FORCEnet an analysis of the Trident Warrior 2003 exercise

Since the country has moved into the Information Age, the military forces have been moving towards network based operations. The rapid expansion of the internet and information technology (IT) has led to the emerging theory of Network- Centric Warfare (NCW). The Naval Services instantiation of NCW is FORCEnet. "FORCEnet is the "glue" that binds together Sea Strike, Sea Shield, and Sea Basing. It is the operational construct and architectural framework for naval warfare in the Information Age, integrating warriors, sensors, command and control, platforms, and weapons into a networked, distributed combat force. FORCEnet will provide the architecture to increase substantially combat capabilities through aligned and integrated systems, functions, and missions. Sea Power 21 is a comprehensive attempt to address the ramifications of the Information Age revolution. The framework of the Sea Power 21 vision is composed of the following elements: Sea Basing, Sea Shield and Sea Strike. The enabler of this vision or the "glue" that holds it all together is FORCEnet. FORCEnet is "the operational construct and architectural framework of naval warfare in the information age that integrates Warriors, sensors, networks, command and control, platforms, and weapons into a networked, distributed combat force that is scaleable across all levels of conflict from seabed to space and sea to land." The Trident Warrior 03 exercise was then developed as a means to measure its success and to acquire data from which future exercises can be measured against. FORCEnet is still in its infancy and many people have different views on what exactly it is and how it should be implemented to achieve those goals. The intent of this thesis was not to answer those questions per se, but provide a realistic analysis of what worked during the TW03 exercise and what did not. This should provide a baseline for further Trident Warrior exercises so as to avoid the same mistakes in the future. The military has a ways to go before it can fully realize a truly networked-centric armed forces, but TW03 was the beginning and the lessons learned from it will pay dividends in realizing that fully networked goal.http://archive.org/details/forcenetnnalysis109451392Major, United States Marine CorpsApproved for public release; distribution is unlimited

Critical Infrastructure Protection: Federal Efforts Require a More Coordinated and Comprehensive Approach for Protecting Information Systems

A letter report issued by the General Accounting Office with an abstract that begins "Critical infrastructure protection (CIP) involves activities that enhance the security of the nation's cyber and physical public and private infrastructures that are essential to national security, economic activity, and public health and safety. At least 50 federal organizations within 13 major departments and agencies mentioned in Presidential Decision Directive 63 are involved in CIP activities that include setting policy, analyzing vulnerabilities and intelligence information, disseminating alerts and warnings on potential and actual infrastructure attacks, developing remediation plans, responding to incidents, and performing research and development. Although most organizations could identify their relationships with other key CIP entities, relationships among all organizations performing similar activities were not consistently established. Most of the organizations in GAO's review do not receive appropriations specifically designated for cyber CIP and, therefore, do not track these funds. A complicating factor in tracking funds spent on cyber CIP activities is that organizational totals often include funds spent on physical, cyber, and agency-specific CIP spending.

Architecture and method for providing priority charging for government authorized emergency electrical vehicles (AEEV)

The US government predicts more than 1 million electric vehicles (EVs), on U.S. roadways by 2015, and these numbers will increase exponentially in the future. However, the power grid cannot furnish the charging for numerous EVs at a given time mainly because of its energy production capabilities, peak usage, and distribution infrastructure. Some studies indicate that adopting “smart” charging, for example, scheduling EV charging, can alleviate the challenge. Nevertheless, such strategies are not useful for emergency and first responders’ vehicles. This thesis proposes a solution that provides priority treatment for government Authorized Emergency Electrical Vehicles (AEEV). The thesis proposes a complete architecture for providing priority charging service to the government authorized electric vehicles from any utility operator. To realize such a service, this proposal also suggests modifications required in the IEC15118 and IEC 61850 protocol suites. These protocols provide communication between Vehicle and Grid

Delay based approach to support low priority users in preemptive wireless networks

Title from PDF of title page, viewed on January 27, 2012Thesis advisor: Cory C. BeardVitaIncludes bibliographic references (p. 39)Thesis (M.S.)--School of Computing and Engineering. University of Missouri--Kansas City, 2011At times of serious disasters (natural or man-made), wireless networks are quickly congested due to the sheer volume and stress on network resources, and, preferential treatment is necessary for National Security/Emergency Preparedness (NS/EP) users to combat the disaster by responding effectively and potentially save many lives. Under such circumstances, with scarce resources, the new request for sessions are denied and worse even, active sessions are dropped for general public whilst they have come to rely on these resources and depend on them especially during distressed times. Prior research has been conducted to examine upper limit (UL) and preemptive approaches to support emergency users but the traditional approach of blocking the capacity for emergency users is, from one perspective, restrictive to the general public. In this thesis, we propose the delay-based soft preemptive approach to support the low priority users and provide an alternative to several preemptive policies by further examining them. We provide a queuing algorithm in the network that warns the low priority users with an active session of scarce resources thereby giving them an opportunity to complete their session prior to reducing the quality of service (QoS) of their session and moving their bandwidth to emergency users, if blocked. The emergency users in turn wait for the resources to become available and are on hold until resources become available. By creating a queuing modeling system for this algorithm, we present simulation model in C with results of our delay-based soft preemptive approach and examine other preemptive approaches to provide a comparative analysis. The results demonstrate that increasing the warning time also increases the number of sessions blocked for emergency users as well as general public due to further constraining the resources, however, this reduces the inconvenience of preemption caused to the low priority users.Introduction -- Related work -- Algorithm and simulations -- Analysis and results -- Conclusio

Department of Defense Dictionary of Military and Associated Terms

The Joint Publication 1-02, Department of Defense Dictionary of Military and Associated Terms sets forth standard US military and associated terminology to encompass the joint activity of the Armed Forces of the United States. These military and associated terms, together with their definitions, constitute approved Department of Defense (DOD) terminology for general use by all DOD components

Mobile information communication technology for crisis management : understanding user behavior, response and training

SMS text-messaging is an interoperable communication vehicle known to be dependable for mass media alert notifications in crisis management. SMS text-messaging also offers potential as one viable two-way communication alternative for field responders in crisis response. Both continuously changing mobile information communication technologies and the importance of precise information exchange constitute a need for communication protocol training and practice. This study introduces a technology-mediated training technique based on speech act and communicative action theories. These theories are used to inform the design of a baseline measure for task performance improvement and to suggest a model to predict communication readiness. Because this research bridges two fields - information systems and communication - it provides a model for full construct-representation of text-based interaction in a technology-mediated environment. The proposed model is validated through a web-based training application with 50 participants who have different crisis response backgrounds, including emergency management practitioners, first responders, public safety volunteers, community volunteers, community citizens, and students over the age of 18. Each group encompasses diverse technological skill and usage levels. The web-based training application developed in the present study features plain language training so that a clear understanding of user behavior, response, and training would emerge. The training and crisis scenario are rendered through multimedia recordings and designed to measure task response, based on the 160 character per SMS text-message exchange limit. The mixed-methods design begins with a crisis scenario, followed by pre-training measures, three repeated training measures, and concludes with post-training measures. A total of six tasks are introduced (3 pre-training and 3 post-training) in which each participant interfaces with the web-based training application through a high-speed Internet connection. Task response level results show promise for this exploratory research and contribute to a new discourse mode that extends to mobile technology penetration. Future research will focus on refinement of the model\u27s task performance measures and will seek to introduce additional situation-based scenarios and mixed-modes of communication. During this next research phase, the objective is to incorporate the model into mobile device usage and operationalize the model in authentic crisis management contexts. If successful in extended field simulation, the model may have the potential to ensure effective mobile information communication within the context of crisis

An overview of post-disaster emergency communication systems in the future networks

The emerging 5G communication network is gaining tremendous attention from mobile network operators, regulators, and academia due to the provisions of network densification, ultra-low latency and improved spectral and energy efficiencies. However, post-disaster EMS, which nowadays predominantly depends on the wireless communication infrastructure, is significantly lagging behind in terms of innovation, standards, and investments. Since the 5G vision is the revolution of the telecommunication industry, provisions of efficiently handling EMS is expected to be distributed, autonomous, and resilient to the network vulnerabilities due to both man-made and natural disasters. In this article, the 4G LTE approaches for typical post-disaster communication and their shortcomings will be discussed. We elaborate three typical post-disaster network scenarios when the network is congested, partly functional or completely isolated. The possible solution framework, for instance, Device-to-Device communication, drone-assisted communication, mobile ad hoc networks and Internet-of-Things, for post-disaster scenarios will be discussed. Given that spectrum allocation is critical for EMS, we assess the possible schemes for radio resource allocation specific for EMS in addition to the social responsibility of users in such critical situations

Interoperability Measurement

This research presents an inaugural general method of measuring the collaborative and confrontational interoperability of a heterogeneous set of systems in the context of an operational process. The method is holistic, fundamental, flexible, and mathematical in nature and accommodates all types of systems and interoperations. The method relates the interoperability measurement to measures of operational effectiveness for confrontational operational processes. Extant leveling methods of describing interoperability are shown to be a special case of the more general method given in this research and the general interoperability measurement method is demonstrated through the presentation of coalition interoperability, suppression of enemy air defenses, and precision strike applications. Further application is recommended in technical, non-technical, cross-domain, and non-traditional interoperability areas and additional research is suggested on the topics of indirect interoperability measurement and collaborative interoperability impact on operational effectiveness