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BBN Technologies Corp. reports it has landed $11.3 million from the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) to develop cheaper wireless network technology.
Under the deal, BBN will develop and test a hardened, virtual network infrastructure with improved scalability and demonstrate the technology on a MA/COM radio. Following a 20-node demonstration in August, and a September study against jamming devices, BBN and MA/COM will deliver an additional 50 nodes per week over a seven-week period.
The wireless communications technology BBN is developing is intended to be affordable and rapidly deployable, officials said. The project, called Wireless Network after Next (WNaN), is administered by the Air Force Research Laboratory, and is intended to provide the military with the ability to communicate with every soldier and every device at all operational levels.
In December, BBN demonstrated multihop, packetized voice transmission across groups of hand-held WNaN radio nodes.
In March, Cambridge-based BBN landed $2.8 million in additional funding under the federal Spoken Language Communication and Translation System for Tactical Use (TRANSTAC) program. The DARPA program is aimed at developing two-way translation systems that enable speakers of different languages to communicate with one another spontaneously in real-world, tactical situations.
Known widely for developing part of the forerunner network to the Internet, BBN is a 60 year-old firm with 700 employees in Cambridge, Middletown, R.I., and five U.S. facilities outside New England.
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