Book excerpt: Providing a complete description of modern tactical military communications and networks technology, this book systematically compares tactical military communications techniques with their commercial equivalents, pointing out similarities and differences. In particular it examines each layer of the protocol stack and shows how specific tactical and security requirements result in changes from the commercial approach. The author systematically leads readers through this complex topic, firstly providing background on the architectural approach upon which the analysis will be based, and then going into detail on tactical wireless communications and networking technologies and techniques. Structured progressively: for readers needing an overall view; for those looking at the communications aspects (lower layers of the protocol stack); and for users interested in the networking aspects (higher layers of the protocol stack) Presents approaches to alleviate the challenges faced by the engineers in the field today Furnished throughout with illustrations and case studies to clarify the notional and architectural approaches Includes a list of problems for each chapter to emphasize the important aspects of the topics covered Covers the current state of tactical networking as well as the future long term evolution of tactical wireless communications and networking in the next 50 years Written at an advanced level with scope as a reference tool for engineers and scientists as well as a graduate text for advanced courses