3.3 Information Management and Distribution
The information management and distribution subarea encompasses warfighter needs and capabilities related to information warfare (IW) and information systems. IW and information systems include information, information-based processes, information systems, and computer-based systems either individually or in combination with each other. The JCS C4I for the warrior initiative describes a global infosphere providing the right information at the right time in the right place. The key to providing this capability is a distributed information management and distribution system that forms the backbone information infrastructure of all future C4I systems. Many capabilities (not currently available) will be an integral part of this information environment. Providing technologies that allow automated, adaptive, and robust information resource management means that we can free the warfighter from the mundane and tedious tasks required to review and distribute information. Incorporating a context-based rather than a message-based approach, information synchronization and management can be formally automated allowing warriors (especially those at the fighting echelons) to concentrate on mission execution rather than on complex computer operations. Automated collaboration of mission planning and monitoring of plan execution can continue at all levels and in real time.
3.3.2.1 Goals and Timeframes. Development of the required warfighter capabilities for information management and distribution necessitate development in the constituent areas of distributed environments, information services management, and assured information services. These technology efforts will provide the warfighter with the ability to:
| Short Term (97-98) | Mid Term (99-01) | Long Term (02+) |
|---|---|---|
| Demonstration of distributed computing environments built on an ATM backbone (>100 Mbps) | Internetted giga-operation hybrid computing clusters | Self-aware, reconfigurable, distributed computing environments of several hundred nodes |
| Demonstration of real-time distributed computing across homogeneous clusters | Integrated, fixed-site, mobile node, distributed, computing environment of >200 nodes | Hybrid, real-time/non-real-time, heterogeneous, global information system |
| Demonstration of object-based multimedia database management system supporting text, graphics, imagery, video, and audio | Uniform, global service model for open systems architectures | Intelligent agents for information location and integration |
| Demonstration and simulation of lower echelon initial digital information architecture | Experimentation and demonstration of command-level information management, distribution, and database capabilities | Interoperability of joint forces using common information management and distribution with capability to access, share, and protect critical information |
| Fault recovery mechanisms for real-time heterogeneous clusters | Fault-recovery mechanisms in hybrid real-time and non-real-time distributed computing environments | System adaptivity based on predictive mechanisms for resource allocation and fault avoidance |
| Dynamically reconfigurable clusters based on static performance policy | Intelligent-agent-based reconfiguration using user-definable performance policy | Self-learning adaptivity using static and dynamic optimizing policies |
| Secure guards, firewalls, intrusion detection systems at B3 level of trust | MLS distributed computing clusters at B3 level of trust | MLS object-oriented global information system with integrity and assured service |
To provide the necessary information services management within the distributed environment requires the development of mechanisms for managing all types of data both on individual hosts and across the distributed environment. To attain this capability, the critical technical challenges to be met include (1) developing data models and storage-and-retrieval architectures capable of handling all modalities of data in a seamless way, (2) merging and synchronizing time-dependent and non-time-dependent data, (3) developing intelligent agents capable of autonomously navigating complex database structures and extracting information for a user, (4) developing natural language and other nonparametric interfaces to support "intuitive" access and retrieval of data from the database management systems, (5) developing adaptive information distribution techniques based on context-based, as opposed to message-based, distribution, (6) using the information context for smart distribution over low-bandwidth communications in order to selectively control the quantity of information exchanged, (7) providing the capability to respond to complete information exchange failures, and (8) scaling these information distribution techniques to large systems of communications nodes.
The key to developing assured information services is adaptivity within the distributed environment to allow dynamic response to varying loads of crisis management or system failure, and protection of the information within the system from attack or compromise. The critical technical challenges include (1) security mechanisms for multiclustered, real-time heterogeneous distributed environments, (2) adaptivity mechanisms that support the selective application of fault tolerance and fault avoidance strategies, (3) reconfiguration mechanisms to support graceful degradation, (4) replication mechanisms to ensure the consistency of information, (5) intelligent resource managers to dynamically respond to crisis overloads, and (6) system architectures that permit the secure use of COTS computers, software, and networks.
3.3.2.3 Related Federal and Private Sector Efforts. In many ways, the information environments for the industrial, commercial, and financial communities mirror the military information environment. As a result, there are leveragable development activities in the commercial sector addressing many of the same technical issues as the military. Global corporations and financial institutions have the need for global data access. Their multinational status requires support for heterogeneity. Movement of global markets requires very rapid response to change and guaranteed availability. This creates the need for similar distributed information environments that provide location-transparent access to globally distributed data. Initiatives such as the Object Management Group (OMG) Common Object Request Broker Architecture (COBRA) and the Open Software Foundation Distributed Computing Environment are providing commercial standards for distributed information environments that will guide the evolution of commercial product lines. In addition, the current strategy is to migrate the GCCS to support COBRA compliance in later releases as outlined in the GCCS Software Requirements Specification for DII COE V4. They will also have a major impact on future military systems, which will be primarily COTS based. The need to protect proprietary information and financial data demands information system security. Here the commercial sector has capitalized on DoD investment in MLS and has developed commercial products for secure operating systems, secure database management systems, intrusion detection systems, and secure system design tools. Although the commercial sector has made progress enhancing the security considerations of mainstream commercial products, a great deal more remains to be done. Several federal and private organizations are pursuing efforts for assured information services. Both the National Security Agency and the National Institute of Standards and Technology continue to be leaders in the development of information systems security mechanisms. NASA and DOE did pioneering work in the areas of fault tolerance and high-assurance systems. A number of universities under DoD, National Science Foundation, and private sponsorship have done extensive work in fault tolerance and system integrity.
3.3.3 S&T Investment Strategy
3.3.3.1 Technology Demonstrations.
Distributed Air Operations Center Prototype. This prototype will demonstrate the application of distributed computing and distributed database management tools and systems to operational requirements of the air operations center (AOC) that performs force-level tactical air planning. The prototype will show how the functions of the AOC can be physically dispersed over a local or wide area and still retain the integrated functionality of collocation, as well as uniform accessibility to all required databases. This demonstration contributes to the fulfillment of DTO IS.15.
Survivable Distributed Information Environment. This program will demonstrate the capability of a distributed computing system composed of internetted local clusters of computers to operate successfully under stress by gracefully degrading rather than failing. The goal is to provide a level of continuing mission support in the presence of sporadic and overlapping faults, hostile action, or anomalous behavior episodes. This capability will include dynamic repositioning of both processes and data to the remaining computational elements to provide continued mission execution. This demonstration contributes to the fulfillment of DTO IS.17.
3.3.3.2 Technology Development. In the distributed environments technology effort, development is focused on (1) real-time, heterogeneous-distributed computing environments, (2) distributed computing over high-bandwidth global grids, (3) distributed computing over low-bandwidth RF communications, (4) distributed, object-oriented, multimedia database management, (5) optimal tasking assignment to distributed resources, (6) interoperability among distributed, federated database management systems, and (7) scalability of COTS products to very large scale DoD configurations.
In the information services management area, development needs to focus on (1) adaptive resource management paradigms that allow dynamic reallocation of tasks to computing resources, (2) mechanisms to automatically control information exchange among nodes to limit the quantity of data based on the context of the application and available communications bandwidth, (3) mediators to assist in the acquisition of information from multiple sources within the distributed information environment, and (4) integration of both real-time and non-real-time control mechanisms within a single distributed environment.
In the attainment of assured information services, development is focusing on (1) extension of security mechanisms in the composeability of COTS products to meet DoD needs, (2) development of adaptive security mechanisms that accommodate resource modifications in resource sets without violating security policy, (3) adaptive fault tolerance and avoidance mechanisms, (4) intelligent agents to dynamically respond to intermittent failures by reconfiguring the computing resource set, and (5) integrity mechanisms to ensure the validity and consistency of information in the global environment.
3.3.3.3 Basic Research. Basic research is being directed at the fundamental science problems of this subarea in numerous areas:
