BBN Technologies, a leading advanced technology and research and development firm, today announced a milestone achievement in phase two of a wireless networking program funded by the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA). The goal of the program, Connectionless Networks, is to develop a low-power, mutlihop wireless network that will allow many people to communicate reliably in areas where there is no communications infrastructure. In collaboration with the Army Research Lab, BBN has demonstrated a 20-node prototype network that delivers the same performance, in terms of data rate and delay, as traditional wireless networks, but uses 100 times less power. Such dramatically reduced power consumption enables the use of smaller, lighter, longer-lasting and less expensive batteries.

“Reducing the power consumption of wireless communication devices without sacrificing the amount of data that can be sent means that soldiers and first responders do not have to carry as much extra weight and can complete their missions with confidence that they will be able to maintain critical communications,” said Jason Redi, division scientist at BBN Technologies. “Interest in low power ad hoc networking is not new, but there have been very few systems that actually work, and most have traded off power consumption for data rate, so this is a real breakthrough.”

The prototype network, based on technology concepts that BBN presented to DARPA in the first phase of the Connectionless Networks program, runs on standard batteries that are identical to those used in everyday consumer devices such as portable radios or flashlights. BBN has maximized the efficiency of these standard batteries by developing networking and communications protocols that adapt to changing conditions in the network and adjust to changing data transmission requirements to use the available power efficiently. These more efficient protocols allow remote sensors to transmit important information for longer durations and allow users to carry fewer batteries and replace them less frequently during missions.

About BBN Technologies BBN Technologies, an advanced technology and research and development firm, is focused on solving some of the world's most pressing problems. From national security, information security, and speech recognition, to integrating disparate systems and networks, BBN has been at the forefront of technological change for over 50 years.

Known for pioneering the development of the ARPANET, the forerunner of the Internet, BBN continues to create advances in Internet and networking technologies through its work on ad hoc networking, the semantic web, quantum communications, and advanced protocols. Building on its substantial list of firsts, BBN operates the first metro quantum cryptography network, the first real-time foreign broadcast monitoring system, and has developed the world's first stereoscopic digital mammography system. For more information, visit www.bbn.com.