Technology solutions for coalition operations

As computer technology has advanced, information processing in command, control, communications, computers, intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance (C4ISR) systems has become highly complex. The information processed by these systems is usually of a very highly sensitive nature and is entered into specific systems that are physically isolated from each other. The physical isolation of these systems makes it cumbersome to exchange information between systems. The result is inefficient sharing of sensitive information in situations where timeliness of exchange could be a life or death reality. Since the mid 1990's, increasing efforts have been placed on improving coalition operations. Many systems have been created with the goal to improve the sharing of information and collaborative planning across coalition boundaries. The usability of these systems have had mixed levels of success and improvements will always be necessary. This paper will briefly describe three advances in telecommunications technology that could be leveraged to significantly improve coalition operations. These technologies are; the session border controller (SBC), advances in pattern matching technology, and multi-protocol label switching (MPLS).