Cisco Systems will provide the core network infrastructure for Combined Endeavor 2006, a two-week operation designed to test and document the interoperability of vital communication systems for multinational forces deployed in humanitarian, peacekeeping and disaster relief efforts.
More than 1,000 tests beginning this week will focus mainly on the ability to pass data with a high level of security over an Internet Protocol (IP) backbone, using voice over Internet Protocol (VoIP), private mobile radio, high frequency and satellite communications. Information assurance is another key focus area for the participating nations. In cooperation with the German Ministry of Defense, the U.S. European Command is sponsoring the communications and information systems interoperability exercise. Forty-one nations are taking part, including NATO, Partnership for Peace and non-aligned or strategic partner nations.
«As military units worldwide are being challenged to perform at ever higher levels in conflicts and disaster recoveries, multinational forces are increasingly driving to an IP standard», said Kevin MacRitchie, vice president of Global Defense Space and Security for Cisco’s Global Government Services Group. «As the world leader in IP networking, Cisco, through its IP backbone will help ensure that interoperability testing for all equipment from participating nations will be held to the highest standards of performance, furthering the information assurance and security enhancement goals of this exercise ».
Cisco technicians will provide real-time video teleconferencing and Web casting as well as the administrative local area networks (LANs) that will register and transport information and analyze results.
2006-05-15
Em Foco – Empresa