Ralph Kohler

Enabling the deployment of COTS applications in tactical edge networks

The increasing adoption of COTS hardware and software technologies in tactical scenarios raises the issue of supporting the deployment of legacy and COTS applications in extremely dynamic and challenging environments such as tactical edge networks (TENs). COTS applications adopt standards devised for wired Internet environments or corporate networks, such as service oriented architectures, and TCP and UDP, thus exhibiting severe reliability and performance problems on TENs. To support the reuse and deployment of COTS applications in TENs, there is the need to develop solutions that mediate the application requirements with the communication semantics of TENs. This article presents an overview of the challenges in deploying COTS applications in TENs and presents NetProxy, a state-of-the-art solution explicitly designed to address them.

Information Fusion in a Cloud-Enabled Environment

Recent advances in cloud computing pose interesting capabilities for information fusion which have similar requirements of big data computations. With a cloud enabled environment, information fusion systems could be conducted over vast amounts of entities across multiple databases. In order to properly implement information fusion in a cloud, information management, system design, and real-time execution must be considered. In this chapter, three aspects of current developments integrating low/high-level information fusion (LLIF/HLIF) and cloud computing are discussed: (1) agent-based service architectures, (2) ontologies, and (3) metrics (timeliness, confidence, and security). We introduce the Cloud-Enabled Bayes Network (CEBN) for wide area motion imagery target tracking and identification. The Google Fusion Tables service is also selected as a case study to illustrate commercial cloud-based information fusion applications.

Beyond line-of-sight information dissemination for Force Protection

Force protection capabilities have emerged as necessary for operations such as Village Stability Operations and Forward Operating Base security. Current Force Protection Kits include a rich set of sensors that can be monitored from a core operator station. This paper describes ongoing research to extend the reach of Force Protection capabilities as part of an integrated, network-centric system to protect mobile troops on patrol, to include sensors beyond the organic Force Protection perimeter, and to enable the automated, selective transfer of information to and from kit locations. These extended Force Protection capabilities are enabled by a highly-mobile, vehicle mounted information management system providing beyond line-of-sight publish-subscribe capabilities, sensor data archiving, video storage and retrieval, and data ferrying across long distances.

A dependable high performance wafer scale architecture for embedded signal processing

A high performance, programmable, floating point multiprocessor architecture has been specifically designed to exploit advanced two- and three-dimensional hybrid wafer scale packaging to achieve low size, weight, and power, and improve reliability for embedded systems applications. Processing elements comprised of a 0.8 micron CMOS dual processor chip and commercial synchronous SRAMs achieve more than 100 MFLOPS/Watt. This power efficiency allows up to 32 processing elements to be incorporated into a single 3D multichip module, eliminating multiple discrete packages and thousands of wirebonds. The dual processor chip can dynamically switch between independent processing, watchdog checking, and coprocessing modes. A flat, SRAM memory provides predictable instruction set timing and independent and accurate performance prediction.

Infrastructure, middleware, and applications for portable cellular devices in tactical edge networks

The tactical environment requires lightweight devices that are still sufficiently powerful to run a variety of applications to support dismounted soldiers. In the commercial market, competition and demand have driven the mobile phone platform to become a highly capable, programmable environment with devices that have excellent processing, storage, and display capabilities given their cost and size. The Android platform from Google has further increased access to these devices by providing an open source platform that can be programmed in Java and C++. This paper describes a set of middleware services designed to support tactical applications on Android devices, as well as improve communications capabilities from cellular devices. We also describe a candidate set of Android applications to support Tactical users.

Information Ubiquity in Austere Locations

Abstract In todays world, connectivity is increasingly taken for granted. Wireless networks, cell towers, and satellites provide ubiquitous connectivity through a number of devices. However, in austere locations constant connectivity cannot be assumed, e.g., due to the remoteness of the area, due to a disaster or combat situation, or due to insecurity or lack of access to available communications. This paper describes a system, Marti, which the authors have been developing and demonstrating that can provide inter-connectivity and access to information in austere locations. Marti is rapidly deployable and interoperates with a large number of existing devices and client applications.

Improving situation awareness with the Android Team Awareness Kit (ATAK)

To make appropriate, timely decisions in the field, Situational Awareness (SA) needs to be conveyed in a decentralized manner to the users at the edge of the network as well as at operations centers. Sharing real-time SA efficiently between command centers and operational troops poses many challenges, including handling heterogeneous and dynamic networks, resource constraints, and varying needs for the collection, dissemination, and display of information, as well as recording that information. A mapping application that allows teams to share relevant geospatial information efficiently and to communicate effectively with one another and command centers has wide applicability to many vertical markets across the Department of Defense, as well as a wide variety of federal, state local, and non-profit agencies that need to share locations, text, photos, and video. This paper describes the Android Team Awareness Kit (ATAK), an advanced, distributed tool for commercial- off-the-shelf (COTS) mobile devices such as smartphones and tablets. ATAK provides a variety of useful SA functions for soldiers, law enforcement, homeland defense, and civilian collaborative use; including mapping and navigation, range and bearing, text chat, force tracking, geospatial markup tools, image and file sharing, video playback, site surveys, and many others. This paper describes ATAK, the SA tools that ATAK has built-in, and the ways it is being used by a variety of military, homeland security, and law enforcement users.

Data Ferrying to the Tactical Edge: A Field Experiment in Exchanging Mission Plans and Intelligence in Austere Environments

The effectiveness of ground-based, wireless tactical data networks is often constrained by limitations such as communication range and line-of-sight. SATCOM is not always available because it is relatively expensive and highly contended. Data ferrying is an alternative method of data transfer in which data is uploaded from one network to a manned or unmanned vehicle, then the vehicle is driven or flown to within range of a second network where the data can be downloaded. Data ferrying via Unmanned Aerial Vehicle (UAV) can transport data over very rugged terrain without risking the safety of a human courier. This paper describes an implementation of data ferrying to provide low-cost, effective data communications between remote ground units and Forward Operating Bases in austere environments. It describes a field experiment in which a ground vehicle was used to wirelessly ferry data in a realistic scenario, and points out the lessons learned from that experiment.

Digitally-spotlighted subaperture SAR image formation using high performance computing

This paper is concerned with the implementation of the SAR wavefront reconstruction algorithm on a high performance computer. For this purpose, the imaging algorithm is reformulated as a coherent processing (spectral combination) of images that are formed from a set of subapertures of the available synthetic aperture. This is achieved in conjunction with extracting the signature of a specific target region (digital spotlighting). Issues that are associated with implementing the algorithm on SMP-HPCs and DMP-HPCs are discussed. The results using the FOPEN P-3 SAR data are provided.