STANAG 5066 Extension Protocol Series

STANAG 5066 is a NATO Standard “PROFILE FOR HF RADIO DATA COMMUNICATIONS” providing a link level service for HF Radio. The latest version is Edition 3 of December 2010.

There are a number of issues with the current STANAG 5066 specification, particularly in relation to its use with the new Wideband HF (WBHF) specifications. NATO is aware of the need to update STANAG 5066 and has expressed intention to do so.

The S5066-EP series is intended to address the open issues prior to STANAG 5066 official update. This series of documents provides a set of extensions that can be used in conjunction with STANAG 5066 edition 3. The intent is that vendors and those procuring systems can reference these specifications, prior to this capability being available to NATO.

It is anticipated that this functionality will be folded into a future update of STANAG 5066 and at that point the series can be obsoleted.

Isode is managing the S5066-EP series as a community service. The initial S5066-EP documents are written by Isode but we encourage other individuals, organizations and vendors to contribute documents to this series.

Exchange of Information on STANAG 5066 EPs

The STANAG 5066 are all published on the Isode website.

There is an open mailing list for discussion of current and new S5066-EPs: s5066-ep (at) isode.com. To join this list or manage your subscription, please send a message to s5066-ep-request (at) isode.com.

Document Requirements

S5066-EPs must be openly available specifications that NATO may incorporate into a future edition of STANAG 5066.  They must be free of IPR or Patent restrictions that would prevent this.

These specifications are intended for implementation and must provide sufficient clear information to be implemented in context of STANAG 5066 Ed3.

S5066-EPs must have a clear publication date, and (apart from this document) a referenceable version number. S5066-EPs must have a status value which is one of:

• Experimental: A new proposal for consideration.
• Implemented: A specification that has at least one implementation that has demonstrated viability of the proposal.
• Interoperable: A specification with two independent implementations that have been shown to inter-operate.
• Informational: A document that does not have interoperability considerations.

The First in the Series: STANAG 5066 Padding DPDU

This document introduces a new STANAG 5066 DPDU to pad transmissions, which enables enhanced performance with no overhead. You can read the full extension on the Isode website.