IBAR—Integrated Battlespace Arena

IBAR is interconnected by multiple-fiber-optic cabling. Using the asynchronous transfer mode (ATM) transmission and switching technique, these cables carry 155 megabytes per second per fiber—which will eventually increase to 644 megabytes per second. The flexibility of ATM allows simultaneous high-bandwidth transmission of different information types, such as voice, video and data. Because the network is reconfigurable through software, virtual networks can be built and unbuilt online to suit any desired purpose of consolidation or isolation of capabilities. The system is reliable and is security cleared to the Secret level (and that level can be raised with additional encryption).