The attack encryption does not touch
An adversary who cannot read one word of your traffic can still read your intentions from its shape. Saelvor emits identical 256-byte frames at a constant rate, real or chaff, so the observer's timeline is a flat line.
- For
- Dismounted sections, command posts
- Runs on
- Issued ruggedised COTS handsets and tablets
- Defeats
- Traffic analysis
- Manages
- DF exposure, through an emission budget
The metadata is in the envelope, not the letter
Volume, timing and who-talks-to-whom are protected by no cipher. Brigade traffic rises before an operation, every time. The node everyone talks to is the command post, and it is worth a missile. This is how order of battle has been derived from signals intelligence since 1914, and it is the reason EMCON exists as a doctrine.
Encrypting harder does nothing. Saelvor changes what is emitted instead.
Fixed frames
Every frame is exactly 256 bytes of authenticated encryption output, whether it carries an operations order or nothing.
Constant rate
Every node emits the same number of frames per tick. Real traffic rides inside; chaff fills the rest.
Adaptive cover
Full cover when the EW picture is hot, degraded when bandwidth is scarce, with chaff pushed onto cheap low-emission bearers.
What the section gets
No tempo to read
Correlation between operational tempo and what an observer sees drops from +1.000 to zero.
No command post by volume
Every node emits the same stream, so the busiest node stops standing out.
Indistinguishable chaff
Real and chaff frames are the same length and layout, both authenticated encryption output under one key schedule.
Emission budget
Traffic is weighted onto low-exposure bearers as DF risk rises, and the budget is visible to the signals officer.
Runs on issued kit
Messaging, data and voice on ruggedised COTS already in service, using existing radios as bearers.
Quorum identity built in
Sigilcore identity and Driftwell transport underneath, so the handset holds no long-term key.
Technical summary
| Frame | 256 bytes: nonce, AEAD ciphertext, tag; real or chaff |
|---|---|
| Emission | Constant rate with threat-adaptive cover budget |
| Cover cost | ≈4.8× bandwidth at full cover for a brigade's tempo |
| Platform | Issued ruggedised COTS handsets and tablets |
| Underneath | Sigilcore identity, Driftwell transport |
| Status | Simulated · tested COTS build: next phase |
The cost, stated plainly
Constant-rate emission costs bandwidth and battery continuously, and it raises the DF floor, because you are always transmitting. It defeats traffic analysis; it does not defeat direction-finding, and transmitter fingerprinting can still tell radios apart. 4.8× at full cover is survivable on a vehicle and painful on a dismounted battery over 72 hours.
The adaptation itself must not track operational tempo, or the rate change becomes the signal. Anyone claiming metadata privacy without these costs is not providing it.
The binding constraint is a signals regiment willing to run a trial.
Not capital. If you can open that door, or want the architecture note and the runnable prototype to take apart yourself, we would like to hear from you.