How IT pros keep communications running in the desert and under fire
This was a good insight in to equipment and gear used by .mil.
http://www.computerworld.com/action/art ... c=hm_topic
What these guys do
is different from most commercial networks, because while most of them just have to provide one consolidated LAN or WAN, we actually have to provide multiple distinct networks. One is SIPRNet, which stands for Secret Internet Protocol — it's a classified network. We also provide NIPRNet, which is the Not Secret Internet Protocol.
And in many cases, we provide a third network, JWICS [Joint Worldwide Intelligence Communications System], which is a top-secret network. Unclassified, secret, top secret: three different networks that don't touch each other at all, and they're all provided in many cases at very austere, very small locations.
Fielden: For Balad, that's very true. We're providing all three of those networks. At other bases, we're providing SIPRNet and NIPRNet connectivity, and at some of our still-smaller forward operating locations, we're just providing NIPRNet.
Dedham: In Afghanistan, we use virtual LANs to distribute our networks. There are seven different networks we provide: the three they mentioned, plus plain old Internet; and then we have two NATO classified networks, and finally a bigger secure coalition network for countries outside of NATO. So seven different networks that we're running, with the associated information systems: e-mail, databases and so on.
DNR[/quote]We actually have several vans that we interconnect together. So the network control center, the data warehouse, is in one van; I have the control facility for circuit routing in a second van of about the same size; I've got a phone switch in another van; I've got a monitoring center in yet another van.