Fortress Technologies with a solid history of delivering reliable, policy-compliant solutions that are rugged, proven, and easily deployed, Fortress has established itself as a clear leader in secure wireless networking. Across the public sector, both military and civilian customers rely on Fortress to securely deliver mission related information that supports critical decision making, situational awareness and force protection.
Fortress products extend the reach of networks with industry leading wireless and security technologies, bringing applications and information to those who need it, when and where they need it.
1. Mesh Points
Fortress Technologies delivers a Full Theater suite of COTS+ products and OEM modules designed to enable secure tactical communication using high performance mesh and RF coupled with Suite B and FIPS security for the tactical edge.
1.1. ES210 Tactical Mesh Point
The Fortress ES210 Tactical Mesh Point brings secure wireless communications to dismounted personnel through a self-forming, self-healing, mesh network. Powered by a rechargeable battery, AC or DC power, the ES210 offers FIPS 140-2 compliant security and is upgradeable to NSA Suite B algorithms. Delivered in a small and rugged form factor with long battery life and industry-leading radio range, the Fortress ES210 is designed to be worn by individuals or used for edge devices such as cameras, unmanned vehicles and sensors. The Fortress ES210Tactical Mesh Point delivers dependable performance in a wide range of conditions, functioning as both a wireless access point and bridge.
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1.2. ES520 Deployable Mesh Point
The Fortress ES520 Deployable Mesh Point brings quickly deployable secure wireless communications to environments with no available infrastructure through a self-forming, self-healing mesh network. The ES520 offers strong FIPS 140-2 validated security and is upgradeable to NSA Suite B algorithms. Delivered in a small and rugged form factor with an integrated eight-port Ethernet switch and industry - leading radio range, the Fortress ES520 provides secure voice, video and data communications for rapidly deployable kits, vehicle-based networks, emergency response or situational awareness.
Any wireless network used in tactical, small-unit environments must support mobility of the nodes. Mesh networks allow nodes to move within the area of operation, forming links with new neighbors and dropping links with old neighbors. With best-in-class range and Fortress FastPath MeshT, Fortress Secure Wireless Bridges ensure high performance networking under highly mobile conditions, allowing individuals and assets to move within the network and to seamlessly leave and join the network.
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1.3. ES820 Vehicle Mesh Point
The Fortress ES820 Vehicle Mesh Point brings secure wireless communications to land, air, and sea vehicles through a self-forming, self-healing mesh network. Powered by variable DC power, the ES820 offers FIPS 140-2 compliant security and is upgradeable to NSA Suite B algorithms. Delivered in a small and rugged form factor with its size, weight and power specifically tailored for vehicles, the Fortress ES820 functions as both a wireless access point and bridge, and allows for a separate dash-mountable control panel.
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1.4. ES2440 High Capacity Infrastructure Mesh Point
The Fortress ES2440 High Capacity Infrastructure Mesh Point utilizes MIMO technology to bring high performance secure wireless communications to outdoor locations and across long distances through a self-forming, self-healing mesh network. The ES2440 offers FIPS 140-2 validated security and is upgradeable to NSA Suite B algorithms. Delivered in a form factor that is rugged, weatherized and easy to set-up and operate the Fortress ES2440 functions as both a wireless access point and bridge, with four powerful radios for maximum range and performance. Fortress ES2440 mesh points ensure high performance networking under highly mobile conditions, enabling facilities like Forward Operating Bases and Tactical Operations Centers to establish area wide communications. This allows distributed and mobile assets to move within the network and to seamlessly leave and join the network.
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2. FC-X Inline Network Encryptor
Fortress's FC-X encryptors are high-performance security controllers providing encrypted throughputs of up to 1.9 Gbps. Now, a large-scale enterprise can secure communications from thousands of wireless users in an enterprise WLAN or over high-speed optical links. Because the FC-X processes packets at a high rate with low latency, it satisfies the rigorous demands of large VoIP deployments, a rapidly growing application for wireless communications.
Built for maximum flexibility, Fortress Security Controllers offer throughputs up to 1.9 Gbps and are interoperable with Wi-Fi, WiMAX, Free Space Optics, Satellite and Military RF. Fortress Security Controllers provide a secure wired or wireless connection for your network. Available in 250, 500 or 1500Mbps models, the FC-X's Selectable Performance Module allows end-users to respond to growing bandwidth needs by simply selecting the appropriate performance for their network.
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3. Secure Clients
Fortress Secure Clients are security agents that provide the same high level of security across all client devices. All critical security functions - encryption, authentication, data integrity checking, key exchange, and data compression - are optimized to ensure transparent operation.
The Fortress Secure Client enables devices to securely communicate with the network and peer to peer. When installed, the Fortress Secure Client creates a unique device identifier so that only authorized devices are allowed access to the network. This lightweight software agent supports the widest range of devices and operating systems. The Fortress Secure Client runs on PCs, tablets, PDAs, and industrial devices that run Windows, Windows CE, or Windows Mobile.
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FORTRESS TECHNOLOGIES
Hardware Crypto FPGA and TRNG
Unlike competing software crypto implementations, Fortress uses a Hardware Crypto FPGA that enables fast, deterministic performance to protect against timing attacks. Our hardware-based true random number generator (TRNG) is especially critical for devices that do not have user interaction from which to collect entropy to reliably generate random numbers. A fast, reliable hardware implementation is critical in supporting real-time applications such as encrypted voice and video, as well as scaling to handle increasing application throughput and bandwidth needs. Fortress' cryptographic implementation has passed rigorous examination and been approved by NIST.
Suite B
Suite B cryptography is intended to complement the existing policy for the use of AES to protect national security systems (CNSSP-15). The Suite B initiative is intended to provide the industry with a common set of cryptographic algorithms that can be used to create products that meet the widest range of US Government needs. Suite B Cryptography is built on COTS information-assurance products using Advanced Encryption Standard (AES) and is under evaluation by the NSA to protect information up to the SECRET level. Fortress products are NSA Suite B upgradable and support AES-128/192/256, AES-GCM-128/256, AES-CCM-128 as well as IPSec (Suite B and Legacy).
FastPath Mesh
Fortress’s Fast Path Mesh implements a self-healing mesh network solution. Fast Path Mesh utilizes all interfaces and radio links to reach a destination using the lowest cost. The lowest cost is computed via a per-hop cost based on link condition and an end-to-end cost computed on the cumulative cost per hop. FastPath Mesh is optimized for reducing the amount of broadcast and multicast traffic to improve network capacity. FastPath Mesh supports IPv6 addressing to provide automatic addressing without the need for DHCP servers and it supports name distribution within the mesh network, without the need for a DNS server.
• Media Independent (802.11, 802.16, FSO, wired)
• End-to-end encryption
• Integrated DHCPv4 and DHCPv6 servers
• Integrated DNS (v4 and v6) servers
• Distributed name resolution and distribution in the mesh
• Very large networks and network diameters
• Fast convergence
• Fast switchover to network changes (node turned off and so on)
• Multicast optimizations
Multicast
Fortress ES products have optimizations to minimize multicast (and broadcast) traffic. They snoop Internet Group Management Protocol (IGMP) and Multicast Listener Discovery (MLD) protocol requests on the access interfaces, and subscribe to the multicast streams on behalf of the listeners. When a multicast packet is received it is forwarded only on interfaces determined by the routing algorithm to be along the path to end devices that have subscribed to the stream as listeners. Minimizing multicast and broadcast traffic frees up bandwidth for other uses, increased throughput and better latency.
RF Performance
Fortress products offer Industry-leading Wi-Fi range and performance. RF technologies available include 802.11 a/b/g and n. Fortress radios operate in the standard 2.4 GHz and 5.8 GHz Wi-Fi bands. Other options include 802.11a-type communications in the 4.4 GHz and 4.9 GHz bands. Fortress Mesh Points (MP) have demonstrated best-in-class RF performance with distances in excess of 32 miles using directional antennas and several miles using omni-directional antennas.
MIMO
Multiple Input - Multiple Output (MIMO) uses several antennas to move multiple data streams from one place to another. Instead of sending and receiving a single stream of data, MIMO can simultaneously transmit multiple data streams. MIMO also utilizes multiple antennas to take advantage of multi-path effects in 802.11 transmissions, as opposed to other 802.11 radios that experience degraded performance due to multipath. MIMO technology greatly improves both the range and capacity of wireless connections, and provides substantially more reliable signal quality and greater bandwidth.
802.11n
802.11n uses MIMO, channel bonding and payload optimization to provide better Wi-Fi performance. MIMO uses several antennas to move multiple data streams from one place to another and offers better performance with multipath signals. Channel bonding, uses two separate non-overlapping channels to transmit data at the same time. This technique also increases the amount of data that can be transmitted. Payload optimization allows more data to be stuffed into each transmitted packet.