Military use of LTE - A vulnarability study

Authors:

  • Börje Asp
  • Jan Nilsson
  • Karina Fors
  • Kia Wiklundh

Publish date: 2016-03-11

Report number: FOI-R--4231--SE

Pages: 65

Written in: Swedish

Keywords:

  • LTE
  • Long Term Evolution
  • 4G
  • military applications
  • interference robustness

Abstract

In recent years, a number of international initiatives have been initiated to explore the possibilities of using LTE (Long Term Evolution) for military purposes. It has led to a number of military products based on LTE technology. Today, small autonomous base stations, known as Network-in-a-Box, are available on the market. LTE-based systems are also one of the alternatives under discussion to replace the TETRA-based radio system Rakel in the future. The LTE system has many benefits that could be attractive for military applications. However, since the LTE system is not developed with specific military requirements, such as reliability and interference robustness in mind, it is important to investigate whether the system is suitable for military use. This report presents an initial assessment of the vulnerability of the system, especially with regard to military use. The report also includes a summary of LTE-based products for military use on the market. It is concluded that the main issue for using LTE in military applications is the frequency allocation. To connect the system to a civilian operator creates dependence and vulnerability that should be avoided. However, in the meanwhile, it is considered to be difficult to get to a dedicated frequency band for a military LTE system and it would be extremely costly to build a dedicated national military LTE network. Assuming that the frequency allocation of the system is possible, there are a number of other aspects that need to be analyzed. Interference robustness, security issues and coverage of the network are examples of such. The requirements of these depend on the environment the system will be used in, the threat of the scenario and the services to be used. The LTE system is naturally not designed for high requirements of interference robustness or security, which are of great importance in military use. In this work, several weaknesses are presented. It is particularly the initial steps to get access to the LTE network that are sensitive to interference. The report gives examples of necessary distance between the system and an unintentional interference source to not create interference problems. It is assumed that the interference source exactly fulfills the civilian emission requirements EN55022. An LTE system may be possible to use in situations where only a limited area needs to be covered, such as a camp or the area around a command and control centre. For such scenarios, the concept of a Network-in-a-Box could be used for one or a few cells. An autonomous network with a base station can be used in a mobile scenario. However, it is unclear whether a larger network based on multiple base stations would work in mobile scenarios. If more coverage is needed infrastructure is required to connect base stations, which can be costly. Whether or not LTE is appropriate in military scenarios is very much dependent on how and in what environment the system is to be used and that the frequency allocation is solved.