DARPA commissioning ad-hoc smart phone network
The Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency has tapped McLean, Va.-based Science Applications International Corporation to develop a mobile ad-hoc network for smart phones, according to a Defense Department release.
DARPA’s use of mobile ad-hoc networks is nothing new and goes back as far as the 1990s. More recently the networks have been used for on-the-move communications in combat between coalition partners.
For example, in 2010 DARPA partnered with Raytheon to develop the Mobile Ad-Hoc Interoperable Network GATEway (MAINGATE) to improve the second-generation mobile ad-hoc network being used in Iraq and Afghanistan.
Under the new $8 million cost-plus-fixed-fee contract, SAIC “will provide a flexible smart phone mobile ad-hoc network, associated development and test framework to ensure successful integration and validation of content-based mobile edge networking technology developer solutions,” according to the contract announcement.
Work will take place at SAIC's McLean headquarters and is expected to be completed by June 2014.
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Amber Corrin is a staff writer covering defense and national security for Federal Computer Week. Follow her on Twitter: @AmberInsideDOD.