BBN Technologies

DARPA's Disruption Tolerant Networking Program Combines Wireless, Satellite and Vehicles for Data Delivery

Cambridge, Mass., August 2, 2005 — BBN Technologies, an advanced technology and research and development firm, announced today that it has been awarded $2.2M in funding by the Department of Defense's Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) under its Disruption Tolerant Networking (DTN) Program. This funding will cover the first phase of the project, during which BBN will design and simulate the network architecture.

Traditional IP networks rely on an end-to-end connectivity, which means data can be sent only when there is an identifiable path all the way to the destination. In wireless networks, terrain, weather, jamming, movement or destruction of the nodes, or other factors often disrupt connectivity, making it impossible to predetermine a path and halting the flow of message traffic. In contrast, the DTN will be able to send data "toward" the destination even when there is no complete identifiable path all the way to the destination.

"The U.S. Military has complex and dynamic network needs," said Tad Elmer, president and CEO, BBN Technologies. "The DTN will allow for the creation of an 'on-demand' network that can adapt to these changing needs and overcome obstacles that stymie traditional IP networks."

A key aspect of the DTN is its ability to opportunistically communicate using episodically or intermittently available links. To accomplish this, it will organize information into bundles rather than packets and will route the bundles through intelligent "custodians" that augment traditional routers. These custodians will be responsible for advancing the bundles to the next node en route to their destination. In some cases, that may require initiating novel methods of advancing the information, such as using unmanned aerial vehicles to advance message traffic when there is an obstacle in the path-whether it be geographic or structural-or in the presence of an enemy threat. The result will be a network that functions in the changing and unpredictable environments where reliable communications are most challenging and most critical.

The DTN Program is based on work on delay-tolerant networks begun by the Internet Engineering Task Force's Delay Tolerant Networking Research Group, which focuses on networks that must tolerate delays at interplanetary scales.

About BBN Technologies
BBN Technologies, an advanced technology solutions firm, is focused on solving some of the world's most pressing problems. From national security, information security, speech recognition and language translation, to integrating disparate systems and networks, BBN has been at the forefront of technological change for over 50 years.

Known for pioneering the development of the ARPANET, the forerunner of the Internet, BBN continues to create advances in Internet and networking technologies through its work on ad hoc networking, the semantic web, quantum communications, and advanced protocols. Building on its substantial list of firsts, BBN operates the first metro quantum cryptography network, the first real-time foreign broadcast monitoring system, and has developed the world's first stereoscopic digital mammography system. For more information on BBN Technologies, visit www.bbn.com.