This paper examines some of the technologies and challenges facing the community in providing robust communications for the network-enabled command, control and information dissemination needed for successful Major Combat Operations (MCO), Security and Sustain Operations (SASO) and other military operations in the future.

Ubiquitous communications will be the next era in the evolving communications revolution. From the human perspective, access to information will be instantaneous and provide a revolution in services available to both the consumer and the warfighter. Services will be from the mundane - anytime, anywhere access to any movie ever made - to the vital - reliable and immediate access to the analyzed real-time video from the multi-spectral sensors scanning for snipers in the next block. In the former example, the services rely on a fixed infrastructure of networking devices housed in controlled environments and coupled to fixed terrestrial fiber backbones - in the latter, the services are derived from an agile and highly mobile ad-hoc backbone established in a matter of minutes by size, weight, and power-constrained platforms. This network must mitigate significant changes in the transmission media caused by millisecond-scale atmospheric temperature variations, the deployment of smoke, or the drifting of a cloud. It must mitigate against structural obscurations, jet wash, or incapacitation of a node. To maintain vital connectivity, the mobile backbone must be predictive and self-healing on both near-real-time and real-time time scales. The nodes of this network must be reconfigurable to mitigate intentional and environmental jammers, block attackers, and alleviate interoperability concerns caused by changing standards. The nodes must support multi-access of disparate waveform and protocols.

Ring-based network overlays have attractive characteristics for group communications such as inherent reliability and single fault-tolerance. However, ring networks also generally have longer paths and thus higher delay and delay jitter. In order to provide scalability as the number of group members grows, large single rings may be broken into smaller multi-rings interconnected together at the same level or interconnected in a multi-level hierarchy of rings. In this paper we consider different approaches to providing scalable battlespace group communications using multi-ring techniques -- classifying the techniques according to the primary military requirements of security and survivability. For multi-rings at the same level, an optimal number of rings to cover the group members may be approximated and these rings may then be interconnected at end systems or bridged via network devices. For hierarchical rings the number of levels and the number of rings per level may both be approximated. These results are dependent on application QoS demands and the underlying network infrastructure in terms of topology (dense versus sparse) and link bandwidths (bottleneck capacities). Network-centric warfare is not simply a combination of communication, intelligence, and signals, but rather warfare that leverages off a common network to support different purposes. While group communications based on a single virtual ring overlay may satisfy the most important requirements for survivability and security, scalability may force redesign. Thus comparing the characteristics of different multi-ring techniques provides an insight into which battlespace applications may be supported via virtual rings.

In this paper we describe state-of-the-art peer-to-peer systems and analyze them according to multiple characteristics highlighting (1) scalability, (2) security and (3) fault tolerance. Peer-to-Peer systems are inherently scalable since they create fully decentralized environments across the Internet while simultaneously reducing complexity because each server handles a local set of clients. Peer-to-peer system security has depended primarily on user trust - the fact that any peer can contact any other peer in the system introduces issues of insider attacks from malicious users or external attacks through the Internet. Lastly, while peer-to-peer systems are evolving in response to peer unreliability, fault tolerance/survivability for general-purpose military group communications may require additional middleware. Comparing these characteristics across different peer-to-peer systems is a step towards understanding which system may be appropriate for military group communications and where further research is needed. A secondary result of our comparison is an attempt to move towards common terminology and models between peer-to-peer, application-layer multicast, IP layer multicast, and distributed systems approaches for group communications.

While most of the routing protocols of wireless sensor networks try to minimize the energy consumptions to extend the system life-time, it is also critical to design a protocol that is scalable and fault-tolerant. In this paper, we introduce a clusterhead multihop routing algorithm for meshed wireless sensor networks. Each identified junction node in the mesh network is selected as a clusterhead. The routing decisions are only made at the clusterheads. A simplified link-state routing algorithm is used to find the shortest routing path among all available clusterheads in the network. This algorithm exploits the feasibility and fault tolerance of routing protocol, while coping with the severe energy constraint and the requirement for network scalability. Time division multiple access technique is employed in the medium access control layer for further reduction of energy consumption. Multiple-level cluster hierarchy approach is also discussed for more complicated meshed sensor networks.

Wireless sensor networks have become a viable solution to automating and enhancing some applications. One such application is monitoring street lamps in a city. This paper introduces a routing algorithm for sensors attached to street lamps on the roads of the city. Since this network will reside along man-made roads, the physical layout of the network is restricted and static. In general, the algorithm routes packets from junction to junction until the packet reaches the intended street/avenue. Once the packet reaches the street/avenue on which the destination lies, the nodes route the packet in the direction of the specific destination node. The three main goals of this algorithm are fault-tolerance, reliability, and minimal energy. The results of two test scenarios are presented for a faultless network and a faulty network respectively. For faultless networks, the algorithm was able to achieve near-optimal routing paths from source nodes to destination nodes. In addition, the algorithm is adaptive and robust enough to insure packet delivery to its destination in marginally faulty networks. Hence, the results show that this algorithm is close to fulfilling all three of these goals.

Current military operational effectiveness can degrade rapidly with increasing communications stresses such as heavy throughput and QoS demands from disadvantaged users exposed to severe channel impairments and communications threats. This paper proposes a distributed and agile radio resource management (RRM) system to maintain mission effectiveness even under significant communications stress. Agile RRM includes a well-coordinated cross-layer design with the introduction of new OSI layer features and interactions as well as methods to incorporate communications constraints and requirements in systems controlling mission planning and execution.

The Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) is developing a new and exciting communications capability through the Optical and Radio Frequency (RF) Combined Link Experiment (ORCLE) program. This program will develop and demonstrate a prototype system that combines free space optical and RF communications into a single networked system to provide compact, robust, high-bandwidth, mobile communications to military forces. ORCLE is a revolutionary approach to communications that will combine the high data rate capability of laser communications, the high reliability of RF communications, and clever network management to ensure high quality, reliable networked communications, even if some of the links are affected by atmospheric or physical obstructions.

The U.S. Army’s Future Combat Systems (FCS) and Future Force Warrior (FFW) will rely on the use of unattended, tactical sensors to detect and identify enemy targets in order to avoid enemy fires and enable precise networked fire to survive on the future battlefield with less armor protection. Successful implementation of these critical sensor fields requires the development of a specialized communications network infrastructure needed to disseminate sensor data to provide relevant, timely and accurate situational awareness information to the tactical common operating picture. The sensor network communications must support both static deployed and mobile ground and air robotic sensor arrays with robust, secure, stealthy, and jam resistant links. It is envisioned that tactical sensor networks can be deployed in a two tiered communications architecture that includes a lower sensor sub-layer consisting of acoustic, magnetic, Chemical/Biological and seismic detectors and an upper sub-layer consisting of infrared or visual imaging cameras. The upper sub-layer can be cued by the lower sub-layer and provides a seamless gateway link to higher echelon backbone tactical networks. The NSFF Advanced Technology Demonstration (ATD) communications effort focuses on providing Future Force systems such as the FCS and the Future Force Warrior with critical situational awareness data needed for survivability. The communications systems supporting this functionality must be designed such that unattended ground sensor data can flow seamlessly from the lowest unattended tactical sensor echelons into the Army’s tactical backbone networks while also allowing the “fusing” of the data with other intelligence information for correlation within a tactical command and control node. NSFF is realizing this capability by using advanced communications technologies developed under the Soldier Level Integrated Communications Environment (SLICE) Soldier Radio Waveform (SRW) project. These technologies include robust, self-organizing/healing networking protocols, energy management techniques, and stealthy, secure, jam resistant radio equipment for a significantly enhanced communications capability for the Joint Tactical Radio System (JTRS). CERDEC laboratory and field demonstrations in 2004 will be reviewed to show early SRW development in preparation for the NSFF ATD as well as development of affordable systems for disposable sensor applications

This paper presents a vision for a future capability-based military communications system that considers user requirements. Historically, the military has developed and fielded many specialized communications systems. While these systems solved immediate communications problems, they were not designed to operate with other systems. As information has become more important to the execution of war, the "stove-pipe" nature of the communications systems deployed by the military is no longer acceptable. Realizing this, the military has begun the transformation of communications to a network-centric communications paradigm. However, the specialized communications systems were developed in response to the widely varying environments related to military communications. These environments, and the necessity for effective communications within these environments, do not disappear under the network-centric paradigm. In fact, network-centric communications allows for one message to cross many of these environments by transiting multiple networks. The military would also like one communications approach that is capable of working well in multiple environments. This paper presents preliminary work on the creation of a framework that allows for a reconfigurable device that is capable of adapting to the physical and network environments. The framework returns to the Open Systems Interconnect (OSI) architecture with the addition of a standardized intra-layer control interface for control information exchange, a standardized data interface and a proposed device architecture based on the software radio.

We present our initial study that addresses Quality of Service (QoS) needs for end-users and applications in network-centric operations (NCO). In network-centric operations, various systems that traditionally have operated independently now function jointly as a system of systems. In such an environment, networks are heterogeneous and may not share a common network layer protocol. However, existing QoS developments among the current networks assume the use of a common network layer protocol and a common QoS provision mechanism. Little attention has been paid to providing QoS service across heterogeneous networks made of potentially different network layer protocols and QoS provisions. Meanwhile, the QoS of an application providing services in NCO depends not only on traditional packet delivery QoS by networks but also on application layer processing. Our initial approach toward QoS modeling and management for network centric applications is as follows: We first define the application QoS concept under the system of systems paradigm wherein the impact on QoS from application layers is integrated with the traditional packet delivery QoS. We then investigate the potential methodologies to properly model and qualify/quantify the different network layer QoS provision mechanisms in heterogeneous networks. Operating on this modeling and analysis framework, we plan to develop a model-based performance assurance mechanism for effective management of application QoS across heterogeneous network regimes.

Networks of small ground sensors and other near earth devices deployed in the battlefield are postulated to be of considerable value to the future warfighter. The radio frequency (RF) link between devices will dictate the resilience of the network in communicating critical information in the battlespace. A prior knowledge of the RF environment inches above the ground is required to properly design the sensor network. Signal strength was measured with antennas at 4, 7, and 120 inches above the ground over a range of 10 to 400 feet. The source consisted of a 1780 MHz, 1/4 watt transmitter feeding a quarter wave vertical monopole. The receive equipment consisted of a corner reflector monopole, spectrum analyzer and data logger program. Data points were taken at 10-foot increments over the 400-foot range. The received signal, at heights of 4 and 7 inches, were compared to the measurements taken at a height of 120 inches (close to “free space”). It was found that there is a significant increase in path loss as the antenna approached the ground. There was a 15 dB increase in path loss from when the antennas were at 120 inches to 7 inches off the ground and 18 dB increase in path loss with the antenna 4 inches off the ground. Variations in path loss (10 dB) over time (seconds) were also noted.

The premise of this talk is that more sophisticated robotics hardware and smarter software alone won’t suffice for achieving the full potential afforded by robotic assets. We will also have to develop entirely different mechanisms for planning and executing unmanned missions and new bandwidth-efficient approaches to sharing imagery and other wideband sensor data among large numbers of collaborating platforms. Our current incredibly detailed and complex mission planning methods will bog down if applied to operations involving large numbers of platforms - yet we will be deploying many more robotic assets in the future than we do today. In addition, inter-platform and reachback RF communications resources will be stretched thin if the sensor outputs of all these platforms need to processed off-board. A futuristic ISR mission involving multiple unmanned platforms and a broad range of wideband sensors is presented as an example to demonstrate the transformational potential of the large-scale deployment of robotic assets, and also the need for revolutionary new approaches to mission planning, command and control, sensor processing and exploitation.

This paper shows how information-directed diffusion can be used to manage the trajectories of hundreds of smart mobile sensors. This is an artificial physics method in which the sensors move stochastically in response to an information gradient and artificial inter-sensor forces that serve to coordinate their actions. Measurements received by the sensors are centrally fused using a particle filter to estimate the Joint Multitarget Probability Density (JMPD) for the surveillance volume. The JMPD is used to construct an information surface which gives the expected gain for sensor dwells as a function of position. The updated sensor position is obtained by moving it in response to artificial forces derived from the information surface, which acts as a potential, and inter-sensor forces derived from a Lennard-Jones-like potential. The combination of information gradient and inter-sensor forces work to move the sensors to areas of high information gain while simultaneously ensuring sufficient spacing between the sensors. We evaluate the performance of this approach using a simulation study for an idealized Micro Air Vehicle with a simple EO detector and collected target trajectories. We find that this method provides a factor of 5 to 10 improvement in performance when compared to random uncoordinated search.

UAVs are a key element of the Army’s vision for Force Transformation, and are expected to be employed in large numbers per FCS Unit of Action (UoA). This necessitates a multi-UAV level of autonomous collaboration behavior capability that meets RSTA and other mission needs of FCS UoAs. Autonomous Collaborative Mission Systems (ACMS) is a scalable architecture and behavior planning / collaborative approach to achieve this level of capability. The architecture is modular and the modules may be run in different locations/platforms to accommodate the constraints of available hardware, processing resources and mission needs. The Mission Management Module determines the role of member autonomous entities by employing collaboration mechanisms (e.g., market-based, etc.), the individual Entity Management Modules work with the Mission Manager in determining the role and task of the entity, the individual Entity Execution Modules monitor task execution and platform navigation and sensor control, and the World Model Module hosts local and global versions of the environment and the Common Operating Picture (COP). The modules and uniform interfaces provide a consistent and platform-independent baseline mission collaboration mechanism and signaling protocol across different platforms. Further, the modular design allows flexible and convenient addition of new autonomous collaborative behaviors to the ACMS through: adding new behavioral templates in the Mission Planner component, adding new components in appropriate ACMS modules to provide new mission specific functionality, adding or modifying constraints or parameters to the existing components, or any combination of these. We describe the ACMS architecture, its main features, current development status and future plans for simulations in this report.

Large scale unmanned networks consisting of a number of heterogeneous nodes that may be configured in ad-hoc fashions and incorporating complicated architectures result in challenging problems for design of appropriate control and resource allocation optimization techniques. The problem is further compounded by the fact that designing appropriate network control methodologies subject to bandwidth, latencies and computational resources for these network-centric systems are highly non-trivial. In this paper, we only investigate one of a number of critical issues that are of interest in this domain, namely the problem of congestion control of a network that consists of three nodes that can be configured into different architectures. This study shows that depending on the interconnections between the network nodes the dynamics of the resulting closed-loop system can change considerably so that the unmanned system could become even unstable and unmanageable. Therefore, a robust control strategy is required to be able to cope with any configuration changes and to be able to address the resource allocation problem subject to the propagation delays and latencies. For sake of comparative evaluation, we first implement a standard PID control scheme which is shown to lack sufficient capability for achieving the desired performance requirements. Subsequently, a nonlinear control scheme is proposed to resolve the limitation of sensitivity of the closed-loop system to propagation delays. The proposed strategy is based on a well-known input-output feedback linearization approach that is shown to achieve an appreciable improvement in the performance of the closed-loop unmanned network and which is also less sensitive to the network propagation delays.

Transformation of Canada’s military forces is being pursued to ensure their relevancy and impact in light of the new defence and security environment. This environment is characterized by an increasingly complex spectrum of military operations spanning pre- and post-conflict, the emergence of an asymmetric threat that differs substantially from the peer-on-peer threat of the Cold War, and the globalization of science and technology. Disruptive technologies - those that have a profound impact on established practice - are increasingly shaping both the civil and military sectors, with advances in one sector now regularly seeding disruptions in the other. This paper postulates the likely sources of disruptive technologies over the next 10-20 years. It then looks at how science and technology investments can contribute to force transformation either to take advantage of or mitigate the effects of these disruptions.

Command Post of the Future (CPOF) is distributed, collaborative Command and Control (C2) system developed as part of a research and development program by the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA). It was introduced in Operation Iraqi Freedom in January, 2004 and has been in continual use since that time. Anecdotal evidence indicates that CPOF, in the field, has facilitated new ways of sharing information and collaborating. MACE is a follow-on project (not a DARPA program) that intends to (a) verify and quantify the kinds of information sharing and ad-hoc collaboration in CPOF; (b) investigate the potential role of machine learning and other “cognitive” technologies in further facilitating collaboration, problem-solving, situational awareness, strategic and tactical planning, and other aspects of command and war-fighting; and (c) develop a research plan to develop the next generation C2 system that learns to support the decision-makers and facilitates ad-hoc collaboration and information sharing.

Dynamic Networked Combat Capability is a transformational concept to enable network centric warfare at the tactical level - the immediate attack of targets of opportunity using any and all assets available: any sensor, any effect generator and any decider against any target. More specifically, the DARPA goal is to provide enabling technologies that will permit the Services to build such a capability.

Smart Sensor Networks are becoming important target detection and tracking tools. The challenging problems in such networks include the sensor fusion, data management and communication schemes. This work discusses techniques used to distribute sensor management and multi-target tracking responsibilities across an ad hoc, self-healing cluster of sensor nodes. Although miniaturized computing resources possess the ability to host complex tracking and data fusion algorithms, there still exist inherent bandwidth constraints on the RF channel. Therefore, special attention is placed on the reduction of node-to-node communications within the cluster by minimizing unsolicited messaging, and distributing the sensor fusion and tracking tasks onto local portions of the network. Several challenging problems are addressed in this work including track initialization and conflict resolution, track ownership handling, and communication control optimization. Emphasis is also placed on increasing the overall robustness of the sensor cluster through independent decision capabilities on all sensor nodes. Track initiation is performed using collaborative sensing within a neighborhood of sensor nodes, allowing each node to independently determine if initial track ownership should be assumed. This autonomous track initiation prevents the formation of duplicate tracks while eliminating the need for a central “management” node to assign tracking responsibilities. Track update is performed as an ownership node requests sensor reports from neighboring nodes based on track error covariance and the neighboring nodes geo-positional location. Track ownership is periodically recomputed using propagated track states to determine which sensing node provides the desired coverage characteristics. High fidelity multi-target simulation results are presented, indicating the distribution of sensor management and tracking capabilities to not only reduce communication bandwidth consumption, but to also simplify multi-target tracking within the cluster.

Web Services are being adopted as the enabling technology to provide net-centric capabilities for many Department of Defense operations. The Navy Enterprise Portal, for example, is Web Services-based, and the Department of the Navy is promulgating guidance for developing Web Services. Web Services, however, only constitute a baseline specification that provides the foundation on which users, under current approaches, write specialized applications in order to retrieve data over the Internet. Application development may increase dramatically as the number of different available Web Services increases. Reasons for specialized application development include XML schema versioning differences, adoption/use of diverse business rules, security access issues, and time/parameter naming constraints, among others. We are currently developing for the US Navy a system which will improve delivery of timely and relevant meteorological and oceanographic (MetOc) data to the warfighter. Our objective is to develop an Advanced MetOc Broker (AMB) that leverages Web Services technology to identify, retrieve and integrate relevant MetOc data in an automated manner. The AMB will utilize a Mediator, which will be developed by applying ontological research and schema matching techniques to MetOc forms of data. The AMB, using the Mediator, will support a new, advanced approach to the use of Web Services; namely, the automated identification, retrieval and integration of MetOc data. Systems based on this approach will then not require extensive end-user application development for each Web Service from which data can be retrieved. Users anywhere on the globe will be able to receive timely environmental data that fits their particular needs.

Network-Centric Warfare (NCW) technology is currently being investigated to enhance the military’s effectiveness in the battlespace by providing the warfighter the necessary information to take proper decisions and win wars. One of the main battlespace requirements is surveillance, especially in today’s guerilla warfare theaters, such as the littoral and urban zones. NCW requires warfighters to be networked, self-organizing, spectrally undetectable, and having precise information about hostile targets in their vicinity. Towards this end, we are developing the concept of Netted Wireless Random Noise Radars, which is presented in this paper. The low probability-of-detection (LPD) and low probability-of-intercept (LPI) properties of random noise radars are well-known. Such radar sensors form a self-organizing network-centric architecture, using a deterministically fragmented spectrum to avoid spectral fratricide. The central concept is to use notch filtering to fragment parts of the band-limited non-coherent random noise waveform spectrum, and use these intermediate bandwidths for network communication (target tracking and track fusion) among the wireless sensors. For target detection and ranging, these sensors transmit random noise waveforms combined with continuous signals carrying digital data. As seen by the hostile target, the transmitted waveform appears random and noise-like. However, for the friendly sensors of this system, the noise-like signal contains camouflaged information. The advantages being envisioned with such a system are lower probability of detection due to noise-like transmissions, mobility to sensors due to the self-organizing capability, spectral efficiency due to fragmentation of spectrum, and better immunity to coherent interference due to the use of non-coherent signal waveforms.

Recent years have seen a rapid expansion of ultrawideband (UWB) technology in radar and communications applications. While the initial impetus for UWB systems was derived from the need for high-resolution radar applications for the military, these systems are now used in a variety of consumer applications such as cellular phones and satellite television. The principal motivation for using UWB is that it offers improved spectral efficiency, i.e., it permits multiple users to occupy and operate within the same frequency band with minimal cross-interference. Currently, UWB schemes use some form of pulse train modulation to encode data onto the carrier. However, these schemes are not always ideal since: (a) these are not the most spectrally efficient due to the fact that additional users can be added by using alternate schemes, (b) these do not possess anti-jam capability since it is possible to estimate the carrier frequency the signal, and (c) such type of modulation possess frequency sidelobes that might interfere with UWB devices in adjacent bands. Our research aims to characterize the above shortcomings and to ultimately develop a method for defining and estimating an appropriate spectral efficiency metric. We also present results of our study of new waveform designs, for both radar and communications, resulting in optimal sharing of frequency segments with minimum impact to system functionality and avoidance of spectral fratricide. One such waveform investigated and described herein is a combination of pulse shape and pulse position modulation, primarily for optimizing the performance of UWB communications systems that use pulse trains.

The AFRL research programs for the Joint Battlespace Infosphere (JBI) and the Collaborative Enterprise Environment CEE) are the next steps in the evolution of information management from system-centric through network-centric to collaborative information-centric operations. JBI extends the concept of the network-centric system and provides capabilities for intelligent data transformation, information exchange, knowledge sharing, and processing. CEE is an open systems, agent-based, application independent framework that supports product and process modeling and resource workflow to facilitate advanced collaboration among geographically dispersed entities. This paper describes ongoing research efforts in applying distributed collaboration to JBI. The research addresses how CEE events can interact with JBI’s publish and subscribe functionality and how a JBI subscription can trigger a CEE distributed resource workflow. The workflow processes the information, configures the data for collaboration between humans and other resources, and publishes the results of the collaboration back to JBI. A fully integrated CEE JBI environment allows near real-time data to be used in advanced resource collaborations to bring the right information to the right user at the right time.

Net-centric information systems such as the Air Force's Joint Battlespace Infosphere (JBI) require a secure, scalable, object repository to support the vision of a globally accessible, secure, distributed information “space.” Peer-to-peer (P2P) technology holds significant promise for these large-scale information repositories because of its demonstrated scalability and robustness. The development of a P2P object repository poses significant challenges: distributed query processing and security. This paper presents and discusses ORIS, a peer-to-peer object repository that not only stores objects but also supports database-type queries. The ORIS P2P technology ensures resilience and scalability and also employs secret sharing techniques and access control to ensure the confidentiality, integrity, and availability of objects even if a number of peers are physically or clandestinely compromised by an enemy attack. The Air Force Research Laboratory has developed the Distributed Information Enterprise Modeling and Simulation (DIEMS) framework that efficiently supports the modeling and simulation of large globally distributed computer networks. DIEMS has been used to model prototypes of the JBI and is currently being used to assess the system performance, scalability, and survivability of ORIS. Preliminary results indicate query performance to be acceptable given an adequate network configuration. We also present the results of this modeling and simulation assessment.

We compare the overall structure of military GIG and NCES architectures with that of the object oriented architectures (CORBA, J2EE and .NET) and of the emerging Web Services architecture. While the match is good in many ways, particularly with respect to Web Services, we also identify a series of shortcomings that could stymie attempts to implement a GIG or NCES system directly on a commercial Web Services platform. Our comparison leads to suggestions for experimental investigations of some topics, but also for more fundamental inquiry in some areas where the scientific base is inadequate. Several issues of the latter sort arise when we consider the mixture of scalability, security, robustness, and time-criticality that must be simultaneously satisfied in demanding military applications.

Information management draws upon many disciplines including the collection of information needs, acquisition of information, information assessment, dissemination of information, and control of a managed information space. This paper introduces the general notions of information management in the large and the facet of information management known as manipulation, and provides an in-depth discussion of an advanced technology prototype implementation for the management of lightweight applications known as “fuselets” that perform value-added information processing functions over the managed information space. A fuselet is a light-weight, special-purpose Joint Battlespace Infosphere (JBI) client that provides value-added functions for information processing that are under the control of the JBI platform services. The information processing functions take existing information objects within the JBI information space as input and manipulate them in a specified manner to produce new information objects. Information manipulations performed by fuselets typically satisfy the recurring information needs that are found to be common across multiple Communities of Interest (COIs), but are also often customized or developed from scratch to satisfy the immediate needs of a specific COI or information consumer for which there is no other readily available solution. This paper will discuss the overall fuselet system architecture and a developmental prototype that establishes an operational framework for fuselet execution and management.

The Joint Battlespace Infosphere (JBI) is an information management infrastructure that provides a basic set of flexible core services: publish, subscribe, and query. Managed Information Objects (MIOs) are published by JBI clients and are subsequently managed and disseminated to other subscribing JBI Clients by the JBI Core Services. MIOs can also be archived into a repository managed by the JBI Core Services upon publication and can later be queried for by JBI Clients. A reference implementation (RI) of the JBI Core Services using Java 2 Enterprise Edition (J2EE) technology is currently being developed at the Air Force Research Laboratory Information Directorate (AFRL/IF) in Rome, NY. JBI Instrumentation Services will allow users to gain insight into what activity is occurring inside the JBI Core Services. The phase 1 Instrumentation Services implementation has been developed as a standalone system that interacts with the JBI Core Services through a set of interfaces that provide a low impact, multi-implementation compatible connection. The Instrumentation Services Architecture makes use of the Instrumentation Entity Model to create entities that describe the real elements of the JBI Core Services: platforms, connections, users, nodes, and sequences. These entities populate the Instrumentation Space and are accessed by clients through the Instrumentation Client API (ICAPI). A web-based client that makes use of this ICAPI has been developed to visualize instrumentation information and demonstrate the capabilities of the Instrumentation Services. This client utilizes numerical rate graphs and dynamic graph trees to visualize JBI activity. This paper describes the phase 1 Instrumentation Services Architecture and development efforts involved in creating the JBI Instrumentation Services and prototype instrumentation client.

The Joint Battlespace Infosphere (JBI) Information Management (IM) services provide information exchange and persistence capabilities that support tailored, dynamic, and timely access to required information, enabling near real-time planning, control, and execution for DoD decision making. JBI IM services will be built on a substrate of network centric core enterprise services and when transitioned, will establish an interoperable information space that aggregates, integrates, fuses, and intelligently disseminates relevant information to support effective warfighter business processes. This virtual information space provides individual users with information tailored to their specific functional responsibilities and provides a highly tailored repository of, or access to, information that is designed to support a specific Community of Interest (COI), geographic area or mission. Critical to effective operation of JBI IM services is the implementation of repositories, where data, represented as information, is represented and persisted for quick and easy retrieval. This paper will address information representation, persistence and retrieval using existing database technologies to manage structured data in Extensible Markup Language (XML) format as well as unstructured data in an IM services-oriented environment. Three basic categories of database technologies will be compared and contrasted: Relational, XML-Enabled, and Native XML. These technologies have diverse properties such as maturity, performance, query language specifications, indexing, and retrieval methods. We will describe our application of these evolving technologies within the context of a JBI Reference Implementation (RI) by providing some hopefully insightful anecdotes and lessons learned along the way. This paper will also outline future directions, promising technologies and emerging COTS products that can offer more powerful information management representations, better persistence mechanisms and improved retrieval techniques.

The Department of Defense is making significant investments to construct systems, built upon web services and their supporting technologies, that strive to achieve the goals of net-centricity. While these technologies address several of the traditional stumbling blocks to integration and interoperability, they leave issues of information management largely unaddressed. Indeed, the broad availability of these systems exacerbates, rather than reduces, stresses on our information management capabilities. This paper discusses the enterprise-level information management infrastructure objectives for providing net-centric military capabilities and more fundamental technical challenges derived from them.

The revolution of network centric operations will be achieved incrementally. Information Management is centric to this seamless transition of warfighter capabilities across enclaves, services, and platforms. Air Force Research Lab has teamed with industry, defense, and academic leaders to research and develop technologies to solve the information management needs of the DoD. Joint Battlespace Infosphere Mercury is an AFRL initiative to develop information management software using the best of breed commercial technologies. This session describes (1) the capabilities and goals of JBI Mercury, (2) design highlights and lessons learned, and (3) how to obtain a license-cost free copy of JBI Mercury and collaborate with the JBI community. JBI Mercury provides information management services for publish, subscribe, and query for XML/Binary information across a local or wide area network using Java, C#, and web services bindings. Multiple, dynamic messaging connectors and discovery technologies are mediated by a www.openwings.org compliant framework. The JBI Mercury services are dynamically connectable (dynamic plug-and-play connectors), dynamically configurable to meet mission requirements (context policies), and dynamically replaceable (technology change). Flexibility and reliability are provided by the ability to achieve ad-hoc integration of new users and new service components as they enter or leave the network.

This paper describes the architecture of a low-latency symmetric multiprocessing optical soft memory system to cluster computing inside the core of an adaptive optical signal processor with the aid of soft decision algebraic polynomial algorithms. The optical system hardware is shown to evolve along with the iterator instantiations of the soft algorithm that forms the core of the memory map. The system enables efficient cache coherence protocols used in unit multiprocessors to be run across a homogeneous cluster in optical soft memory systems. We define a structure called the Optical Generalized Viterbi Algorithm Data Structure (Optical GVA DS) that makes up the system map for adaptive optical signal processing. The system executes transforms where algorithms for handling the entire data vector is processed, shortening the computational complexity effectively. Thus the optical soft memory system as described by the evolving Optical GVA DS iterator instantiates enables the design of parallel processors to handle modulated data in the optical domain. This is of importance in the realization of distributed netcentric architectures and forms the basis of large-scale real-time data processing and acquisition in m2m units.

Manufactures of commercially available transceivers have reduced the cost of these modules by outsourcing production to low cost regions, and by engaging in multiple source agreements (MSA). Using key components developed for commercial transceivers, modules meeting Mil/Aero qualification requirements can be developed with minimal additional effort. This paper will examine the applications that may require qualified modules, packaging considerations for qualifying the modules, and additional functionality that are attractive to the Mil/Aero market.