ARMY KNOWLEDGE MANAGEMENT
AND TRAINING DELIVERY SYSTEM
(KMTDS)
Brigadier Amarjit Singh
24 Oct 2011
Military College of Telecommunication Engineering
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BACKGROUND
• Operational Pull
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Network Centric Operations - D
E-Learning AND Distance Learning – M/L (e-psc, SOATE)
Search and access content – I/L (e-libraries)
Collaborative, hybrid learning environment – I/L
Testing and certification – M/I/L (Part B/D, Rtg, Arms/Services, Self Certification)
Multimedia rich (rich services as enabler) – M/I/L
Ubiquitous (wireless as key enabler) – I/L
Minimize management issues – M (Cadre, Value)
Benchmark against national centres of excellence – M/I/L
Policies – MIS, IT Training - M
• Technology Push
– Networks – bandwidth, rich services
• National Knowledge Network (NKN)
• Army NGN – KRANTI
– Next Generation Computing – SOA, Cloud
– Learning Frameworks – Closed, Open, Collaborative, Crowd Sourcing
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Military College of Telecommunication Engineering
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HORIZONTALLY INTEGRATED NETWORK
NGN : ARCHITECTURE OVERVIEW
NATIONAL KNOWLEDGE NETWORK
• Encourage collaboration and the creation of new
national intellectual assets, enabling the sharing of highperformance computing facilities, e-libraries, virtual
classrooms
• Includes ERNET, executed by NIC
• Next Generation Network (NGN)
– Three layers – Core, Distribution, Edge
– Backbone - 18 Core Points of Presence (PoPs), 25 Distribution
PoPs
– Architecture and capabilities similar to Project KRANTI
(Network for Spectrum, NFS) network
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NKN TOPOLOGY
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CONCEPT: NKN CONNECTIVITY
CME
VC
MCTE
A1
VC
VC
BSNL
NKN
MCEME
B2
B1
A2
VC
VC
UNIV A
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UNIV B
1 GB
100 Mbps
Min
Military College of Telecommunication Engineering
VPNoBB
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BACKGROUND: ARTRAC/MCTE
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MCTE Trg Insp – Mar 11
Concept Paper – Apr 11
Army Trg Conf – May 11, CME Pune
Industry Interaction – May-Jun 11 (TCS, Wipro)
NKN Connectivity – Jun 11
Feasibility Report – Jun 11
Analysis of Architecture Options
Detailed Architecture – CISCO
Budgeting and MOLTI proposal
Draft Orders for NKN connectivity
Proposal to DG Info Sys
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Military College of Telecommunication Engineering
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PREVIEW
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Training Environment and Imperatives
Technology Enabled Training Transformation
Vision - Army Training Information Systems
Architecture - Proposed Army KMTDS
Decision Issues/Recommendations
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TRAINING ENVIRONMENT AND
IMPERATIVES
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TRAINING ENVIRONMENT
• Field Army training facilities
– Inadequately connected, enjoy potentially good civil network connectivity
– Operational network selectively exploited
• Dissemination from Army level establishments
• Conduct of online examinations
– Limited availability of comprehensive security policies and services
pertaining to training methodologies and content
• Army Centres of Excellence
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Strong capabilities in their respective fields
Limited flexibility in terms of rapid increase or decrease of training loads
No integrated shared information or training content development systems
Training capability not shared with field Army on continuous basis
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TRAINING IMPERATIVES
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Training within existing manpower resources
Physical presence of trainees at training institutions to be capped
Training infrastructure be scalable at short notice
Personnel of the field Army to undergo continuous training; be
able to do it in a self paced manner
Trainees to access training resources distributed over multiple
locations almost concurrently
Training system to become network centric before field Army
Interaction of trainees with training system be captured,
preserved and suitably structured to improve institutional
knowledge
Adherence to standards - remove methodological barriers
between training environments
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TECHNOLOGY ENABLED TRAINING
TRANSFORMATION
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Connectivity
Convergence
Consolidation and Virtualization
Collaboration
Possibilities
– Increase access to knowledge
– Provide closer trainee-trainer interaction
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VISION: ARMY TRAINING INFORMATION SYSTEMS
• Tools for conceptual leadership and coherence to human
resource development efforts of the Army
• Synergy in training content generation, exploitation and
delivery
• Integration of the training establishments, including
training centres
• Economy and effectiveness
• Build the Army Learning Community
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KMTDS ARCHITECTURE
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SERVICE ORIENTED ARCHITECTURE
EXAM
LEARNING CONTENT
KNOWLEDGE CONTENT
CONTENT SERVICE
LEARNING SERVICE
SERVER CONSOLIDATION
NETWORK SERVICES
DNS
DHCP
LDAP
NETWORK
ARMY
LEASED LINE
LEASED VPN
INTERNET VPN
FRAMEWORK FOR SOFTWARE SERVICES IN A
TECHNOLOGY EMPOWERED LEARNING ENVIRONMENT
Transforming American Education: Learning Powered by Technology
National Educational Technology Plan 2010, Office of Educational Technology, U.S. Department of Education
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KMTDS CONCEPT
LMS
CORE
KMS
RMS
NMS
LMS
KMS
RMS
NMS
LMS
KMS
RMS
NMS
DISTRIBUTION LAYER
EDGE LAYER
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KMTDS CONCEPT
• High performance, high speed CORE connecting selected centres of excellence
– Provide centrally managed and physically distributed Learning Management (LM )
and Knowledge Management (KM) services
– Virtualized data centre capabilities for LM and KM data storage and related web
applications
• Network Management (NM) system - uniform set of network management
services - Identity, Authentication, Authorization, Security
• Federated Resource Management (RM) system - tools and information
necessary for allocation and monitoring of resources and provision of
administrative support to training
• DISTRIBUTION LAYER
– To cover remaining institutions under ARTRAC
– Able to use LM and KM services delivered from within the core to build effective LM
and KM solutions in a short time without requiring too many physical resources,
except for reliable connectivity to Core
• EDGE LAYER
– Users, field Army and training centres
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TRAINING PERSPECTIVE
• Fully integrated, harmonized learning environment
– Focus on content of training
– Management of training infrastructure by lean organization with specialized
capabilities to build, evolve and support technical platforms on a
continuous basis
– High availability
• Trainees perspective
– Assist in engaging with training system and faculty on a continuous basis
– Able to acquire training without physically attending programs at Army
training establishments
– Ability to acquire functional certification and promotion qualifications on
an ‘on demand’ schedule
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TRAINING PERSPECTIVE
• Trainer perspective
– At training institutions - ability to track progress of trainees on a continuous
basis.
– Field Army – back end support as good as training institutions
• Management
– Automated environment for staff
– Plan on and offer facilities for collaborative and virtual class rooms
– These would be structured over multiple locations, permitting multidisciplinary content and study
– Army wide class rooms enable delivery of training directly from training
institutions to field Army
– Self paced and self structured courses available for trainees who volunteer
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ANALOGY: NCREN
DISTRIBUTION NODE
CORE NODE
LAN/MAN
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ANALOGY: NCREN
• Learn & Earn Online - Online college credit courses offered by UNCG iSchool
and the North Carolina Community College System (NCCCS) Online Learning
• ClassScape - Online formative assessment system
• NCTest - North Carolina online End-of-Course tests
• NCDesk - North Carolina online test of computer skills
• NCWise - Student information management system
• LearnNC - Lesson plans and teaching strategies, classroom text & multimedia,
and online courses for teachers and students from the UNC School of Education
• NCREN Video Conferencing Services - H.323 video conferencing, satellite
uplinking and downlinking, and live and stored video streaming services for the
K-20 community
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SECURITY AND CONNECTIVITY - FACTORS
• Utilization of operational network for training always constrained
– Limited resources
– Under specified security model
• Overwhelming proportion of training content classified
RESTRICTED or less, large volume can be declassified
• High security requirements of LM system
– Pertain essentially to evaluation of trainees and conduct of examinations or
certifications
– Readily available and in use technologies can help achieve necessary levels
of security
• Connectivity with Internet - essential condition of effectiveness of
LM and KM systems
• Connectivity with NKN - important requirement of future
effectiveness of training system
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Military College of Telecommunication Engineering
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END TO END SECURITY MODEL: X.805
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SECURITY: LOGICAL TRANSPORT
TLS VPN
CME/MCTE/MCEME
TLS VPN
TLS VPN
TRG CENTRE/HRDC
OFFICIAL PREMISES
TLS VPN
TLS VPN
HOME
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SECURITY AND CONNECTIVITY - APPROACH
• KMTDS must connect to NKN, and to Internet
• KMTDS will not connect with Operational Network
• Core and Distribution layers can be built using exclusively engineered
bandwidth (including physical network) OR leased bandwidth OR NKN
bandwidth OR VPN connectivity over Internet
• Leased bandwidth may be obtained also from Operational Network where such
capacity exists
• Connectivity to the training centres of field Army can be arranged by field Army
itself using Internet VPNs OR BSNL VPNoBB OR Enterprise VPNs
• A policy framework to classify training information as distinct from operational
information
• Use of multi-layered security architecture
– Transport Layer – Layer 2 encryption PLUS IPSsec VPN PLUS Admission Control
– Services Layer – Identity and Access Management (IAM) PLUS TLS VPN
– Application Services – Application Security INCLUDING Identity, Authorization,
Encryption…
– Users – Physical measures
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Military College of Telecommunication Engineering
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DEPLOYMENT APPROACH
• Initial design based on mature industry standard solutions completed through a process of outsourcing
• Effort to concurrently provide connectivity to the NKN for selected
Category A establishments that would be key nodes of Core
• Utilize NKN to provide for connectivity between Core and
Distribution nodes
• Deployment phasing
– Technologically and organizationally equipped Category A establishments
first connected as part of the Core and the centrally managed LM, KM, RM
and NM components deployed
– Next phase
• Establishments located close to Core nodes added to Distribution layer along
with their own Edge environments
• Prominent formation HQ concurrently connected to appropriate Distribution
nodes
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RESPONSIBILITIES AND DEPLOYMENT PLAN
• ARTRAC and DGMT – organizing connectivity to NKN
– Initial bid by MCTE via DGMT successful
– Additional bids due
• MCTE - Architecture and design
• Core systems
– Integrated infrastructure deployed initially at CME, MCEME, MCTE, Delhi(?)
– Procurement as an Enterprise Networking Research and Training System through
MOLTI or IT Grant
• Next phase
– All institutions located in and around Mhow, Secunderabad and Pune added to
Distribution layer - distribution nodes may be added as part of normal IT
infrastructure or via MOLTI route
– Core nodes added at Delhi, Bengaluru, ……….
• Edge environment
– Access VPNs – IT Grant
– LANs and wireless access points - procured by institutions and formations through normal IT
channels
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FEASIBILITY REPORT
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CURRENT E-LEARNING POLICY
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DGMT (MT-10) letter No A/63102/GS/MT-10 dt 10 Aug 05
Army HQ letter No B/04009/3rd/AITAB/DDG IT (T&P) dt 30 Jun 07
HQ ARTRAC letter No 915098/Trg (JT&P) dt 05 May 08
HQ ARTRAC letter No 985103/e-Learning/IT dt 05 Jul 10
HQ Army AD College letter No 3462/38/EL/G/Trg dt 14 Aug 10
Army HQ letter No 1603/ASDC/SDG/BIA dt 23 Sep 10
HQ ARTRAC letter No 985103/e-Learning/IT dt 29 Sep 10
Army HQ letter No B/05354/Conf/IT/Info Sys dt 13 Oct 10
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CURRENT E-LEARNING POLICY
• The existing policy envisages e-learning as an aid enabling
students to assimilate the contents better and will not replace the
traditional methods of teaching
• Devp of e-learning sys will follow the following phs
– Conversion of selected course material into electronic form
– Web-based training in a networked environment on availability of
communications infrastructure
– Completely interactive class rooms
• All content should be SCORM compliant. All unstructured content
should be converted to structured, SCORM complaint content
• In the initial period, each Cat A establishment to host only
UNCLASSIFIED content on Army Intranet using freeware LMS such
as MOODLE
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CURRENT E-LEARNING POLICY
• Preferred that all Cat A establishments should have the same LMS
at each location so that inter-workability problems do not arise at
a later date. Commonality and standardization is of prime
importance as it will ensure easy portability of content from one
Cat A establishment to other, till the time a central LMS is
extended to all Cat A establishments
• Cat A establishments need to formulate content with a view that
it has to be extended later to trainees not attending training
programs at Cat A establishments. Campus LAN infrastructure
should allow for further dissemination of e-learning once it is
connected to Army Training Network or suitable link for increasing
its reach
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CURRENT E-LEARNING POLICY
• Interoperability / sharing of content between Cat A establishments will ensure
wider proliferation of e-learning; content will be available to units and
formation for cadre who otherwise remain devoid of formal / institutionalized
training. Final objective to be achieved - lessons be run in e-classrooms directly
from Portal of any Cat A establishment once all Cat A establishments linked on
Army Training Network. Direct connectivity from field formations to Cat A
establishments to access e-learning resources will benefit the field Army
immensely
• IT Training Policy 2010 has been issued with the aim of transforming IA into a
network centric force. Availability of bandwidth over Army Intranet remains a
concern till 2013. Encryption (for security) is available from comcen to comcen
but not up to users
• Most of the material is in open domain and foreign officers attending the
courses have access to it. DCOAS (IS&T) has directed that the training material
be evaluated from security point of view and necessary steps be taken to
downgrade its classification
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CURRENT E-LEARNING POLICY
• E-learning progress is necessary not only to improve the training
curriculum in training establishments but also to reduce the
duration of contact phase of training
• Necessary to develop the corresponding infrastructure to cater for
future and a benchmark model of end state. Efforts should be
made to procure copy of a successful e-learning model in the
country or abroad. Option of having two different types of
content based on security classification needs to be explored;
UNCLASSIFIED content can be hosted on open domain and
classified content on Army Intranet
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ADDITIONAL ISSUES
• Online Public Domain Content
– Online electronic libraries and journals can only be met through a KMTDS like
system. “Pulling” all such content from the public domain on to the Army Intranet
not viable
– Review plans for sharing of content of Army libraries over the Army Intranet
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Two Tier Networks
– All advanced armies have two networks - one restricted network for secure military
usage and a public network enabling gateway based access to the Internet / other
network. For example, SIPRNET, NIPRNET
– Army KMTDS provides the second public tier and is, appropriately, focused on
training delivery
• Perceived Requirement Vs Implementation Strategy
– Network centric aspirations and aspirations for delivery of training to the field Army
expressed in existing e-learning policy. Need for standardization and linkage across
training establishments expressed. Both not adequately planned for
– KMTDS ensures both network centric capabilities and standardization, leaving the
majority of establishments and training cadre free to focus on content development
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ADDITIONAL ISSUES
• KMTDS as Intranet, As Part of NKN Intranet or Internet
– Either option possible, each with its benefits / constraints
– These issues applicable only to the Network sub-layer of the KMTDS layer
– Learning Services layer would have to be developed as an Army wide service in
either case
– Entire KMTDS can be moved to the Army’s network (only the network sub-layer
changes) as and when portions of the Army Intranet become available for heavy
usage post 2013
– KMTDS helps in early development of a network enabled training delivery system ;
does not detract from ongoing content development efforts. Use of Army Intranet
for delivery of classified content can be pursued concurrently
• Software Architecture
– KMTDS envisages a Service Oriented Architecture (SOA) in consonance with current
technological best practice
– By separating content from Learning (as well as Network) Services, portability of
content is ensured and being tied down to a monolithic learning environment
developed by any specific vendor is explicitly avoided
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ADDITIONAL ISSUES
• Security
– Training requirements, particularly e-learning at Cat A establishments,
demand connectivity and collaboration between instructors, students and
the Learning Environment from residences and other non-class room
locations within the campus. Use of wireless access is also desired
– Extension of Army Intranet based learning environment to residences, also
hosting personnel not subject to military discipline, carries obvious security
risks that cannot be discounted. May actually require roll back of certain
kinds of connectivity existing in certain campuses
– KMTDS does not suffer from such risks. Instead, enables full use of wireless,
reducing wired infrastructure requirements
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POC CONFIGURATION: KMTDS LITE
INTERNET
CLASSES/EXAM
INTERNET
CORE
MHOW
INTERNET
CORE
CORE
SECUNDERABAD
PUNE
CLASSES/EXAM
CLASSES/EXAM
DISTR
DELHI
HQ ARTRAC
SHIMLA
CLASSES/EXAM
DELHI
PROG: NKN CONNECTIVITY
• Contracts for connectivity for CME Pune and
MCEME (PGCIL) issued
• Tech feasibility for Mhow given to PIU NKN by
RAILTEL
• Bid for 10-12 addl institutions being made by HQ
ARTRAC
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DECISION ISSUES
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DECISION ISSUES
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Services model
Computing model
Application services
Networks
Security
Development
Procurement
Organization
Orders
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OTHER PAYOFFS
• Monitored access to Internet
• Integration
– Joint Services institutions – DSSC, IDS, NDA
– INDU
– Air Force, Navy, IDS
• Integration with commercial wireless networks
• Backup network – strategic reach
• Access to international high capacity networks
through NKN
• Security by learning, not by self-denial
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CONCLUSION
• Strategic move - IT as a tool for achieving transformation of the training
system
• Test bed for development of network centric capabilities - entire Army
• Radical departure from past practice of attempting to build a training
environment on top of the existing operational network
• Mature rapidly as true Army knowledge repository with an ability to
draw with confidence from national and international knowledge
repositories
• Enable Army training system to benchmark itself against corresponding
academic institutions in civilian domain - establish credentials of Army
and its personnel as valuable human resource
• Enable optimal exploitation of Army knowledge base by field Army and
provide all personnel with avenues for self growth and certification
• Enable Army to plan and utilize training resources in an optimal and
effective manner
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EXAMPLE OPEN LEARNING
ENVIRONMENT
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THANKS
?
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