Arinc, Impeva land Army wireless communications deal

A next-generation wireless communications project for Army logistics applications will be developed and demonstrated under a new contact awarded to Arinc Engineering Services LLC and Impeva Labs Inc.

The two companies won the five-year, $20 million contract to develop and demonstrate prototypes that integrate current and wireless communications and automatic identification technology to help track Defense Department assets worldwide.

The project focuses on developing a device that integrates multiple wireless communications technologies, works with mesh networks, and communicates with existing DOD radio frequency identification infrastructure while also operating independent of the fixed nodal infrastructure.

The Army currently uses infrastructure-based RFID to locate cargo containers. Arinc's satellite, cellular, and wireless approach is designed to augment the current capabilities of the DOD's various asset visibility systems.

The solution developed by the Arinc/Impeva Lab team includes tags with global positioning system sensing, active alarms, and built-in global wireless connectivity to allow materiel and asset locating and monitoring anywhere around the globe.

An additional feature is development of an internal container tag that uses ultra-wideband technology to provide wireless visibility of container contents.

Impeva Labs is based in Mountain View, Calif.

Arinc of Annapolis, Md., ranks No. 34 on Washington Technology's 2005 Top 100 list of federal IT prime contractors. The 2006 Top 100 list will be released on May 15.