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Offline backpack ops

Run a full Common Operating Picture (COP) with no internet at all. AryaOS carries the sensors, the network, and the map in one box — power it from a battery, connect a phone over Wi-Fi or Bluetooth, and you have TAK situational awareness anywhere.

This is the original AirTAK concept of operations: a gateway in a backpack, an ATAK phone paired to it, and a portable USB battery — no LTE, no Wi-Fi infrastructure required.

AirTAK on a backpack

Proven in the field

In this configuration — a Samsung Galaxy S20 running ATAK paired to a backpack AirTAK on a USB battery, with no outside connectivity — a 55-mile aircraft-detection range was achieved on a clear June day in San Diego. See the Introduction.

The disconnected CONOP

flowchart LR
    subgraph Backpack
      BAT[USB battery] --> BOX[AryaOS box<br/>sensors + Charontak]
    end
    BOX -->|Wi-Fi hotspot AryaOS-xxxx| PHONE[ATAK phone]
    BOX -.->|Bluetooth PAN 10.44.0.1| PHONE2[iTAK / WinTAK]
    BOX -->|Mesh SA 239.2.3.1:6969| PHONE

Everything happens on the box: sensors decode locally, Charontak multicasts the picture over Mesh SA, and your EUD joins over Wi-Fi or Bluetooth. Nothing leaves the backpack.

Connect over the Wi-Fi hotspot

AryaOS runs a comitup onboarding hotspot on wlan0:

Property Value
SSID AryaOS-xxxx (the 4-hex device suffix)
Security Open by default — set WPA2 from the console (below)
Gateway IP 10.41.0.1
Console https://aryaos.local or https://10.41.0.1
  1. Power the box (on kitted units, match the color-coded connectors: yellow to yellow, black to black).
  2. Wait about two minutes for AryaOS-xxxx to appear, then join it.
  3. Open ATAK/WinTAK/iTAK — Mesh SA tracks arrive automatically.

Lock the hotspot before you deploy

The onboarding hotspot is open out of the box. Set a WPA2 passphrase (8–63 characters) in the Onboarding hotspot password card in Cockpit → AryaOS Site before operating anywhere the SSID could be reached by others.

Connect over Bluetooth PAN

When you'd rather not use Wi-Fi (to save the radio for sensors, or to avoid RF), pair a phone over Bluetooth. AryaOS acts as a Bluetooth Network Access Point (NAP):

Property Value Source key
Bridge pan0 BT_PAN_BRIDGE
Box IP 10.44.0.1/24 BT_PAN_ADDRESS / BT_PAN_PREFIX
DHCP pool for phones 10.44.0.20–10.44.0.60, 12h lease BT_PAN_DHCP_START / _END / _LEASE
Enabled yes (BT_PAN_ENABLED=1) —

AryaOS serves DHCP to the paired phone over the PAN link. There is no NAT or forwarding — Bluetooth PAN is only for reaching AryaOS services (the console, Mesh SA), not internet sharing. Once paired, browse to https://10.44.0.1 and TAK reaches the box over Bluetooth. See Bluetooth PAN for pairing steps.

BLE advertising limitation

Bluetooth PAN (Classic) pairing works for phone-to-box networking. Note that BLE advertising is a separate function and is not the transport used here.

Battery & power

  • Any quality USB power bank runs the box; use one sized for your mission duration and the number of active SDRs.
  • Multiple SDRs on the USB bus draw meaningful current — size the battery and cabling accordingly (see Multi-sensor resource notes).
  • Keep the power connector fully seated; brownouts during radio ingest cause dropouts. When in doubt, reboot.

Sharing position offline

Even fully disconnected, the box beacons its own GPS to the map and can feed a phone with no receiver of its own — see Own position / GPS. This keeps every node visible on the local COP without any network backhaul.

When connectivity returns

If you later reach a LAN, MANET, or TAK Server, you can onboard the box onto that network and forward the picture upstream without losing the local Mesh SA picture: