TECHNOLOGY AREAS: Information Systems

ACQUISITION PROGRAM: PEO IWS5E - USW/DSS

RESTRICTION ON PERFORMANCE BY FOREIGN CITIZENS (i.e., those holding non-U.S. Passports): This topic is "ITAR Restricted." The information and materials provided pursuant to or resulting from this topic are restricted under the International Traffic in Arms Regulations (ITAR), 22 CFR Parts 120 - 130, which control the export of defense-related material and services, including the export of sensitive technical data. Foreign Citizens may perform work under an award resulting from this topic only if they hold the "Permanent Resident Card", or are designated as "Protected Individuals" as defined by 8 U.S.C. 1324b(a)(3). If a proposal for this topic contains participation by a foreign citizen who is not in one of the above two categories, the proposal will be rejected.

OBJECTIVE: Investigate and develop a track management architecture that utilizes innovative persistency and information retrieval mechanisms to increase stability, scalability, longevity and performance of track data.

DESCRIPTION: In the general sense, track management systems (TMS) receive input from sensor feeds (examples include electro-optical, radar, electronic support measures (ESMs), and sonar) and display this information to a user. User input to TMS traditionally allows for the creation of new objects, such as tracks, contacts and contact followers, based off sensor feeds. More elaborate track management systems attempt to improve the user�s situational awareness and reduce the decision cycle by fusing multiple tracks into single tracks, incorporating alerting mechanisms or visualizing track data into a unified common tactical picture (CTP).

Over time, sensor data can grow rapidly and it is sometimes in the best interest of the user to keep historical data for a finite period of time. Use of relational database management systems (RDBMS) has been one of the main technologies for persisting and retrieving track data yet RDBMS come with their own well-documented shortcomings: a high level of maintenance, poor support for ad-hoc querying, rigid storage paradigms and scalability issues.

Cloud computing and other areas show promise in improving persistency methods. For example, replication of track data both intra- and inter-node could be part of the cloud, inherent to its decentralized architecture, rather than using a customized, synchronization solution that belongs to a particular component, technology or protocol. The potential for misaligned or unequal tactical pictures between assets could be decreased in this case. Given the distributed nature of cloud-based architectures, redundancy can also be leveraged, ensuring a more fault-tolerant track picture that reduces traditional weaknesses such as single points of failure. Both of these attributes are important in naval situations that involve disconnected, intermittent and/or limited (DIL) communications.

Large scale platforms are already making moves toward cloud computing technologies such as Google, Twitter and Facebook. The goal of this project will be to research, define, and implement a framework that utilizes cloud-based technologies to measure the amount and types of improvement to track management as it exists today. The Navy will provide an unclassified production track data set as government-furnished equipment (GFE).

PHASE I: Conduct a trade study weighing cost, benefits, and risks of various approaches to implementing a Track management system using cloud computing persistent techniques and open source products. Recommend a development approach based on these criteria. Phase I may include a small proof-of-concept to assist in the study

PHASE II: Develop a design based on the Phase I trade study selection and demonstrate a prototype. Produce a Software Requirements Specification and an Interface Design Document as part of the prototype. Prototype should utilize DoD production track data (subject to classification controls) to provide accurate results and allow for verification and validation (V&V).

PHASE III: Transition the track management system for use in a production environment. Demonstrate that the architecture can meet the needs and requirements of its users.

PRIVATE SECTOR COMMERCIAL POTENTIAL/DUAL-USE APPLICATIONS: A cloud-based track management system has potential for use in any government, industrial, or military application where discrete tracking and management of geo-locatable objects exist. While track management continues to be a challenging problem that could benefit from cloud computing paradigms, the use of distributed data management has far reaching potential for many systems across various fields.

REFERENCES:
1. Venugopal, S. et al. (2006), A taxonomy of Data Grids for distributed data sharing, management, and processing, ACM Computing Surveys, 38(1)

2. Erdogmus, H. (2009), Cloud Computing: Does Nirvana Hide behind the Nebula?. IEEE Software, 26(2), 4-6

3. How Cloud Computing Is Changing the World, http://www..com/technology/content/aug2008/tc2008082_445669.htm

4. Department of Defense Chief Information Officer (DoD CIO) (2003), Department of Defense Net-Centric Data Strategy, http://www.defenselink.mil/cio-nii/docs/Net-Centric-Data-Strategy-2003-05-092.pdf

KEYWORDS: track management, track data, persistence, reliability, query, information retrieval, cloud computing, distributed data grids

** TOPIC AUTHOR (TPOC) **

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