Instant and Immediate Discovery of People, Sensors, and Information Services to Improve Operational Efficiency
Today’s threats and the way that our adversaries fight look very different than in decades past. Asymmetric threats rule the security landscape and with them come chaos and non-predictiveness. Asymmetric techniques often involve tactics that many might call “dirty fighting” which can include operational and strategic surprise and destruction in unanticipated ways. Al Qaeda and ISIS have refined asymmetric techniques to include fundamental changes to the terrain where they strike. The biggest challenge when facing an asymmetric enemy is the non-predictiveness, which means OUR systems must adapt and provide awareness outside of our traditional information domains in order for the good guys to have an advantage.
Blueforce Tactical (our mobile software for Android and iOS) was designed and built to support the full spectrum of Network Centric Operations (NCO) which envisions an information advantage, enabled in part by mobile technology, for competitive advantage through the robust networking of well informed and geographically decentralized personnel, sensors, and services. The core design center of the Blueforce product platform is to enable small unit swarming, which enables dispersed mass with simultaneity of force and unity of effort. It includes the rapid stand up and tear down of human and sensor networks to accomplish a mission or business process. The product platform is optimized to enable far flung and decentralized computing capability using powerful mobile devices with wireless connections to positively impact mobility, communication, unit autonomy, and coordination/synchronization of actions.
Absolute success is steeped in getting the right information to the right person at the right time, and operational nirvana is a means to drive awareness of proximate resources that are not in my immediate domain, but most likely trusted by my larger organization. Real time and shared awareness brings scalable and dynamic capabilities to the battlefield, such as distributed perception, robust and resilient communications, dispersed computing and analytics, and adaptive collective behaviors. Yet, all of this is still somewhat reliant on people, sensors and services we KNOW about. What about inter-agency and coalition assets (human AND silicon) that are close by, but I may not know they exist? What is needed is a means to expose everyone on the battlefield to context aware services and confederations of core competency and capability. It’s the ability to make small unit swarms aware of previously unknown resources in proximity to an incident or event via real-time network and location bookmarking.
Blueforce is pleased to announce the availability of Blueforce Discovery Services V1, a BlueforceEDGE software plugin that allows for the creation of autonomous “discovery realms”. BlueforceEDGE is our autonomous services platform that can run on a Windows XP device and scales up to large, replicated, and scalable virtual environments for enterprise use. BlueforceEDGE enables scores of subscribable “endpoints” which can expose:
- Unattended ground sensors and fixed facility sensors: EDGE plugins allow for ingest or query of any sensor which exposes a communications link and application interface.
- Data streams: EDGE plugins can also push or pull information from third-party information systems via standards-based interfaces. EDGE plugins are available today that interoperate with GIS and IoT cloud services like AzureIoT.
- Information services: EDGE plugins can also be self-contained “services”. Blueforce Discovery Services V1 is an example of a services-based plugin.
Blueforce Discovery Services V1 (BDSV1) is enabled via a software plugin and provides a virtual service to any subscribed endpoint. Because BlueforceEDGE supports many endpoints, each endpoint can be enabled as a discrete “discovery realm” allowing for secure and controlled access to specific groupings of people and sensors with awareness of expertise and capability of each endpoint. Blueforce endpoints subscribe to the service which then captures location correlated with capability and competency awareness of each subscriber. BDSV1 periodically (default = 60 seconds) publishes the realm as a dynamic KML feed which can be overlayed in real time on Blueforce Command Center and/or other GIS systems. The KML feed provides just enough information for others to request subscription to a desired endpoint while still ensuring security, privacy, and need-to-know. Â The blue icons in the image above show people and resources that are proximate and available for subscription to this Command Center user.
Blueforce Discovery Services V1 is available now. Contact email us at info@blueforcedev.com, or call us at 866-960-0204 for more information or a demo.