ONR Scientist Awarded for 'Game-Changing' Research on Wireless Networks

By Warren Duffie, Office of Naval Research

ARLINGTON, Va. (NNS) -- On Aug. 5, officials announced that Dr. Syed Jafar, a professor at the University of California, Irvine, recently won the 2015 Blavatnik National Award for Young Scientists for his work on network information theory-which seeks to determine how many users and devices a wireless network can support.

Jafar's work is sponsored by the Office of Naval Research (ONR).

When warfighters need to send covert messages over military wireless networks, they cloak the transmission signals in a haze of virtual "noise" or chatter. This method hides secret communications effectively, but also consumes immense bandwidth, limiting message size and speed.

However, thanks to Jafar's efforts, military wireless networks could one day be larger, faster and accommodate more users.

"Dr. Jafar has conducted game-changing research in the study of wireless network capacity," said Program Officer Dr. Satanu Das, who works in ONR's C4ISR Department. "This has helped us explore new frontiers in bandwidth efficiency for military communication networks."

The Blavatnik awards are presented yearly by the New York Academy of Sciences, honor the nation's most exceptional scientists and engineers under 42 years of age, and provide a prize of $250,000 to each winner. Jafar was one of three winners chosen from among 300 candidates.

Jafar's award-winning research determines how much user capacity a wireless network (a series of signal transmitters and receivers) can hold. With the rapid growth of-and need for-civilian and military wireless networks, this knowledge quest has taken on unprecedented urgency.

Wireless networks have a limited, or fixed, amount of bandwidth and user capacity. When just a few people are online, signal strength is great, but when more users connect, the connection slows down.

"Take a network that can support 20 users, for example," said Jafar. "It's loud, chaotic and everyone is talking at once, creating interference that diminishes connection strength."

To remedy this, wireless providers usually divide available bandwidth into slices, like a cake. The more users, the smaller the bandwidth ration for each. The problem, said Jafar, is this method has never been proven to be the most effective or efficient.

Through his research, Jafar has found that by changing the mathematical formulas and algorithms used to design wireless signals, it's possible to potentially filter out undesired signals at every network receiver, making other users' interference less intrusive while allowing each user to access half of the total bandwidth free from interference.

"This means that, in a network of 20 users, each person's available bandwidth can increase by a factor of 10," said Jafar. "In theory, everyone gets half the cake instead of one-twentieth. This principle can apply to networks of varying sizes."

Altering the signal design formulas also naturally jams undesired signals, guaranteeing communication security, since only desired signals are visible at each receiver.

Although Jafar points out his research is still theoretical and needs further testing, his work has influenced the overarching conversation about how people understand wireless networks and the best way to design them.

"This also could benefit the work ONR does, since the military is always seeking information advantage," said Jafar. "By increasing its wireless network capacity, the military can accommodate more users, send out stronger, more secure covert transmissions and more effectively jam incoming hostile signals."

Jafar's work aligns with several tenets of the Cooperative Strategy for 21st Century Seapower, a maritime strategy shared by the U.S. Navy, Marine Corps and Coast Guard. The strategy calls for increased focus on cyberspace operations, which includes defensive and offensive measures to protect networks and data.

DoD CIO Discusses Pentagon Wireless, Mobility Programs

By Cheryl Pellerin

DoD News, Defense Media Activity

WASHINGTON, July 15, 2015 – Part of Defense Department Chief Information Officer Terry Halvorsen’s work these days involves launching the Pentagon’s first wireless network and managing the rollout of “secure enough” mobile devices, he told an audience here recently.

Halvorsen opened July 9’s DoD CIO Mobility Industry Day with keynote remarks to an audience of more than 600 attendees, about half of them from government and half from industry.

“I think Wi-Fi is our big growth [area] for the department in terms of being able to move data,” Halvorsen said, adding that January 2016 is the target date for launching a wireless network in the Pentagon.

Unclassified Wireless

Halvorsen said putting unclassified wireless in the Pentagon is a technical and a cultural change. The Pentagon has many sensitive compartmented information facilities, or SCIFs, he said, referring to areas or rooms where classified information is used, discussed or stored.

“My office is a SCIF, … but at least 50 percent of the time I'm not doing anything that's SCIF-able,” the CIO said. “People who visit me ought to be able to come in and use their devices. … I want to be able to use my devices in my office. I do. But I have to be able to ensure some things.”

Halvorsen said he and his team are looking to automate systems that control the wireless network and, among other things, sound an alarm in a restricted room if someone leaves a cell phone or mobile device on. The Pentagon’s wireless system will be two-tiered, he added: one for users connected to DoD networks, and a guest network for visitors. The rollout includes deploying capability to monitor the wireless network, he explained.

DoD Mobility

About the Pentagon’s ongoing mobility effort, Halvorsen said two components of mobility are users, who want mobility, and data, which has to be mobile -- and what the CIO called “point of execution” mobility.

“Point of execution says what we really want to do is get the data right to the individual -- whether they're on the battlefront, whether they're a medical technician or a data analyst -- right to them when they need the data” to execute their mission, Halvorsen said.

During a media roundtable in March, the CIO said the department had distributed about 1,500 unclassified smartphones and a lesser number of classified devices. After the Mobility Industry Day, Halvorsen said, users designated by their agency activity or command will get BlackBerry or other smartphones, tablets and laptops, depending on mission need.

Secure Enough

DOD also is working to make more applications and services mobile friendly while maintaining appropriate levels of security, the CIO added. At Mobility Industry Day, Halvorsen told the audience that they should replace the term “secure mobility” with the term “secure-enough mobility.”

“Part of what we've got to understand is, what is secure enough?” the CIO said, adding that DoD and private industry both will have to make that determination.

The department also is working to create a pilot program for an effort called Bring Your Own Device, or BYOD, in which people use their own mobile devices if the devices meet minimum security requirements.

Pilot Program Running Behind

The pilot program was supposed to begin this summer, Halvorsen said, but it’s behind schedule. “I thought I would have a BYOD larger pilot started by now, [but] I don't,” he added. “My fault, [but] … we will get one started.”

The CIO said he thinks there will be places within DoD that BYOD can be used, but he doesn’t think it will be a major part of DoD operations “because of the complexities of trying to manage that, even in a secure-enough [environment].”

Ultimately, Halvorsen said, the BYOD pilot will help the department understand what service applications may be able to be made available to the workforce on their own mobile devices.