BRASS & BRE1TA – Understanding The Requirements

For a long time, NATO has provided a network of HF Shore stations for allied nations to use, providing their naval forces with a reliable, global HF communications network. As HF Radio capabilities are continually developed, these long-standing BRASS systems need to be upgraded to utilize new technology and capabilities. The first of these implementations is BRE1TA.

BRE1TA (BRASS Enhancement 1 Technical Architecture) is a major update to the traditional NATO BRASS (Broadcast and Ship-to-Shore) HF Radio system. It adds modern HF capabilities and new applications beyond the ACP 127 formal messaging provided by BRASS.

NATO has procured a BRE1TA system, which is the BRIPES (BRASS IP Enhanced Software) package. A project being deployed by Leonardo (Italy) using the Isode products listed below. The BRIPES package covers the purchase of a shore system for each NATO nation, placing Isode software directly onto each deployment.

BRE1TA is a complex and complicated upgrade to the current BRASS system. And because of this, it is easy to get lost in RFQs or large contract documents that describe the end goal but quite often leave out exactly what is needed to achieve it. The diagram above shows the communications architecture for a standard BRE1TA deployment, using Isode software. With one side showing the Shore and one side showing the Ships (or Mobile Units), which is what we’re going to focus on first.

To help make the process a little easier, we have created the below ‘cheat sheet’ so you know exactly what to look out for when reading through any contract that might be distributed, and provided a list of the relevant Isode products that deliver these requirements.

Split into 3 categories, we have MMHS, XMPP, and HF Radio products. Each category covers a specific aspect of the BRE1TA requirements for a Mobile Unit. For a more in-depth breakdown of the exact requirements, the open standards, and technical conformance needed for each part of the BRE1TA upgrades, you can read through our whitepaper on BRE1TA’s Mobile Unit Capabilities, here.

MMHS/Email

These products cover both traditional email services and Formal Military Messaging. The chosen email service for BRIPES is T-Mail, using ACP 142 with MULE (RFC 8494) for communications over HF Radio. While MMHS uses a mixture of old and new protocols, the most notable of which is the legacy ACP 127 messaging.

XMPP/Chat

XMPP is the NATO standard for chat. It enables allied forces to communicate instantly through secure 1:1 and Multi-User Chat rooms. For BRIPES deployments, T-Chat is the chosen XMPP service. A key feature for BRIPES & BRE1TA is the ability for any XMPP deployment to support Federated Multi-User Chat (FMUC).

HF Radio

The upgrades to HF Radio capabilities in BRIPES & BRE1TA deployments rely on two main software products. A STANAG 5066 Server compliant with STANAG 5066 Ed4 and a performance-enhancing proxy that enables IP applications to be reliably run over HF Radio. This setup provides the backbone, from which all other applications in the network operate.

One of the key goals for BRIPES is the ability to support MU mobility. This is achieved through the use of Icon-Topo as a tool to monitor and manage HF Radio networks as the MUs travel from one access point to another.

If you’d like more information about any of the Isode products listed above, or want to discuss the BRE1TA upgrades in more detail with our team, then please get in touch here, and we’ll be happy to assist you.