Tactical Data Links - Link 22
Key words and phrases: tactical data links, link 22, NILE, J-series messages, network management, STANAG 5522, ADatP 22
Data Link 22 is an ECM resistant, BLOS tactical data communication system utilising Fixed Frequency or Frequency hopping techniques in the HF (3-30 MHz) and/or the UHF (225-400 MHz) bands.
The architecture employed can be Time Division Multiple Access (TDMA) or Dynamic TDMA (DTDMA), providing increased flexibility and decreasing net management overheads. Initially evolved as NILE (NATO Improved Link Eleven), Link 22 is something of a hybrid between MIDS Link 16 and Link11, and the NILE name is preserved in the naming of the participants as NUs or NILE Units.
Link 22 is a "Link 16 Family" Data Link along with STDL, S-TADIL J, Link 16 and VMF. As such the 72 bit word message standard can carry embedded J-Series Link 16 messages, known as the FJ series, as well as newly defined Link 22 F-Series messages.
Although equipment, known collectively as the NILE Communications Equipment (NCE), is required to operate Link 22, it should do so as far as possible via a unit's existing radios equipment.
A Link 22 unit may operate up to four networks simultaneously, each on different media, as part of a Super Network with any participant on any network able to communicate with any other. With the addition of data forwarding to other links the age of network centric warfare is upon us. Network Management and Super Network Management are facilitated within the design of Link 22, which given its potential to dynamically react to altering loads and conditions, points the way to the future.
The seven nations - Canada, France, Germany, Italy, the Netherlands, UK and USA - have been pursuing the design and development of Link 22 since 1996. Draft issues of STANAG 5522 and ADatP 22 are available. Implementation dates vary over the period 2002 to 2009, dependent on nation and service.
Data Link descriptions: Tactical Data Links | Link 16 | Link 11 | Link 22 | IJMS | Link 1 | Link 14 | Link 4 | Other protocols | CDL, TCDL & HIDL | Satellite Link 16 | Variable Message Format - VMF
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