The ability to quickly exchange information is a determining factor of success on today’s battlefield, and achieving seamless connectivity requires a strong arsenal of network technologies. Advancing these capabilities has become a core part of the Department of Defense’s modernization strategy in recent years, and its FutureG Office is leading these efforts.
According to Lt. Col. Benjamin Pimentel, technical lead for Expeditionary and Tactical Programs within the FutureG Office, the organization has set four major priorities to guide its work in 2024.
During his keynote address at the Potomac Officers Club’s 2024 5G Forum on Wednesday, Pimentel noted the Open Centralized Unit Distributed Unit, or OCUDU, as one of these focus areas.
This program aims to “provide a carrier-grade, completely open source CU and DU for innovation to flourish from integrated sensing communications,” Pimentel said.
“This leans more into the 6G and future G areas of the office, thinking about the network as more than a communications asset, the distribution of RF-enabled devices and all the different things they can do,” he continued.
He offered the exploration of how the DOD can use the network as a radar in cases of future spectrum loss as an example of one OCUDU consideration.
Another significant part of the FutureG Office’s path forward is the DOD’s radio access network sharing project, through which the department is looking into ways to leverage spectrum that is already available in other countries when operating in these locations.
While there are risks associated with using foreign spectrum, such as jamming, the time saved from skipping the approval process and simply operating within established spectrum constraights outweighs those challenges, Pimentel said.
The FutureG Office is also heavily focused on joint operations with allies, and last year, the organization conducted a demonstration in partnership with the NATO Allied Command Transformation unit in Latvia.
“[The exercise] showed the ability to pair non-3GPP and a working function with security edge protection proxy roaming so that multiple nations could come together with their mobile devices that are honed on what we call notional defense networks from their countries,” he said.
“It means that I was able to achieve interoperability and coalition information sharing at a much faster pace than if I had to come together and set up a centric network that was completely separate from anything anybody had used before,” he explained.
Mastering these important network capabilities requires a strong workforce, which marks the FutureG Office’s fourth priority for this year.
Pimentel said that today, it can be difficult for engineers and computer scientists looking to enter the telecommunications field to get good experience with areas like production networks prior to the start of their careers.
What Pimentel hopes to change is making it possible for individuals to get that experience at the university level so they can “show up more qualified on day one.”
“And that’s an over time shift, moving some of the leadership and innovation and development back to the United States,” he added.
Check out the Potomac Officers Club’s next event, the Joint Coalition Operations in 2030 Forum, for more insights from leaders in the government contracting space. The event will take place on Thursday, so click here to secure your spot before tickets sell out.
