Interoperability & Security

REDCOM builds the interfaces and supports the protocols that enable secure and interoperable communications for government and defense users. REDCOM solutions connect multi-technology networks for Joint, NATO, and Coalition Forces, delivering maximum interoperability including: SIP, SCIP, V.150.1, T.38, IPv4, IPv6, ANSI 619a, MLPP, Q.955, C7, SS7, GR-303, V5.2, CAS, DTMF, MFC/R2, MF/R1, FGC, CLASS, ISDN, PRI/BRI and Euro ISDN.

REDCOM's TRANSip® for Government & Defense is based on the SIP industry standard and is the breakthrough technology behind the REDCOM HDX and SLICE 2100, delivering tactical, strategic and secure VoIP through an integrated SIP Call Manager with IP Trunking, Media Gateway and Media Gateway Controller capabilities. The TRANSip suite enables the convergence of tactical and strategic networks built from a broad range of technologies, including:

• Data: VoIP, IPv4, IPv6, SIP, LCC
• Conventional: T1, E1, ISDN, EURO-ISDN, SS7, C7, GR-303, V5.2, E&M, Loop, MFC R2, Magneto.
• Satellite: IP, C5, T1, E1, echo cancelling
• Radio: Military & commercial, PTT, VOX, DTMF
• Secure Interfaces: Sectera SWT, SWT-R, V.150.1 for GD vIPer phones, Secure Iridium Gateway, STE-R, SCIP (FNBDT), TRI-TAC, Secure Radio, KY-68.

IP is changing the way the government and military communicates. In the transition to VoIP, wholesale replacement of legacy TDM is not only expensive but unrealistic. REDCOM's HDX and SLICE 2100 were designed to be fully integrated TDM and VoIP migration platforms so that warfighters can migrate to IP when it makes sense, avoiding forklift replacements with a phased approach that works seamlessly with current infrastructure.

JITC Certification

REDCOM's HDX, SLICE and SLICE 2100 (Version 3.0) have been certified by the Defense Information Systems Agency's Joint Interoperability Testing Command (JITC) and placed on JITC's Defense Switched Network Approved Products List (APL). With the Version 3.0 certification and listing on JITC's APL, warfighters can be confident when it comes to the interoperability and information assurance of REDCOM products operating in a Joint environment. HDX and SLICE 2100 are the only fully integrated VoIP and TDM solutions listed on the JITC APL, giving warfighters all the benefits of IP while preserving the functionality of existing infrastructure.

Legacy of Innovation

Over the past 25 years, REDCOM has extensive experience providing rugged and reliable communications systems for the U.S. military and foreign militaries. REDCOM has a long history of successful deployments in leading Department of Defense (DoD) communications programs, such as the U.S. Air Force's TDC-ICAP, U.S. Army's JNN, and the Marine Corps' DTC, JECCS and TSM, as well as the U.S. Navy's Virginia Class submarine and British Navy's Astute Class submarine.

Regardless of the military mission, REDCOM’s portfolio of softswitches delivers highly reliable and easily deployable VoIP and TDM functionality for both tactical and strategic applications. Whether they need the transportability and small footprint of the SLICE 2100 in a slim 1U platform for tactical communications deployments, or the scalable and stackable HDX “building block” approach for reach back support for warfighters in the field, REDCOM has the secure, tactical and strategic solution platforms to meet DoD’s requirements.

Real-World Secure, Converged Network Interoperability for the U.S.-Joint Coalition Environment

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Military communications today are diverse and converged technology networks. The convergence of tactical and strategic networks around a broad range of technologies, including VoIP, TDM, SATCOM, cellular, tactical radios, SCIP cryptographic devices, WiFi, and WiMAX, make it a very challenging heterogeneous environment in which to deploy, network and operate. The “real world” of military communications for years to come will be a diverse and converged network including IP, TDM, and other legacy or emerging technologies.

Joint interoperability of these converged networks is a significant problem across the U.S. military services, as well as among NATO allies and Coalition partners. Among the challenges is the severe lack of interoperability between the users of VoIP and TDM networks. Warfighters today are divided by networks that do not lend themselves easily to interoperability, so that warfighters in the IP world, for instance, can’t reach warfighters located in the TDM world and vice versa.

Placing a secure, point-to-point call in this kind of segregated communications environment has been a difficult problem to resolve, especially with the challenge of ensuring that multi-technology networks are interoperable and provide a secure link between disparate networks. However, the solution for U.S. Joint, NATO, and Coalition interoperability must be based on published standards and utilize off-the-shelf fielded encryption devices, all of which are the key to a successfully converged communications network and successful missions.

Introduction

Thanks to published standards, secure and interoperable C2 communications is now possible. At NATO’s 3rd Secure Communications Interoperability Protocol (SCIP) Experimentation held October 27–29, 2008 in The Hague, the participants were able to successfully demonstrate secure end-to-end communications between the different manufacturers’ IP and TDM terminals.

The success of secure calls at NATO’s 3rd SCIP Experimentation between terminals on separate but interconnected PSTN/ISDN, Analog and IP circuits and networks demonstrate that establishing secure interoperability is now a proven capability. This Secure VoIP - Secure TDM interoperability using published standards is critical during the global transition from circuit-switched networks to packet-switched networks.

Specifically, the use of ITU’s V.150.1 (Modem over Internet Protocol) to support IP to TDM interoperability of SCIP-encrypted secure voice is a valuable tool for converged networks supporting secure voice requirements. In addition, the compatibility between the different SCIP technologies, wired and wireless, allows for secure access and interoperability to tactical radio, which demonstrates that seamless, secure interoperability between fixed and mobile tactical military users is also a capability to be deployed in support of a joint operating environment.

Linking IP and TDM

To date, the military has been trying to perform patch work to get the IP and TDM worlds to interconnect with each other. However, the separation between circuit switched and packet switched networks is so vast that in some cases warfighters in the field are forced to buy commercial cellular phones to coordinate their activities, because trying to link together the disparate networks is almost impossible.

Tour a typical Tactical Operations Center and you’ll find multiple phones from different networks that are not interconnected. Standard procedure is to hand off calls from one warfighter to another in order to reach across the chasm of networks. However, based on the published Session Initiation Protocol (SIP) standard, technology exists today to deliver easy-to-use, seamless, secure tactical and strategic VoIP - TDM interoperability.

Solving today’s interoperability problem is directly tied to published standards and interfaces. These VoIP and TDM standards and interfaces are the key to achieving joint interoperability across the military services, as well as among America’s allies and coalition partners. Technology has evolved to the point where warfighters can pick up the phone, dial the required digits, and have their calls go through, regardless of whether they (or the intended recipient) are using IP-based or TDM-based phones.

V.150.1 and SCIP

Modem traffic over both circuit-switched networks and packet-based networks is a requirement for today’s real-world hybrid networks. Modem over Internet Protocol (MoIP) technology ensures that as networks migrate from TDM to an IP infrastructure they are still able to handle calls generated by dial-up modems or initiated for an encrypted IP phone. In order to support Secure VoIP ↔ Secure TDM user calls, the modem in the analog voice encryption device must be satisfied.

The challenge was creating a standard for IP networks that supported dial-up modem calls. This has been accomplished with the ITU’s publication of the V.150.1 standard, which defines how to relay data into and out of an IP network via a modem. One of the benefits of the V.150.1 modem relay application is that it requires significantly lower bandwidth, compared to G.711, when interconnecting via IP transmission to SCIP devices located in TDM networks (diagram 1).

Diagram 1: V.150.1 Modem Relay Application

SCIP is a standardized framework to allow end-to-end encryption over heterogeneous networks.

A SCIP device has a myriad of benefits for a number of communications scenarios including single-dial access to Voice over Secure IP (VoSIP) networks. A SCIP user in a non-secure network, VoIP or TDM, can have a daunting challenge locating and navigating through a VoSIP Gateway to connect securely with a VoSIP user. Imagine, for instance, being locked away in a VoSIP network and not being able to quickly, easily and securely access the person you need to speak with outside the VoSIP network or vice versa.

However, a warfighter located in a non-secure VoIP or TDM network using a SCIP device can simply dial the published VoSIP user’s station number and the secure call will be translated correctly and delivered to the VoSIP user. No secondary dial tone or over-dialing is required in this scenario. The REDCOM Advanced VoSIP Gateway Application was most recently demonstrated and documented at JUICE 2009.

Below is an Advanced VoSIP/SCIP Gateway Application (diagram 2) that lays out the many possible secure call strings. 

Diagram 2: Advanced VoSIP/SCIP Gateway: Single Dial Interoperability

3rd SCIP Experimentation

NATO’s 3rd SCIP Experimentation consisted of a number of heterogeneous networks including ISDN, PSTN, GSM, VoIP and tactical radio. The network configuration provided for the 3rd SCIP Experimentation was similar to that used the two previous years, but with provision of IP–ISDN interfaces. Additionally, the network was extended with a small GSM “pico-cell” and a tactical radio network.

Two REDCOM SLICE® 2100™ switches with TRANSip® supporting V.150.1 were utilized for the 3rd SCIP Experimentation. The REDCOM SLICE 2100s were connected via an IP trunk. One SLICE 2100 was also connected to the NATO Consultation, Command and Control Agency (NC3A) TEMPLE Laboratory via an E1 connection (this allowed a connection to the reference networks for NATO circuit-switched strategic networks). The other SLICE 2100 was connected via IP to a GSM pico-cell (diagram 3).

Diagram 3: NATO SCIP Experimentation 2008

An additional IP switch was provided by NC3A. This was connected to the IP side of one SLICE 2100, and through the IP infrastructure in the TEMPLE Laboratory (providing a connection through the reference networks for NATO packet switched strategic networks). A tactical radio network was connected to the NC3A- provided IP LAN.

Successful secure calls were established between the various SCIP enabled devices.

Conclusion

NATO’s 3rd SCIP Experimentation in October 2008 clearly and successfully demonstrated SCIP calls between circuit-switched SCIP terminals on PSTN or ISDN networks and packet-switched SCIP terminals on IP networks.

The success of secure calls between terminals on PSTN/ISDN and IP networks is great news for the U.S. military, NATO allies and Coalition partners, who are searching for ways to achieve secure interoperability during the transition from circuit switched to packet switched networks. The use of the V.150.1 modem over IP capability to support IP to TDM interoperability of SCIP encrypted secure voice has been successfully demonstrated as a viable option for providing both security and  interoperability.

In addition, the success of NATO’s 3rd SCIP Experimentation demonstrated the value of an integrated VoIP and TDM switch within a single platform (REDCOM SLICE 2100) acting as a proven SCIP Gateway, while supporting V.150.1 with an integrated SIP Call Manager with IP Trunking, Media Gateway and Media Gateway Controller capabilities.