5G/NextG Technology

On the modern battlefield, military forces operate under various emission control, or EMCON, levels. Radiation requirements shift depending on operational needs. During combat or covert operations, more restrictive EMCON levels minimize the risk of detection by adversaries’ electronic surveillance. In critical situations, military units may enforce radio silence to avoid detection. Restricting non-essential radio transmissions reduces the likelihood of interception or location by adversary sensors. But achieving this flexibility can be challenging. Commercial 5G systems do not have specific EMCON levels built in, which means skilled operators must log in to radio access network, or RAN, systems and make time-consuming, manual power adjustments to meet EMCON requirements. To help agencies address this challenge, Booz Allen, in collaboration with Ericsson, developed the EMCON rApp. Based on provided input, the solution automates military EMCON scenarios on 5G networks to minimize the risk of detection and interference from hostile forces, strengthening operational security and mission resilience. The EMCON rApp operates on the RAN Intelligent Controller (RIC) function of the Ericsson Intelligent Automation Platform, or EIAP, in a 5G network. Based on a change in EMCON level, the rApp automates network configuration to required mission levels, reducing admin time and avoiding misconfiguration while making network changes. When you empower your mission with the EMCON rApp, warfighters can avoid adversary tracking and targeting. As enemy forces approach a network coverage area, a change in EMCON level initiates the rApp, enhancing your strategic advantage. And beyond defense applications, this foundational functionality can be efficiently applied to create new domain-specific rApps for a variety of industry verticals. Learn more at BoozAllen.com/5G 

Over the last couple of years, we've worked with the Navy to establish this 5G lab and test environment. It's intended to implement a ship-wide environment that allows sailors to communicate and implement new technologies while they're afloat, to do their jobs more efficiently. Booz Allen is the lead systems integrator. We are responsible for the end-to-end design, implementation, testing, and validation of the solution. Booz Allen’s role in this is important because we are able to bring our unique mission insights from our many years of supporting the Navy mission and the DOD’s mission more broadly as a systems integrator. We're able to bring that insight along with our strong 5G vendor relationships. Ericsson’s engaged with Norfolk. Our role there is to provide the pier-side communications. We provide a 5G core, a radio, advanced features such as network slicing along with engineering support and ongoing troubleshooting when they need it from end-to-end. The Navy can really focus on the applications and the use of 5G and not focus so much on the technology itself. It works today. Having both the ship connected, the sailors connected, will really support the operations. Nokia provides the infrastructure and that includes the 5G radios, of course, to provide that connectivity as well as the 5G-core infrastructure that brings all of that together. Nokia has invested, you know, billions of dollars to build out 5G infrastructure globally. That technology base is incredibly valuable to enable defense capabilities and missions. And we want to be involved in these projects so that we can bring those capabilities adapted to these specific missions for defense organizations across the globe. 5G will provide a great capability for sailors in an increasingly data-centric world. When we're operating these missions, we need access to data. We need the ability to analyze that data. 5G provides the technology to bring that data together from across a ship, even going beyond the ship into the hands of the sailors so they can make better decisions and execute their missions.