Defence Minister Manohar Parrikar on Thursday dedicated to the nation an indigenously-developed converged communications network for the armed forces -- a major step towards ensuring their network centricity.The state-of-the-art, fully secure Defence Communication Network (DCN), developed by IT major HCL Infosystems, is the largest single satellite network in the Indian defence forces, spread across the country, a company statement said.This integrated communication architecture between the Indian Army, Indian Navy and Indian Air Force "bolsters the prowess of the defence forces during both critical operations and rescue missions. DCN is a major step towards ensuring network centricity across the three services, the Integrated Defence Staff (IDS) headquarters and the Strategic Forces Command (SFC)", the statement said.Speaking on the occasion, Premkumar Seshadri, Executive Vice-Chairman and Managing Director, HCL Infosystems Ltd.. said: “This is a moment of great honour for us. HCL Infosystems is proud to design, develop and deploy the first ever converged tri-service communication and IT network for the Indian Defence Forces."
"The network has been entirely designed and developed in India. We have made significant investments in creating defence communication technology practice, involving design of critical technology systems for military communication. HCL Infosystems is privileged to have the opportunity to successfully partner in yet another mission critical programme of national importance," Seshadri added.HCL Infosystems has had a long association with the Indian defence sector.The company has closely worked with the Indian Air Force to deploy the Air Force Network (AFNet) and AFCEL (Air Force Cellular Network). AFNet is the first network of its kind for Indian defence institutions, which interlinks major installations throughout the country on a high bandwidth network. It incorporates latest traffic transportation technology in the form of internet protocol.