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"CA's management solution ensures communication links between front lines and operational posts are maintained round-the-clock, which enables us to make informed decisions and deploy troops safely and swiftly." |
Keeping the peace
The remit of the Royal Netherlands Army (RNLA) stretches far beyond the waterways and bulb fields of its home country. It is also responsible for helping to maintain peace, security and stability around the world and delivering humanitarian aid on an international scale.
In addition to combined operations with the Royal Netherlands Navy and Air Force, the Army has worked with its NATO allies for more than 50 years and has been involved in a variety of initiatives. For example, it runs a Military Relief Hospital, which supports NATO's earthquake relief mission in Pakistan, and is responsible for developing communications and technologies for the NATO alliance.
In recent years, this partnership has grown, and in 2002 the Army's headquarters were transformed into a High Readiness Force (Land) Headquarters. As a result, the RNLA is capable of leading a military mission anywhere in NATO territory or outside its boundaries within 20 to 30 days.
A communication lifeline
To enable the RNLA to deploy its troops within this tight timescale, it requires reliable and accurate information on what is happening on the front line and excellent ongoing communication links with its troops. The performance of these communications systems must also be second-to-none to maintain the Army's reputation and role as an international leader in the development of military communications.
To fulfill these requirements, the RNLA developed Theater Independent Tactical Army and Air Force Network (TITAAN) — a state-of-the-art communications infrastructure that enables seamless round-the-clock communications between commanders and troops in operational posts and at the front line.
Marko van Daal, Lead Architect of Management and Control for TITAAN, comments, "A common operational picture of exactly what is happening at the front line in real time is perhaps the single largest requirement of the RNLA's peace-enforcement missions. This information dictates critical decisions, such as when and how to relocate operational posts and troops, and even more importantly, how to ensure the security of these moves."
TITAAN supports fully converged voice, video and data to create a unified operational picture of the Army from remote outposts to its headquarters. As van Daal explains: "TITAAN provides us with a comprehensive and accurate view of deployment readiness and mobility, which is absolutely essential for the safety of our troops. The system enables commanders to access reliable and comprehensive information, regardless of their location."
A complex infrastructure
Centrally operated from the RNLA's Communication and Information Control Centre (CISCC), TITAAN's multi-vendor infrastructure consists of thousands of Cisco routers and switches, Windows and Linux servers, satellite communication terminals and radio links that support voice-over-IP mobile telephony, geographic information systems and tactical messaging platforms.
The nature of the environment in which TITAAN is deployed means that management of this vast and complex infrastructure is a massive challenge. As Major Anne Iedema, Deputy Project Manager for TITAAN System Design, explains, "We needed a robust management solution that could quickly and efficiently manage voice, video, and high-speed data. Complicating matters, the network area is geographically diverse and highly mobile — our servers are literally built into trucks and jeeps. We needed a flexible, adaptable solution that could provide unified management visibility in a challenging field environment."
Covering the full spectrum
To overcome these challenges, the RNLA and its systems integrator partner SMT Simple Management Technologies decided to deploy a business service management solution from CA.
The Army relies on this network and voice management solution to ensure the performance and reliability of critical IP, satellite, radio, microwave, and telephony communications between the front lines and commanders in disparate operational posts.
Developed to work with Microsoft Operations Manager,CA SPECTRUM seamlessly manages TITAAN servers, devices and applications across IP-based 100 Mbps Ethernet LANs, interconnected by several WANs.
In addition to its fault detection capabilities, SPECTRUM's Auto Discovery feature discovers and configures devices automatically, without requiring complicated modifications or adjustments on the front line. Its Alarm Notification Manager notifies field and command post personnel of network problems round-the-clock, arming network administrators with the information they need to fix problems as soon as they arise.
"CA SPECTRUM essentially provides us with a zero-maintenance network. It also provides precise impact analysis on users or services affected by an outage, enabling our network administrators to prioritize fixes," comments van Daal.
A force to be reckoned with
Thanks to the reliability of TITAAN, RNLA peacekeeping forces are provided with the information they need to make critical decisions, without which lives could be at stake.
"CA's network and voice management solution is at the heart of TITAAN's operational control system," comments Iedema. "As one can imagine, an army's operations are fraught with high pressure, constant change, and we have an ongoing need for timely, precise information day and night. CA's management solution ensures communication links between front lines and operational posts are maintained round-the-clock, which enables us to make informed decisions and deploy troops safely and swiftly."
CA Spectrum's ability to proactively detect and isolate root causes for network problems helps save valuable time — which can be critical in a military environment. As van Daal comments, "Any network outage can have a severe impact in a fast-paced military environment. CA SPECTRUM's real-time analysis has helped to reduce downtime and the impact this could have on our military operations."
The groundbreaking TITAAN project has even won international acclaim at the Network Centric Warfare (NCW) Awards, winning an award for 2004 Best NCW Program/Initiative from a Coalition Partner
Content posted on: 16 July 2007
