Air Force studies bandwidth

The Air Force will study ways to optimize bandwidth and reduce long-haul communications circuits' costs.

The Systems Network program office in Montgomery, Ala., said it would conduct a comprehensive market study and deliver the results to the Air Force Communications Agency after Dec. 1.

According to a public notice issued this week, the bandwidth optimization technology study will include:

* data compression.

* quality-of-service packet marking.

* traffic analysis.

* hierarchical management.

* central reporting.

* a 140-site integrated network with 45mbps throughput.

* rack-mountable hardware.

The Air Force encouraged companies to submit information technology solutions for the seven requirements. "Vendors are invited to identify products or families of products for evaluation," the public notice states.