Learning Science and Technology with Academicians | One Network Across the Battlefield, All Things Can Be "Intelligently Connected"
One Network Across the Battlefield, All Things Can Be "Intelligently Connected"
■ Li Yue, Liu Qi, PLA Daily Reporter Jia Qilong
Conceptual diagram of an intelligent communications network covering the full-domain battlefield. AI-generated image.
The military communications network is the "nervous system" connecting battlefield weapons platforms and the lifeblood of seizing information superiority. Its capability level directly measures a nation's military strength. At present, artificial intelligence technology and communications network technology are deeply converging, integrating cutting-edge technologies such as advanced electronics, metamaterials, and intelligent manufacturing, and accelerating the evolution of communications networks toward intelligentization. The intelligent communications networks born from this process are no longer mere information "pipelines." In the era of intelligentized warfare (智能化战争), they are transforming into the critical cornerstone for realizing the "intelligent connection of all things" (万物智联), as if implanting a highly intelligent, full-domain-covering "neural network" into the body of the battlefield.
In this installment of "Learning Science and Technology with Academicians," we invite Yin Hao — researcher at the Systems Engineering Research Institute of the Academy of Military Sciences and Academician of the Chinese Academy of Sciences — to explain what an intelligent communications network is.
Weaving an Intelligent Communications Network Covering the Full Domain of Operations
The future battlefield, in its breadth and complexity, far exceeds traditional understanding. Multi-domain forces spanning land, sea, air, space, the electromagnetic spectrum, and cyberspace are highly integrated, and the battlefield situation changes in an instant. The core mission of the intelligent communications network is precisely to efficiently and resiliently connect the various reconnaissance and detection equipment, command-and-control equipment, weapons and materiel, manned/unmanned combat platforms, and individual soldier systems distributed across these domains, weaving an integrated battlefield network that covers physical space, cyberspace, and even cognitive space.
This network is composed of intelligent "terminals" (such as individual soldier terminals, communications vehicles, and unmanned aerial vehicles), "nerves" (routing and switching equipment), "centers" (network management and control equipment), and integrated "nodes" (such as command posts and weapons platforms). When combat units deploy, terminals automatically register and join the network; the management and control center simultaneously directs neural nodes to establish links between terminals. Once a user requirement is submitted, the system immediately calculates the optimal path, opens a "high-speed pipeline," and delivers data precisely to its destination, achieving instant delivery of battlefield information services.
Specifically, this intelligent network supports four key networks:
First, it constitutes an invisible "ubiquitous sensing network" (泛在感知网). Detection equipment across all domains uses it to monitor signal strength and spectrum occupancy, track latency and throughput, identify task priorities and bandwidth requirements, and analyze user trajectories, communication patterns, and resource consumption patterns, forming a complete, clear, and near-real-time awareness of the battlefield situation. The network can in real time "see" user locations and "understand" user needs, thereby providing precise services.
Second, it builds an agile "command-and-control network" (指挥控制网). Key nodes including command posts at all levels, command-and-control systems, and operational mission planning platforms are tightly connected through the intelligent communications network, forming an efficient "command-and-control hub." Relying on the network's damage-resistant resilience, when some nodes are damaged, the network can sense this in real time, rapidly activate contingency plans, and direct routing nodes to autonomously negotiate and erect backup information "bridges" at break points, ensuring the continuity of command links.
Additionally, it constructs a modular "fire strike network" (火力打击网). According to mission requirements, management and control equipment drives routing and switching equipment to rapidly establish high-priority temporary "data channels" between fire units of different organizational structures, achieving automatic task decoupling, efficient information transmission, and on-demand aggregation of fire platforms, dynamically combining dispersed fire units into modular strike clusters that can be assembled and employed on demand, making the use of firepower more flexible.
Finally, it supports a proactive "logistics and equipment support network" (后装保障网). Support forces spanning transportation, fuel, ammunition, and medical services throughout operations can achieve full awareness of support status through the intelligent communications network, supporting the integrated processing and rapid distribution of resource scheduling information, and providing continuous, precise materiel support information services for high-intensity intelligentized operations.
Building the "Smart Brain" for Cognitive Battlefield Awareness
How does this vast network achieve "intelligence"? The key lies in endowing the network with cognitive capability, forming a network knowledge system, and building a "smart brain" (智慧大脑).
Just as humans understand the world and accumulate experience through thought, we anthropomorphize the military communications network as a cognitive subject, implanting the cognitive model of "multi-domain perception — learning and analysis — optimized decision-making" into terminals, routers, network management equipment, and other devices. These devices thereby transform into intelligent nodes with the capacity to "think." Information passes through these nodes, converging level by level from terminals to regions to centers, ultimately constructing a hierarchically distributed "network brain" that can perceive, learn, analyze, and predict multi-domain information including the battlefield environment, its own state, and user behavior, forming a deep understanding of the network and its environment — this is "network cognition" (网络认知).
If network cognition is the process of thinking, then network knowledge is the product of thinking. In the field of intelligent communications, network knowledge specifically refers to the abstract representation of network elements (nodes, links, protocols) and their interaction mechanisms. The key lies in "unified representation" (统一表征) — standardizing the description of information from physical-layer signals to application-layer requirements, in order to support understanding and application among intelligent agents.
Network knowledge encompasses three types: "data-informational knowledge" (数据信息型知识) consists of statements about objective entities in the network, capable of recording in real time objective facts such as network speed, signal strength, and interference, providing the network with a portrait of its real environment so it can "clearly see" its own state; "relational-computational knowledge" (关系计算型知识) uses models to reveal the mapping relationships and intrinsic laws among network parameters, enabling the network to "perceive" the optimal solution amid complex changes; "logical-decisional knowledge" (逻辑决策型知识) contains the experience and contingency plans for handling problems, and is the "nourishment" for the network's autonomous optimization and evolution.
Just as an experienced engineer can identify a fault by the sound it makes, an intelligent communications network with rich network knowledge also possesses the capacity to "think." It can anticipate risks, plan paths, and optimize resource allocation, achieving the leap from "passive response" to "proactive foresight," providing targeted, differentiated, and proactive services to battlefield intelligent agents, and converting information superiority into decision-making and action superiority.
In order for intelligent agents of diverse types and varying architectures to collaborate like "comrades-in-arms," the intelligent communications network has established a standardized "interaction language" (交互语言). This language transcends the interoperability of underlying data formats and pursues the sharing of high-level semantics. Through the interaction language, intelligent agents can efficiently transmit, understand, and provide feedback expressing knowledge and instructions, with capabilities including dialogue generation, semantic understanding, and autonomous conversation. For example, in response to operational tasks and drawing on prior knowledge, intelligent agents can automatically network on demand and efficiently execute tasks through multiple rounds of "dialogue" and "handshaking."
This interaction language was designed with full consideration of the harsh battlefield environment. By virtue of "semantic noise resistance" (语义抗噪) and "semantic compression" (语义压缩) technologies, even in complex electromagnetic environments with strong interference and high dynamics, core semantic information can still be precisely identified and restored; even with limited bandwidth, clear information can be conveyed with the fewest possible bits. This ensures that even in extreme environments, intelligent agents can still "hear clearly, speak plainly, and stay connected," maintaining precise and efficient coordination.
Forging a Stronger "Neural Network"
As an enabling "force multiplier" on the future battlefield, the development of intelligent communications networks faces the dual challenges of technological innovation and operational application, and every step must be taken with the utmost care.
From a technological dimension, the challenges are primarily reflected in two aspects: computing power allocation and algorithm security. Intelligentized operations impose near-exacting demands on computing power — massive volumes of sensor data, complex AI model training, and real-time collaborative decision-making all require powerful computing support. However, in the highly contested, high-dynamic battlefield environment, there are enormous bottlenecks in the scheduling and supply of computing resources. Even in a hierarchically distributed architecture that processes data as close to the source as possible, it is difficult to fully meet demand. Furthermore, artificial intelligence algorithms themselves have inherent vulnerabilities. Adversarial sample attacks can easily perturb input data; data poisoning can implant backdoors during the model training phase; the "black box" nature of algorithms makes their decision-making processes difficult to trace and audit. Once the "network brain" is induced by the adversary to generate an erroneous knowledge graph, the consequences are unimaginable.
From an application dimension, the intertwining and superimposition of complex electromagnetic environments and cognitive-domain confrontation pose unprecedented tests to the network's resilience and reliability. Competition in the electromagnetic spectrum domain is growing increasingly intense; both sides in a conflict will inevitably use means such as strong jamming, high-power microwave, and hard-kill destruction to render the adversary's intelligent agents into "kites with severed strings." At the same time, attack methods in the cognitive domain are more covert — by fabricating battlefield situations, injecting false feature information, and disseminating deceptive instructions, they induce the adversary's command decision-making to deviate from the correct course, achieving "subduing the enemy without fighting" (不战而屈人之兵). Therefore, the intelligent communications network must not only be able to withstand hard-kill damage at the physical layer, but must also possess the defensive capability to "distinguish right from wrong" (明辨是非) in the cognitive domain.
Building and developing a military intelligent communications network is a grand and arduous systems engineering endeavor. Building such an endeavor requires top-level design from a commanding height, and requires assembling teams and forces to conduct joint research and collaborative innovation across multiple domains. We must adhere to autonomous and controllable development (自主可控), consolidate algorithm security, and forge a truly functional and battle-ready intelligent "nerve center," providing a solid guarantee for winning future wars.
Layout design: Wu Huaijiang