COMMERCIAL IT STUDY
Kathy MacDonald, Acting Director ITO
• Purpose of this briefing: to start a dialogue that will
lead to the creation of a comprehensive ITO strategy that
will facilitate the creation of a New National Security
Environment
• Briefing Overview:
-- Emerging National Security Environment
-- Commercial IT directions and investment
-- Potential DARPA IT directions
-- ITO Mission Statement
National
Security
environment
Architecture
of technology
areas
National
Security IT
imperatives
Goals:
• Which National Security IT imperatives will
the commercial world not address?
• Is ITO working on under-addressed
IT imperatives?
• Are there significant new IT imperatives
that ITO should address?
Mapping of
IT imperatives to
technology areas
Commercial
interviews
Commercial
coverage
UnderAddressed
IT imperatives
Current
DARPA
coverage
DARPA
ITO
opportunities
Proliferating conventional, WMD and asymmetric threats
REQUIRED MANAGEMENT
INFRASTRUCTURE : A
synchronized national security
structure – rapidly applying all
components of national power
on a global scale
TODAY's MANAGEMENT
INFRASTRUCTURE:
Fragmented service, agency
and geographic entities with
a “stovepipe” perspective
A technical revolution at the point of attack
•
This restructuring will present scale and complexity issues that far
transcend any current non-national security requirements
–
–
•
FIT study respondents see little hope of industry answering this challenge at any point in
the intermediate to long term future
Current and near term engineering practices and network applications can barely keep
up with non-national security demands
Current Industry R&D efforts are aimed principally at product
improvement vs. innovation
–
Industry optimizes on short term payoffs – 5 years (at most)
•DARPA Has Always Set The Pace For The IT Industry
–The Agency has been credited with “between a third and a half of
all the major innovations in computer science and technology”
–Industry Traditionally Has Relied On Government,
Academia and Small Companies For Innovation
• A tighter linkage between all components of national security power – counter- terrorism
calls for a global approach
–The Executive Branch is effectively creating a plan to radically transform
the institutions and processes created by the National Security Act of 1947
•“Military Overhaul Considered” – 10 Oct Washington Post
–The recent Intelligence Community announcement is merely step one
•“Intelligence Shakeup Would Boost CIA” – 8 Nov Washington Post
•
Current planning calls for a global linkage tightly integrating all national security elements
from the NCA to the point of attack
–
–
Will lead to a radical restructuring of intermediate command and servicing institutions
The Office of Force Transformation (headed by Adm Cebrowski) will move the DoD in this direction
BOTTOM LINE: The administration is attempting to create a
national security structure for synchronized global warfare
Physical
–Operate across heterogeneous networks (with varying capabilities)
–Command and control of unmanned vehicle fleets (land, air, sea, undersea)
–Rapidly deploy & employ flexibly-configured interconnections among units
–High degree of interconnectedness
–Implement focused logistics
Information
–Collaborate & interoperate with distributed systems
(joint, combined, coalition, OGA, NGA)
–Target in real-time, accurately coordinated
–Provide high degree of information availability (survivability, reliability, accessibility)
–Provide timely, relevant intelligence–national, strategic, & tactical
–Operate at multiple levels of information assurance
Cognitive
–
–
–
–
–
–
Rapidly plan & execute operations plans (inside of enemy's loop) [down
echelon]
Rapidly plan/monitor/replan operations ("opportunistic ops") [up echelon]
Develop and maintain shared battlespace awareness
Automate the business rules of warfare (doctrine, procedures, tactics, priorities,
techniques)
Integrate intelligence, maneuvering, attack, defense, logistics, etc.
Adapt to local natural & geopolitical environment
Human-computer
collaboration
Application
Enablers (1)
Large Scale,
Highly Distributed
Systems
Information
integration
Agent-based
computing
Communications
Applications
Planning
and Control
Application
Enablers (2)
Knowledge Intelligent distributed
Management resource management
Networking
Computing
Storage
Distributed processing
infrastructure
Pervasive computing
foundation
Sensors, platforms, weapons, etc. off-board physical systems
= Non-ITO Areas
= ITO Areas
• Commercial
–
–
–
–
–
–
Vint Cerf/MCI [Internet pioneer]
Marc Andreesen/Loudcloud [Netscape co-founder]
Andy Bechtolscheim/Cisco [former Sun CTO]
Judy Estrin/Packet Design [former Cisco CTO]
Marty Tennenbaum/CommerceOne [e-commerce pioneer]
Paul Saffo Institute for the Future [futurist]
• Venture funding
– Vinod Khosla, Kleiner Perkins Caufield Byers
– Dave Liddle/US Venture Partners
• University
– Jeff Ullman, Hector Garcia-Molina, Gio Wiederhold , Mike
Genesereth/Stanford University
– Leonard Kleinrock/UCLA
• Others
Chart maps technology areas to IT imperatives
GREEN -- Areas Commercial IT industry is addressing
YELLOW -- Areas with limited or no commercial IT investment
RED -- Little commercial IT investment
DARK GRAY -- Strong DARPA Program coverage
LIGHT GRAY -- Limited DARPA Program coverage
UNSHADED AREAS -- No DARPA Program coverage
ITO VISION STATEMENT
ITO will create the future of
information technology - enabling the creation
of tomorrow's national security infrastructure
ITO MISSION STATEMENT
•Create breakthrough information technologies that will ensure the
strategic application of US national power
-- that meets the IT imperatives for the future
-- that will not be developed adequately by the commercial world
• Demonstrate these technologies in the context of real military problems
• Transition these technologies to military and other users, via partnerships
with other DARPA offices and industry
BACKUPS
•
•
•
Based on the technology needed to fulfill the IT imperatives of
the future that are not going to be met by the commercial
world, ITO will focus on key aspects of:
– Human-computer collaboration
– Information integration
– Knowledge management
– Decision support [??]
– Agent-based systems
– Distributed intelligent resource management
– Communications, networking, computing, and storage
– Architecture and design
Next steps
– Get PM inputs
– Etc.
Implementation
Commercial Interviews
(complete) [1 of 2]
• Commercial
–
–
–
–
–
–
–
–
–
–
–
–
–
–
Vint Cerf/MCI, Chief Scientist [Internet pioneer]
Marc Andreesen/Loudcloud, CEO [Netscape co-founder]
Andy Bechtolscheim, David Cheriton/Cisco [former Sun CTO]
Judy Estrin/Packet Design, CEO [former Cisco CTO]
Bradley Horowitz/Virage
Marty Tennenbaum/CommerceOne, SVP & Chief Scientist [ecommerce pioneer]
Jim Gosling, Jim Mitchell, Danny Cohen/Sun Microsystems
Bill Crowell/Cylink, President & CEO [former Deputy Director, NSA]
Son Dao/X-Laboratories
Eric Horvitz/Microsoft
Paul Saffo/Institute for the Future, Director
Avron Barr/Aldo Ventures, Principal
Stan Honey/Sportvision, President & CTO
Dave Brandin
Commercial Interviews
(complete) [2 of 2]
• Venture funding
– Vinod Khosla/Kleiner Perkins Caufield & Byers, Partner
– Dave Liddle/US Venture Partners
– Mark Seagal/Menlo Ventures
• University
– Jeff Ullman, Hector Garcia-Molina, Gio Wiederhold , Mike
Genesereth/Stanford University (Computer Science)
– Doug Brutlag/Stanford University (Medical School)
– Leonard Kleinrock/UCLA
– Jonathan Smith/University of Pennsylvania
Potential Areas for ITO
Programs [1 of 5]
• Human-Computer Collaboration
– Advanced visualization
– Mixed-initiative information processing
• Information Integration
–
–
–
–
–
–
Adaptive information fusion
Multimedia (text, data, imagery, video, etc.) understanding
Integrated media processing
Very-large-scale sensor grid processing
Speech processing
Multilingual language processing
Potential Areas for ITO
Programs [2 of 5]
• Knowledge Management
–
–
–
–
–
Metadata processing
Search and retrieval of multimedia
Data pedigree/history
Reasoning under uncertainty
Semantic component description for reusability
• Decision Support
– Very-large-scale planning/monitoring/replanning
– Distributed collaboration and decision-making
Potential Areas for ITO
Programs [3 of 5]
• Agent-based Computing
–
–
–
–
–
Service agents
Dynamic configuration of agent systems
Control of agent-based systems
Distributed simulations
Distributed semi-autonomous systems (robotics)
• Intelligent Distributed Resource Management
– Intelligent data provisioning (store vs. compute vs. send, push vs.
pull, user profiling)
– Distributed storage & migration of data
– Exploitation of distributed computing
– Power-aware computing in distributed environments
Potential Areas for ITO
Programs [4 of 5]
• Communications
– Novel protocols for defense environments (anti-jam, low probability
of intercept, urban, mobile, etc.)
• Networking
–
–
–
–
Quality-of-service provisioning
Self-configuring networks of networks
Very large wireless networks
Network modeling and performance analysis
• Computing
– Power-aware computing devices
– Highly distributed massive computers
– Self-managing (self-aware, self-configuring, self-maintaining, selfrepairing) computers
– Advanced hardware architectures (and programming them)
– Highly reliable computers (including with unreliable components)
– Unconventional computing (quantum, biological, etc.)
Potential Areas for ITO
Programs [5 of 5]
• Storage
– Very large data storage
– Multimedia data storage
• Architecture and Design
–
–
–
–
–
–
–
Design of complex distributed systems
Distributed systems verification
Requirements engineering
Distributed systems performance analysis
Design for interoperability
Architectural trade-offs of processing/storage/communications
System componentization optimization
• Security
– Designed-in, built-in trust
– Distributed trusted systems
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
Quadrennial Defense Review 2001
Executive Order: Office of Homeland Security
Joint Vision 2020
Network Centric Warfare
Report to Congress
Defense Science
Board 2000 Summer Study
– Protecting the Homeland
A Non-Standard Process – Interrupted
By a Major Attack on the United States
But, What Constitutes “Information Superiority”?
29
•
Joint forces scalable, task-organized into modular units
•
Highly networked with joint Command/Control
•
Light, lethal, maneuverable, survivable, readily deployed/employed
in integrated fashion
•
Conduct distributed and dispersed operations
•
Plan and execute faster than enemy, seizing tactical opportunities
•
Joint/combined Command and Control
•
Network Centric Warfare is a warfighting concept that allows us
to achieve Joint Vision 2020 operational capabilities.
•
NCW allows the force to achieve an asymmetric information
advantage.
– Dramatically improved capabilities for sharing of information
•
Coupled with enhanced capabilities for sensing, information
sharing can enable a force to realize the full potential of Full
Spectrum Dominance.
Relationships in warfare that take place
simultaneously in and among the three domains:
Physical Domain: domain where strike, protect, and maneuver take place
across the ground, sea, air, and space environments; it includes the physical
platforms and the communications networks that connect them reside.
Information Domain: domain where information is created, manipulated, and
shared; where command and control is communicated.
Cognitive Domain: domain of the mind; elements are the intangibles of
leadership, morale, unit cohesion, level of training and experience, situational
awareness, and public opinion; also residing here are commander’s intent,
doctrine, tactics, techniques, and procedures.
Provide timely, relevant intelligence - national, strategic, & tactical
• Human-computer visualization for intelligence will require advances beyond
the commercial world, which tends to focus on data visualization where there
is statistical significance, vice semantic visualization of rare events for the
intelligence problem.
• Information integration, knowledge management, and decision support will
all require significant advances beyond that of the commercial products, which
will not apply to the “needle in the haystack” kinds of intelligence problems and
the volumes of data to be addressed.
• Agent-based computing and intelligent distributed resource management for
intelligence will be able to take significant advantage of commercial
developments, but the scale of the intelligence problem, coupled with the
distributed nature of the collection and processing, will present special
demands that the commercial world will not address.
• We also expect that the commercial products will be the primary source of
capabilities for communications, networking, and storage, but the stressing
requirements may require some amount of specialized capabilities.
• The power and capability of off-the-shelf computing devices is expected to
suffice, since there are few stressing requirements (possibly tactical
intelligence will have time-stress requirements, but it seems unlikely that
custom hardware is appropriate here).
• The intelligence problems will present significant architecture & design
issues beyond that which the commercial world will address, due to the highly
decentralized nature of the processing and the need for semantic
interoperation.
• Security
Develop and maintain shared battlespace awareness
• Human-computer visualization for battlespace awareness will require advances beyond the
commercial world, particularly in immersive environments.
• Information integration and knowledge management will require significant advances beyond that
of the commercial products, due to the large volumes of disparate data that needs to be integrated
and the diverse knowledge that needs to be managed.
• Decision support is not expected to play a part in this imperative, since no real decision-making is
taking place.
• Agent-based computing and intelligent distributed resource management for battlespace
awareness will be able to take significant advantage of commercial developments, but the scale of
the this problem, coupled with the distributed nature of the collection and processing, will present
special demands that the commercial world will not address.
• We also expect that the commercial products will be the primary source of capabilities for
communications, networking, and storage, but the stressing requirements may require some
amount of specialized capabilities.
• The power and capability of off-the-shelf computing devices is expected to suffice, since there are
few stressing requirements for battlespace awareness.
• The battlespace awareness problems will present significant architecture & design issues beyond
that which the commercial world will address, due to the highly decentralized nature of the
processing and the need for semantic interoperation.
• Security
Rapidly plan/monitor/replan operations ("opportunistic operations") [up echelon]
 Human-computer collaboration for planning on the scale of a full-up task force will require
collaboration methods beyond the commercial world, especially in mixed-initiative planning
approaches and explanation of automated planning algorithms.
 Information integration and decision support for planning will use many of the database-oriented
commercial developments, but there will still be significant requirements not met by the commercial
world, particularly in the integration of semantic information for planning.
 The heterogeneous types of knowledge that are needed for planning demand knowledge
management approaches far in excess of the commercial world, which tends to focus on document
management in homogeneous environments.
 Agent-based computing and intelligent distributed resource management for planning will be
able to take significant advantage of commercial developments, but the scale of the this problem,
coupled with the requirements for rapid response for replanning, will present special demands that
the commercial world will not address.
 The power and capability of off-the-shelf communications, networking, computing devices, and
storage are expected to suffice, since there are few stressing requirements for planning in these
technical areas.
 The planning and replanning problems will present some architecture & design issues beyond
that which the commercial world will address, due to the need for semantic interoperation and the
diverse set of types of assets whose use needs to be planned.
 Security
Rapidly plan & execute operations (inside of enemy's loop)
[down echelon]
v
Human-computer collaboration for planning and executing
rapidly will require collaboration methods beyond the commercial
world, especially in mixed-initiative planning approaches and
explanation of automated planning algorithms.
v
Information integration, knowledge management, and
decision support for rapid planning and execution will not need
significant advances over the commercial developments, since the
problem is not stressing in these technical areas, but there will still
be requirements not met by the commercial world in the integration
of semantic information.
v
Agent-based computing and intelligent distributed resource
management for planning will be able to take significant advantage
of commercial developments, but the requirements for rapid
planning and execution will present special demands that the
commercial world will not address.
v
The power and capability of off-the-shelf storage solutions
are expected to suffice, since there is not a need for storage of
large amounts of data, but communications, networking, computing
devices will need additional capabilities than afforded by the
commercial world in order to meet the rapid timelines expected.
v
The rapid planning and execution problems will present
some architecture & design issues beyond that which the
commercial world will address, due to the need for rapid response
to be built into the design and the need for semantic interoperation.
Security
Target in real-time, accurately, coordinated
• Human-computer collaboration will have little role in targeting in real-time, so commercial approaches should
suffice.
• The stressing information integration and knowledge management requirements will be done in planning, while
in targeting there is less requirement for both functions, so the commercial products will help. On the other
hand, the stressing timelines and the coordination among (possibly) disparate units require approaches beyond
what is expected to be available in commercial products.
• There will be little need for decision support, so the commercial world will most likely address this technical
area.
• Agent-based computing for coordinated rapid planning and execution will be able to take significant advantage
of commercial developments, but the timeliness requirements for coordination will present special demands that
the commercial world will not address.
• Intelligent distributed resource management is the “main event” of targeting, and the commercial world is
unlikely to produce products that will allow the speed and accuracy needed required, especially with the
coordination among disparate units.
• Communications, networking, and computing will all require some capabilities beyond the commercial
developments, due to the real-time nature of this imperative, but it is expected that significant commercial
capabilities will be able to be the underpinning of targeting, since there are real-time requirements in
manufacturing, process control, embedded systems, etc. in the commercial world.
• It is not expected that storage of large amounts of information, nor rapid access (quicker than transactionbased applications), will be any more difficult to implement than in the commercial world, so full advantage of the
available products should provide what is required.
• The speed with which targeting needs to occur will present significant architecture & design issues beyond that
which the commercial world will address, due to the need for real-time behavior to be built into the design.
• Security
Command and control of unmanned vehicle fleets (land, air, sea, undersea)
• Human-computer collaboration is vital to command and control of unmanned vehicle fleets,
since telerobotic control is expected to be a major operating mode. There are many
developments in the commercial world that can apply to this technical area, but additional work
will be needed to provide the required feedback from the vehicles and to command the fleet
(vice a single vehicle).
• The integration of information from the vehicle fleet in a reasonable way for the humans
providing the command and control will need capabilities well beyond what is expected to be
seen in the commercial world.
• Knowledge management and decision support for command and control of unmanned vehicle
fleets has some requirements beyond what the commercial world is likely to see, but not so
many that the commercial developments will provide important capabilities. Particularly in
decision support, we would expect needs beyond what the commercial products will provide.
• Agent-based computing will be needed to coordinate the elements of the fleet, but as there will
be a relatively small number of these elements the commercial developments will probably
provide a sufficient basis, with additional work needed in the real-time control aspects of this
imperative.
• Intelligent distributed resource management will be needed to allocate resources among the
units of the fleet, and whereas commercial products are addressing similar problems, they do
not have the real-time requirements nor man-in-the-loop requirements of this imperative, so it is
expected that additional capability must be added.
• Communications, networking, computing, and storage developments in the commercial world
will probably provide most of the capabilities for the needs of command and control of
unmanned vehicle fleets, but the environments that they have to work (battle, airborne, sea and
undersea) are stressing and it is expected that the commercial world will not meet all the
requirements.
• The architecture & design of such vehicle fleets, with their coordination needs and real-time
control, will be able to be done in part with commercial approaches, but there are enough
stressing requirements of this IT imperative that will not be present in the commercial world to
demand novel techniques that will need development.
• Security
Implement focused logistics
• Human-computer collaboration for logistics will be able to take advantage of commercial work, since
there are plenty of commercial logistics efforts that will have a subset of the requirements of this
imperative, but additional capabilities will need to be developed for the unique requirements of this
imperative.
• Information integration, knowledge management, decision support, and agent-based computing for
focused logistics will all be able to use commercial capabilities, but extensions are needed due to the
wide variety of locations, resources, movement types, security, and other requirements that this IT
imperative will have over the commercial world.
• Intelligent distributed resource management, communications, computing, and storage will not require
any special capabilities beyond that of the commercial world, since the commercial logistics companies
have much the same requirements as national security. Networking, on the other hand, will take much
of its capabilities from the commercial world but will require additional capabilities due to the unique
environment in which it must work (multiple heterogeneous networks interconnected in novel ways).
• Architecture & design of such highly distributed logistics operations is beyond the state-of-the-practice
of commercial approaches, although their products can form the basis of what is needed.
• Security
Integrate intelligence, maneuvering, attack, defense, logistics, etc.
• Human-computer collaboration for this IT imperative is very difficult, and whereas some
needed capabilities are similar to those being developed in the commercial world, the
integration of such diverse domains requires significant additional specialized techniques of
human-computer collaboration, from visualization to mixed-initiative decision-making.
• Due to the stressing needs to integrate such diverse sets of information for this
imperative, to the widely disparate domains that must be covered with knowledge, and to
the difficulty of decision-making in such a broad area of discourse, significant new
capabilities will have to be developed, where the commercial world has no requirements
and thus is unlikely to develop any capability of significance to apply.
• Agent-based computing will be the “glue” that will allow the required integration, at the
semantic level, and as such is a critical part of this imperative. The developments in the
commercial world may very well provide the basis for agent-based computing, but
significant new capabilities will have to be layered on top of this basis to meet the
requirements of this imperative.
• Intelligent distributed resource management will be a part of this IT imperative, although it
is not the major focus. As such, much of what will be needed can come from commercial
developments, although the allocation of resources (such as computing and
communications) over such diverse sets of functions will require additional capabilities to
be developed.
• Communications, networking, and storage for integration of such disparate functions will
largely come from commercial developments, although the stressing nature of such
integration may require additional capabilities to meet the imperative’s requirements. The
computing requirements, on the other hand, are likely to be fully met from the commercial
world.
• Architecture & design of such a highly distributed system of such disparate parts is bound
to be difficult, and whereas commercial design tools are likely to play a part, they are
unlikely to address the semantic diversity of the information in this imperative, as well as
the stressing data dissemination requirements.
• Security
Collaborate & interoperate with distributed systems - joint, combined, coalition, OGA, NGA
• Human-computer collaboration for collaboration and interoperation will be challenging across
such a disparate set of users, but it is expected that significant commercial work will apply, but
not sufficient for all requirements.
• Information integration across such a wide variety of users is a significant challenge,
especially in the semantics of the objects that are in the domain of application. Significant new
capabilities will need to be developed that the commercial world doesn’t need and thus is
unlikely to produce.
• Knowledge management, decision support, and agent-based computing will be vital functions
for collaboration and interoperation across distributed systems, and whereas the commercial
world is developing capabilities that will undoubtedly be of use, it is not expected that the levels
of functionality in managing and decision-making with the wide disparity of semantics and
formats of domain objects will suffice.
• Intelligent distributed resource management is not expected to play a part in this imperative.
•Whereas the commercial developments in computing and storage are expected to suffice,
based on the requirements of equivalent commercial systems that collaborate and interoperate,
the communications and networking are expected to be more stressing (especially in their need
for automated configuration and reconfiguration in response to battle damage) for national
security applications than in the commercial world, and hence will need additional capabilities.
• Architecture & design of such highly distributed systems of such disparate components is
beyond the expected state-of-the-practice in the commercial world, but the commercial products
are expected to provide significant capabilities upon which the requirements of this IT
imperative may be built.
• Security
Rapidly deploy and employ flexibly configured interconnections among units
• Human-computer collaboration and knowledge management are expected to play only a minor role in this
imperative, and thus the commercial world will develop all that is needed, given their similar demands.
• Information integration and decision support are not expected to play a part in this imperative.
• Agent-based computing will play an important role in the negotiations among units to configure themselves. As
such, it is an important part of this imperative, which the commercial advances in agent-based systems will
contribute to, but the rapidity of configuration and the flexibility requires capabilities beyond that of the commercial
products.
• Intelligent distributed resource management is paramount for this imperative, but the commercial world will attack
similar enough problems that it is expected that significant capabilities will be available. However, the commercial
products are unlikely to have the time requirements and reconfiguration requirements that the national security has,
so it is expected that additional capabilities will need to be added.
• Communications and networking advances beyond the commercial capabilities will be needed for the speed and
flexibility for this imperative, but much of the commercial work in this area will be able to be used.
• Computing and storage are not expected to play a part in this imperative.
• Architecture & design for such speed and flexibility will require capabilities beyond that available from the
commercial world.
• Security
High degree of interconnectedness
• Human-computer collaboration is not expected to play a part in this imperative.
• The requirements for information integration and knowledge management will be simple enough for this
IT imperative that it is expected that the commercial products will suffice.
• Decision support is not expected to play a part in this imperative.
• Agent-based computing and intelligent distributed resource management will be the application-level
functions to implement a high degree of interconnectedness, and as such will be based on commercial
approaches. However, the unique national security environments, where the capabilities and constraints of
networks are heterogeneous and widely disparate, will require additional capabilities beyond that of the
commercial world.
• Communications and networking likewise will be based on commercial products, but as in agent-based
computing and intelligent distributed resource management additional capabilities will be needed to meet
this imperative’s requirements.
• There are expected to be no unique computing requirements for this imperative, so commercial
capabilities will suffice.
• Storage is not expected to play a part in this imperative.
• Architecture and design for connecting widely disparate communications and networks to implement the
requirements of this imperative will need capabilities that are beyond what the commercial world needs and
is likely to produce.
• Security
Adapt to local natural and geopolitical environment
• Human-computer collaboration, computing and storage for adapting to
local environments is expected to be no more stressing than those of
commercial applications, so the commercial approaches should suffice.
• Information integration, knowledge management, and decision support for
this imperative will present special requirements beyond what the
commercial world will see and respond to, especially in the “sensing” of the
local environment and rapidly adapting to it, although it is expected that
some capabilities can be used from similar, but less stressing, commercial
developments.
• Agent-based computing will be a key part of adapting to local
environments, and whereas the commercial approaches will help meet the
needs, additional capabilities will be needed for “sensing” the environment
and rapid response.
• Intelligent distributed resource management is another key to this
imperative, since adaptation implies applying resources available
adaptively and rapidly. Although commercial products will address some of
the requirements, due to their having similar but less stressing needs for
adaptation, it is expected that they will not address all the needs.
• Communications and networking will largely come from the commercial
world, since there are no unique requirements to meet this imperative, but
the integration of communications and networking with local environments
and the ability to adapt may place additional requirements on the
commercial approaches.
• The architecture of adaptive systems and the design of such systems will
need enhancements to the commercial approaches to system design, due
to the unknown local environment to which national security systems must
adapt and the flexibility and speed of adaptation needed.
• Security
Provide high degree of information availability (survivability and reliability and accessibility)
• Human-computer collaboration is not expected to play a part in this imperative.
• Information integration will be needed to for the algorithms to understand the information involved
that must be made available, to a degree that will not be able to be handled by commercial
approaches, although there are likely to be some commercial approaches that are usable.
Knowledge management for the understanding of the information will have to work in unique
environments, and thus additional capabilities beyond commercially available will be needed.
• Decision support is not expected to play a part in this imperative.
• Agent-based computing will provide important infrastructure for high availability of information,
which, due to the unique requirements of national security environments, will require advances
beyond what commercial approaches are likely to provide.
• Intelligent distributed resource management will play a vital role for this imperative, for
undoubtedly one means of making information available is to migrate it around networks, which is
essentially a resource allocation problem. It is expected that data replication and other approaches
from the commercial world will apply, but that significant enhancements will be necessary due to
this imperative’s requirements, such as to work on the unique communications and networks.
• Communications and networking for high availability of information are expected to be available
largely from the commercial world. There are no particular requirements of this imperative that
would indicate a need beyond commercial products.
• Computing is not expected to play a part in this imperative.
• Storage will be an important part of information availability, for the migration of information around
networks will be closely connected to the intermediate and replicated storage of the data. Whereas
the database and object storage approaches in the commercial world will provide a solid basis, the
specific requirements of this imperative will require additional capabilities to deal with the unique
environments in which the storage will have to operate.
• Architecture and design of such distributed, adaptive systems is beyond the commercial state-ofthe-practice, and is likely to remain so, but it is expected that commercial approaches can form the
basis for architecture and design of these approaches.
• Security
Automate the business rules of warfare (doctrine, procedures, tactics, priorities,
techniques)
• Human-computer collaboration will be important for expressing and analyzing the
business rules of warfare, and whereas commercial visualization and analysis techniques
may be usable, it is expected that additional capabilities will be needed to meet the unique
national security requirements.
• Information integration is not expected to play a part in this imperative.
• Knowledge management is the “main event” in this imperative, and how the business
rules are expressed and maintained, and how they are used in information processing, will
benefit from similar needs in the commercial world, but the unique requirements of national
security applications using this knowledge (the business rules of warfare) will require
additional capabilities.
• Decision support is likely to be needed for analyzing and validating the business rules,
and the capabilities needed will be added to commercial approaches for analyzing and
validating rules in similar contexts.
• Agent-based computing will be the basis for sharing business rule processing and
knowledge management among distributed applications. The approaches in the
commercial world for this technical area will form the basis of this imperative, but it is
unlikely that commercial approaches will deal sufficiently with all the national security
requirements.
• Intelligent distributed resource management, communications, networking, computing,
and storage are not expected to play a part in this imperative.
• Architecture and design is unlikely to be a serious problem in this imperative, so it is
expected that commercial approaches to this technical area will suffice.
• Security