Military Technology 05/2021

C4ISR Forum MT 5/2021 · 61 Fusing and analysing multiple data sources at the tactical edge using wireless – tactical fusion architecture writ large. (All images: courtesy Curtiss-Wright Defense Solutions) generating POL data. This IoT data can be used to analyse objects across space and time to find non-obvious relationships and hidden behaviours. As greater amounts of computing and network power are deployed at the tactical edge, it becomes possible to drive a COP using POL analysis capa- bilities from rapidly increasing deployments of IoMT devices. Advanced Analytics in the Field Deployed systems in the field are now able to perform multidimensional analysis – to include both temporal and spatial information – at high speeds on large volumes of data from local sources. Such vol- umes could only normally be processed previously in large data centres. Even more advantageous, when de- ployed in mobile cloud replication systems, local data can be combined with cloud-based data, and the same cloud-based processing can be supported in degraded, disconnected, intermittent, low bandwidth and high latency (D-DILL) scenarios. This advanced processing takes advantage of the mobile cloud replication systems available today, that incorporate compact, rugged GPU-based processing systems that connect directly to the cloud or that implement mobile, replicated cloud using contemporary enterprise-class networking technologies. Future systems will use POL data from multiple sources and process it to identify relevant patterns and characterise them. This involves large- scale data filtering of events, entities, and transactions to develop un- derstanding through spatial and temporal correlation across multiple data sets. To process all this data requires a next-generation analytics database that can ingest, analyse, and visualise massive data sets, and can combine historical and streaming data analysis with powerful location intelligence and AI. This new breed of data analytics is based on fully vectoring the capabilities that support streaming, fusing, and analysing the data. One specific use case that illustrates the need for POL processing is cyber situational understanding – the COP for the cyber domain – enabling warfighting overmatch informed by an integrated, multi-domain fusing of information related to information warfare, connectivity, and Whether centralised or at the edge, one of the biggest military needs extant today is the imperative for a common operating picture (COP) with support for Pattern of Life (POL) analysis across all relevant data sets, to enable powerful capabilities such as anomaly detection, enti- ty tracking, real-time alerting, predictive classification and historical analysis. The result is a greater level of situational awareness, which is key to anticipating an adversary’s tactics. POL is defined as “the specific set of behaviors and movements associated with a particular entity over a given period of time.” Capturing and processing POL data is already underway with the US DoD’s Joint All-Domain Command and Control (JADC2) project, and supporting pro- jects, such as the US Air Force’s Advanced Battle Management System (ABMS). However, the resulting avalanche of data masks important trends from human operators. Modern computing hardware and data analytics software have the ability to fuse spatial and temporal data into a COP that is visible to and actionable by human beings, accompanied by a seamless communications infrastructure that enables a COP to be de- livered to the warfighter. Evolving the IoT concept to an IoMT [Internet of Military Things], JADC2 promises to provide the soldier at the edge, and decision-makers at the command post, with access to the same COP. In this sense, any type of data that has an X or Y dimension, plus a times- tamp, and is generated from someplace within the IoT, is a candidate for Charlie Kawasaki is the Chief Technology Officer for Curtiss-Wright Defense Solutions PacStar business unit. Charlie Kawasaki Processing Pattern of Life Data at the Tactical Edge f