A developmental effort for an integrated video conferencing communications architecture is proposed that is designed to provide reliable multimedia communications from the SOF tactical user to garrison. It will be designed to provide an integrated video conferencing capability to SOF for existing communications applications as well as the addition of telemedicine and distance learning. The Phase I study will investigate the technologies, standards, equipment and systems needed to develop a detailed video conferencing architecture and system design. Special emphasis is on the need to transition SOF Communications networks to standards based on LANs and WANs using ATM, Iso-Ethernet and/or 100BaseT. The Phase I effort includes selected demonstrations of video conferencing from the tactical user to component desktop to establish confidence in the approach and establish a foundation for a detailed implementation plan in Phase II. The study includes an investigation of programs, equipment and software applications within Government and the commercial market applicable to SOF requirements for distance learning and telemedicine. In Phase II a detailed system design and implementation plan is proposed along with demonstrations which verify the proposed architecture.
