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Table of Contents
What You Will Learn
- Why the defense market understood it needs top-notch commercial connectivity solutions.
- Why commercial radio is a stratgeic advantage for the military.
- What is the key difference between commercial and defense industry in terms of BVLOS and ConOps.
An interview with Roee Kashi,
Elsight’s co-founder & CTO and Co-chair of GSMA Drone-Interest Group
The rapid advancements in commercial communication systems are now finding their way into modern warfare, offering new possibilities and challenges. But how can commercial solutions fit in the complex and harsh battlefield?
AUVSI (Association of Uncrewed Vehicle Systems International) hosted Roee Kashi, Elsight’s co-founder & CTO and the co-chair of GSMA’s Drone-Interest group, to understand how commercial drone products are successfully adopted by the defense industry.
What prompted the defense industry’s interest in Elsight’s commercial technology?
Until about a year ago, Elsight primarily focused on the commercial market. Our BVLOS connectivity solution, Halo, was used in various applications. Walmart used DroneUp with Halo connectivity for parcel deliveries. ACSL Japan integrated Halo into its drones for logistic applications. SpeedBird Aero powered its fleet with Halo for global drone deliveries, and Airobotics got its FAA-type certificate with Halo.
However, following the events of October 7th, we saw a significant surge in orders from the defense market. Interestingly, we didn’t modify our products or solutions for this new sector. The defense market recognized that it needed top-notch commercial solutions to move quickly and cost-effectively, which led them to adopt our existing technology.
Why would the military need a commercial radio?
The Internet of Battlefields (IoB) already has advanced, military-grade options. However, military radios are designed for the worst-case scenarios, making them highly specialized and secure. This level of sophistication can sometimes be too good for a mission, ending up with the best technology locked in a safe because it may expose secret abilities or fall into the wrong hands. Consequently, these perfect radios are infrequently used to maintain their strategic advantage.
Commercial radios, on the other hand, offer a practical solution. They provide sufficient performance for many battlefield operations, and the military can freely use them in various environments without the concern of exposing classified technology.
The defense industry typically operates on long development cycles, with solutions developed over many years. However, modern threats evolve quickly, requiring rapid, innovative responses. This is where commercial technologies shine. They are readily available, cost-effective, and quickly adaptable for military use, making them a valuable asset in the face of rapidly unfolding threats.
For example, commercial communication systems offer valuable solutions in urban environments where quick deployment and reliable connectivity are essential. Although they have limitations, their adaptability makes them ideal for specific scenarios in modern warfare. By leveraging commercial solutions, the defense industry can respond to threats with the necessary speed, agility, and efficiency.
Despite their limitations, commercial UAV communication systems are valuable for specific scenarios in modern warfare, such as urban environments, where rapid deployment and reliable connectivity are essential.
How can a commercial solution fit into a complex and harsh battlefield environment?
Commercial operations operate under strict regulatory requirements that ensure reliable and safe operations. Consequently, the need for non-line-of-sight (NLOS) connectivity has driven the development of reliable commercial beyond visual line-of-sight (BVLOS) technologies. Top-notch technologies and solutions like non-GNSS systems, parachute deployment, vertical awareness, and more provide high availability, redundancy, and security and are rapidly adopted by the defense industry.
One key difference between the commercial and defense industries is their concept of operations (CONOPS). In the commercial world, BVLOS operations mean more than just flying beyond the pilot’s line of sight; they involve managing multiple drones or unmanned vehicles remotely from a control center, potentially anywhere in the world. This is a relatively new approach for the defense sector, which traditionally still employs field pilots for simple UAV solutions.
The shift to this new CONOPS transforms UAV operations in both commercial and defense sectors by introducing new elements and possibilities, enhancing how unmanned systems are utilized in complex and harsh environments.
Commercial radios provide sufficient performance for many battlefield scenarios, particularly in urban environments where quick deployment and reliable connectivity are critical.
How do commercial systems overcome the challenge of battlefield connectivity?
Battlefield connectivity requires robust, secure, and redundant communication paths. Relying on a single communication system is impractical. The key is to have as many communication paths as possible to enhance resilience against jamming, outages, and terrain changes. Multilink communications allow for seamless redundancy and more dynamic UAV operations, even in harsh conditions.
Elsight’s Halo solution is doing exactly that. For instance, when flying a drone remotely in the US, Halo can combine a point-to-point SDR (Software-defined Radio), T-Mobile’s 5G network, Verizon’s LTE network, and AT&T’s network. Private networks, such as Lockheed Martin’s 5G.mil, or satellite solutions like StarLink, Iridium, and Inmarsat, can also be used.
Emerging technologies like LTE and 5G over satellite can also expand the range of available communication paths. With the increasing number of companies entering the LEO (Low Earth Orbit) satellite market, these constellations make sense for better path, technology, and frequency redundancy.
Security is a top priority. Most of the operations, however, are not top secret, and commercial solutions can be a perfect match. For missions requiring secure communication, a double VPN approach is effective, establishing a VPN from the UAV to the station and another VPN inside the first, using different keys or vendors.
How do commercial systems transmit multi-link data?
The typical approach to managing multiple communication paths involves extensive customization. However, Elsight’s Halo offers a more efficient solution, creating a single logical layer encapsulating all communication paths, making them appear as one “pipe”. This logical pipe not only ensures connection confidence but also prevents disconnects at the application level by managing failures in the communication paths internally. The system dynamically steers traffic between available paths, maintaining control and uninterrupted video feeds.
It’s important to note that different communication paths sometimes connect to various places or servers. Public communication aggregated with point-to-point communication or private networks needs a soft handoff between networks. Data, telemetry, or a video stream that starts from a public network must seamlessly hand off to a point-to-point SDR.
Here’s how it works:
Like Elsight’s Halo, a drone connectivity solution may aggregate multiple radios, including point-to-point, mesh network, private 5G, satellite, and public commercial networks like Verizon, AT&T, and T-Mobile.
Halo splits the data across these paths, ensuring high availability and redundancy, while adding an extra layer of security. If one channel is intercepted, data cannot be interpreted due to data distribution across multiple paths.
To ensure a seamless handoff, the Halo duplicates data streams among the different networks and de-duplicates them at the control center, ensuring a smooth and uninterrupted operation. For example, Halo sends one copy of the telemetry and video via LTE/5G to the server, which forwards it to the ground Halo for the operator. Another copy travels through a parallel link from the aerial Halo via PTP SDR or private 5G to the ground Halo in the Ground Control Station (GCS) that de-duplicates and normalizes the streams.
This method doesn’t replace existing military networks but enhances them, adding more technologies, frequency ranges, and bandwidth options. Various applications can send data through multiple paths with different priorities. If an SDR connection fails, telemetry and video continue functioning as long as one path remains available. This approach, tested in both commercial and defense markets, showcases the versatility and reliability of commercial systems like Elsight’s Halo in overcoming battlefield connectivity challenges.
What are the typical military use cases you encounter?
Commercial connectivity solutions have already demonstrated flexibility and reliability in addressing the complex and harsh environments of military operations. Here are a few typical examples:
1. Beyond Visual Line of Sight (BVLOS) Operations:
Operating UAVs beyond line of sight presents a significant challenge. Standard SDRs often fail without a mesh network that includes multiple nodes and relays. By changing the CONPOS (Concept of Operation) and understanding that you can extend connectivity to leverage all the available networks in the area – public cellular networks, private networks, satellite constellations etc., drones can maintain the mission even when the SDR connection is lost. With the right modems, UAVs can use multiple communication paths, in parallel or based on prioritization, encapsulating the transmission within one logical connectivity layer and ensuring continuous C2 and video channels as long as any communication path is active. This approach doesn’t replace SDR but adds more communication paths.
2. Connectivity in jammed areas:
Maintaining UAV connectivity in areas with heavy jamming is challenging. The Halo system leverages off-the-shelf SDRs, modems, and various frequency ranges, from 600 MHz (T-Mobile) to 6 GHz (5G and LTE) to continuously transmit data. Aggregating traffic into a logical layer of connectivity above a wide frequency band from 600 MHZ (TMobile) to 6 GHz (5G and LTE) makes it extremely challenging to jam transmission. Instead of trying to overpower jammers, Halo utilizes all available communications, which is much harder to jam.
3. Tethered drones for surveillance:
Tethered drones can serve as instant surveillance towers, providing quick lookouts on the battlefield where building permanent towers is impractical. Tethered drones offer a portable option for perimeter security with reliable video transmission locally and to remote control centers. During perimeter security, when the operator detaches the tether to inspect suspicious activity, a logical tunnel, such as the Halo’s, ensures continued transmission through parallel cellular or radio networks.
4. Real-time video transmission to decision-makers:
Real-time video footage can be transmitted to the military HQ directly from the UAV itself, the ground pilot, or the GCS (ground Control Center), so decision-makers can have real-time situational awareness, make faster decisions, and communicate them to the field.
What is Elsight’s Halo?
Elsight’s Halo is a BVLOS communication solution that combines multiple communication paths into a single logical layer of connectivity to provide communication confidence regardless of whether some paths are jammed, blocked by terrain, or just remote. Elsight’s Halo aggregates multiple public and private communications networks, satellite communication, and local point-to-point SDRs into a virtual pipe with soft handoff between the networks for built-in redundancy.
Halo automatically maps the cellular signal levels of all carriers in an operating area so drone operators can plan the best flight course. The accumulated signal heat map includes position, UAV angle, the Received Signal Strength Indicator (RSSI), Reference Signals Received Power (RSRP), Reference Signals Received Quality (RSRQ), and all the information from the different modem SIM cards.
Elsight’s Halo solution has a minimal footprint – low power consumption, small weight, and size – to fit any commercial or military UAV.
Watch the webinar here
FAQs
1. What is Elsight’s Halo, and how does it differ from traditional military radios?
Halo is a multilink connectivity platform designed for uncrewed and autonomous systems operating in BVLOS and contested environments. Unlike traditional military radios, which typically rely on a single communication channel, Halo aggregates multiple communication networks into a single resilient logical connection. The platform seamlessly reroutes traffic to the best available links, maintaining mission connectivity even in challenging environments. This approach improves operational continuity, flexibility, and bandwidth while eliminating single points of failure.
2. Which networks and radios does Halo support?
Halo supports a wide range of communication technologies, including commercial LTE and 5G carriers, private cellular networks, MANET/P2P, mesh networks, and satellite communications. The platform enables operators to combine and prioritize multiple available links based on mission requirements and network conditions.
3. How does Halo maintain connectivity and prevent service interruptions in jammed or contested environments?
Halo bonds multiple communication links, continuously monitoring the quality and availability of all connected links and dynamically rerouting traffic through the best available networks. Seamless handoffs ensure operational continuity even when individual networks are degraded, congested, denied, or jammed. This multilink architecture improves resilience for command and control, telemetry, and ISR data transmission in contested environments.
4. How is data secured when using multiple commercial and public networks?
Halo uses AES-256-CBC encryption, VPN tunneling, and packet-level traffic distribution across multiple communication links to secure operational data. Splitting encrypted traffic across separate networks reduces single point vulnerabilities and improves resilience against interception and network compromise.
5. What integrations, certifications, or real-world deployments demonstrate Halo’s suitability for defense use?
Halo has been integrated into a wide range of UAV, UGV, and autonomous system platforms supporting defense, public safety, and critical infrastructure operations. The platform has participated in U.S. defense-focused initiatives including DIU-related programs and was added to the DCMA Blue UAS Cleared List following rigorous evaluation. Halo also supports compliance with FAA and EASA certifications.
