ABSTRACT

With the Information age in full and rapid development, users are becoming accustomed to having immediate access to information. Users demand more capabilities from every kind of electronic devices, more processing power, more features and better connectivity. Users are also realizing the benefits of collaborating with others in their communities to help expand the body of knowledge. One user that understands the benefits of information sharing is the United States Department of Defense. The DoD’s Networks-centric enterprise services initiative, along with the concept of pushing the “power to the edge” aims to enable end users with maximum situational awareness and the most comprehensive battlespace, all in a secure networking environment. Providing so much data and capabilities to the end user, however will require an increase in communication capabilities and efficiency. To address increased capability needs, the DoD is continually developing and enhancing the Global Information Grid [GIG] through out the various layers of communication infrastructure. One such layer of infrastructure involves the use of cooperative low earth orbiting satellites for efficient multicasting communications.