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The decision to convert four Trident submarines to SSGNs establishes a future for the Trident force beyond the nuclear deterrence mission. SSGNs will provide unique capabilities in at least four mission areas. First, they will provide an absolutely covert means in peacetime of holding high value targets at risk of immediate attack for as long as national decision makers deem necessary. Second, early in a conflict, they will be one of the few power projection assets that can operate in the face of opposing anti-access forces, while at the same time being one of the primary means of eliminating or reducing those access denial forces. Third, having helped create operational sanctuaries in the littoral environment for joint forces on the surface and in the air, SSGNs will retain a key role as a continuing source of the most time critical fires against high value targets. Fourth, across the full spectrum of operations from peacetime to high intensity conflict, SSGNs will provide the only means of covertly delivering, supporting with time critical fires, and recovering special operations forces. In support of these diverse roles, four additional payloads should be added to the baseline SSGN conversion involving Tomahawk cruise missiles and a special forces delivery and recovery capability. First, SSGN should be given a Tactical Ballistic Missile (TBM) capability. Existing TBMs of roughly the same size as Tomahawk can deliver a variety of unitary and sub-munition payloads as deep as 500 kilometers faster than any other existing weapon, and for equal or less cost compared to such air-delivered, standoff weapons as JASSM, SLAM-ER, AGM-142/130, and JSOW-B/C. Such a time critical, deep strike capability against high value, mobile targets would complement Tactical Tomahawk's deep strike capability against high value, fixed targets.

The environments of software engineering and command and control (C2) are very similar because they are both instances of complex problem solving. The common nemesis to successfully developing solutions in these environments is change. The challenge of any complex problem solving process is the balance of adapting to multiple changes while keeping focused on the overall desired solution. The Knowledge Sharing Mechanism (KSM) is proposed as framework to achieve this balance. The KSM is an iterative method for understanding a complex problem, developing a framework for solving that problem, developing partial solutions for the problem, and then reassessing those partial solutions and overall framework until the complete solution has been fully developed. The KSM is based on the integration of Christopher Alexander's unfolding and differentiation processes with the image theory of C2. In image theory, there are two perspectives in developing a solution: topsight and insight. These two perspectives must be balanced in order to achieve success. Alexander's unfolding process is the basis for understanding, as an observer, the complex interactions in both software engineering and C2. The KSM uses Alexander's differentiation process, as an actor, achieving the correct balance of topsight and insight.

This paper describes a software infrastructure made up of tools and libraries designed to assist developers in implementing computational dynamics applications running on heterogeneous and distributed computing environments. Together, these tools and libraries compose a so called Heterogeneous Computing Template (HCT). The underlying theme of the solution approach embraced by HCT is that of partitioning the domain of interest into a number of sub-domains that are each managed by a separate core/accelerator (CPU/GPU) pair. The five components at the core of HCT, which ultimately enable the distributed/heterogeneous computing approach to large scale dynamical system simulation, are as follows: (a) a method for the geometric domain decomposition; (b) methods for proximity computation or collision detection; (c) support for moving data within the heterogeneous hardware ecosystem to mirror the migration of simulation elements from subdomain to subdomain; (d) parallel numerical methods for solving the specific dynamics problem of interest; and (e) tools for performing visualization and post-processing in a distributed manner.

This paper describes a software infrastructure made up of tools and libraries designed to assist developers in implementing computational dynamics applications running on heterogeneous and distributed computing environments. Together, these tools and libraries compose a so called Heterogeneous Computing Template (HCT). The underlying theme of the solution approach embraced by HCT is that of partitioning the domain of interest into a number of sub-domains that are each managed by a separate core/accelerator (CPU/GPU) pair. The five components at the core of HCT, which ultimately enable the distributed/heterogeneous computing approach to large scale dynamical system simulation, are as follows: (a) a method for the geometric domain decomposition; (b) methods for proximity computation or collision detection; (c) support for moving data within the heterogeneous hardware ecosystem to mirror the migration of simulation elements from subdomain to subdomain; (d) parallel numerical methods for solving the specific dynamics problem of interest; and (e) tools for performing visualization and post-processing in a distributed manner.

This article is from Sensors (Basel, Switzerland) , volume 12 . Abstract Mobile prosumer environments require the communication with heterogeneous devices during the execution of mobile services. These environments integrate sensors, actuators and smart devices, whose availability continuously changes. The aim of this paper is to design a reference architecture for implementing a model for continuous service execution and access to capabilities, i.e., the functionalities provided by these devices. The defined architecture follows a set of software engineering patterns and includes some communication paradigms to cope with the heterogeneity of sensors, actuators, controllers and other devices in the environment. In addition, we stress the importance of the flexibility in capability invocation by allowing the communication middleware to select the access technology and change the communication paradigm when dealing with smart devices, and by describing and evaluating two algorithms for resource access management.

This article is from Sensors (Basel, Switzerland) , volume 12 . Abstract Mobile prosumer environments require the communication with heterogeneous devices during the execution of mobile services. These environments integrate sensors, actuators and smart devices, whose availability continuously changes. The aim of this paper is to design a reference architecture for implementing a model for continuous service execution and access to capabilities, i.e., the functionalities provided by these devices. The defined architecture follows a set of software engineering patterns and includes some communication paradigms to cope with the heterogeneity of sensors, actuators, controllers and other devices in the environment. In addition, we stress the importance of the flexibility in capability invocation by allowing the communication middleware to select the access technology and change the communication paradigm when dealing with smart devices, and by describing and evaluating two algorithms for resource access management.

This article is from Sensors (Basel, Switzerland) , volume 12 . Abstract Mobile prosumer environments require the communication with heterogeneous devices during the execution of mobile services. These environments integrate sensors, actuators and smart devices, whose availability continuously changes. The aim of this paper is to design a reference architecture for implementing a model for continuous service execution and access to capabilities, i.e., the functionalities provided by these devices. The defined architecture follows a set of software engineering patterns and includes some communication paradigms to cope with the heterogeneity of sensors, actuators, controllers and other devices in the environment. In addition, we stress the importance of the flexibility in capability invocation by allowing the communication middleware to select the access technology and change the communication paradigm when dealing with smart devices, and by describing and evaluating two algorithms for resource access management.

The Naval Postgraduate School is developing NPSNET-V, a Run-Time Extensible Virtual Environment (RTEVE) framework. RTEVEs differ from traditional VEs in that applications within the environment can both discover and use new object types and behaviors at runtime. As the use of this technology has become more valuable to organizations, the need for adequate security has arisen, particularly for sensitive military and commercial applications. The level of security measures employed by these applications must be weighed against their impact on Quality of Service (QOS). To address RTEVE security issues, we developed a taxonomy identifying twenty-five information assurance (IA) areas within RTEVEs. We then designed and implemented a Security Management System for NPSNET-V (NSMS) that provided security through the use of three communications filters that provide for encryption, sequencing verification, and integrity. This design addressed four of the twenty-five areas identified in the taxonomy: component authentication; and communications confidentiality, integrity, and authentication. Analysis of the encryption, sequencing, and integrity filters indicates that their use introduces a negligible delay of 0.111 milliseconds for a 156 byte data packet, at the cost in packet size increase of 41 bytes; this indicates the technical feasibility of RTEVE data packet security at minimal cost to QOS.

The Naval Postgraduate School is developing NPSNET-V, a Run-Time Extensible Virtual Environment (RTEVE) framework. RTEVEs differ from traditional VEs in that applications within the environment can both discover and use new object types and behaviors at runtime. As the use of this technology has become more valuable to organizations, the need for adequate security has arisen, particularly for sensitive military and commercial applications. The level of security measures employed by these applications must be weighed against their impact on Quality of Service (QOS). To address RTEVE security issues, we developed a taxonomy identifying twenty-five information assurance (IA) areas within RTEVEs. We then designed and implemented a Security Management System for NPSNET-V (NSMS) that provided security through the use of three communications filters that provide for encryption, sequencing verification, and integrity. This design addressed four of the twenty-five areas identified in the taxonomy: component authentication; and communications confidentiality, integrity, and authentication. Analysis of the encryption, sequencing, and integrity filters indicates that their use introduces a negligible delay of 0.111 milliseconds for a 156 byte data packet, at the cost in packet size increase of 41 bytes; this indicates the technical feasibility of RTEVE data packet security at minimal cost to QOS.

This briefing looks at the use of High Performance Computing (HPC) to simulate the dynamics of real-life engineering mechanical systems at unprecedented levels of accuracy. HPC will soon enable simulation of billion-body problems.

This briefing looks at the use of High Performance Computing (HPC) to simulate the dynamics of real-life engineering mechanical systems at unprecedented levels of accuracy. HPC will soon enable simulation of billion-body problems.

This briefing looks at the use of High Performance Computing (HPC) to simulate the dynamics of real-life engineering mechanical systems at unprecedented levels of accuracy. HPC will soon enable simulation of billion-body problems.

When facing decisions in underdeveloped, degraded, and denied environments, commanders are likely to rely even more heavily on efficient intelligence analysis. Unfortunately, most of the time, the data gathered in these environments will be uncertain, ambiguous, and incomplete. Tools enabling fast and thorough analysis are thus required. Use of automated processing alone is vulnerable to data deficiencies, so human judgment is essential to ensure intelligence products' validity. Interactive visual interfaces can enable human analysis by leveraging the high bandwidth visual pathway into the human mind and unique human pattern-finding abilities. We propose visual analytics tools to support sensemaking and improve social network analysis in a counterinsurgency context. Our prototype is composed of a series of independent but coordinated generic widgets that can be applied to a broad range of application domains. Among the proposed analysis tools are a Multi-timelines widget for temporal events and situation evolution analysis; a Magnets Grid widget for multidimensional information exploration; and a record browser of Visual Summary Cards widget for fast visual identification of key information elements and comparison between entities. We also expose the concepts underlying an additional widget currently in definition. The Graph Analytics widget combines a visual presentation of graph diagrams composed of nodes and links to other visual presentations of analysis outputs like ranking and the semantic meaning of links based on a social network ontology.

When facing decisions in underdeveloped, degraded, and denied environments, commanders are likely to rely even more heavily on efficient intelligence analysis. Unfortunately, most of the time, the data gathered in these environments will be uncertain, ambiguous, and incomplete. Tools enabling fast and thorough analysis are thus required. Use of automated processing alone is vulnerable to data deficiencies, so human judgment is essential to ensure intelligence products' validity. Interactive visual interfaces can enable human analysis by leveraging the high bandwidth visual pathway into the human mind and unique human pattern-finding abilities. We propose visual analytics tools to support sensemaking and improve social network analysis in a counterinsurgency context. Our prototype is composed of a series of independent but coordinated generic widgets that can be applied to a broad range of application domains. Among the proposed analysis tools are a Multi-timelines widget for temporal events and situation evolution analysis; a Magnets Grid widget for multidimensional information exploration; and a record browser of Visual Summary Cards widget for fast visual identification of key information elements and comparison between entities. We also expose the concepts underlying an additional widget currently in definition. The Graph Analytics widget combines a visual presentation of graph diagrams composed of nodes and links to other visual presentations of analysis outputs like ranking and the semantic meaning of links based on a social network ontology.

This thesis researches mobile adhoc network (MANET) configurations for the utilization of augmented reality devices in shipboard or ship-to-ship environments. The intent of this research is to discover necessary network requirements and equipment configurations within a MANET necessary to operate augmented reality devices capable of supporting communication between hospital corpsmen and physicians engaged in emergency care during shipboard or ship-to-ship operations.