we expect this efficient, interoperable open-standard Joint IP Modem to reduce redundancy in expensive satellite bandwidth while shrinking logistics, sustainment, and training costs."
Intended to establish warfighter/service network interoperability, the Joint IP Modem programme also aims to promote and enable satellite bandwidth efficiency as well as disparate network convergence.
Offering nearly 330Mbps of total forward link, TRANSEC coverage, and IPv6 capacity to each remote modem including a return link up to 8Msps, the Joint IP Modem hardware is the latest open-standards based satellite networking technology.
Designed for extended product life and to accept additional enhancements through software upgrades, each of the remote modem consists of packet processing power to enable line speed operation for maximum warfighter flexibility.
In order to deliver unprecedented bandwidth efficiency in varying conditions, the ViaSat layered quality of service (QoS) architecture is integrated with adaptive coding and modulation (ACM), variable coding and modulation (VCM) and dynamic link adaptation (DLA).
