An investigative analysis of information assurance issues associated with the GIG's P&P architecture

Abstract

The Global Information Grid (GIG) is a collection of systems, programs and initiatives aimed at building a secure network and set of information capabilities modeled after the Internet. The GIG is expected to facilitate DoD's transformation by allowing warfighters, policy makers and support personnel to engage in rapid decision making. The roadmap is designed to take advantage of converged services of voice, data, video, and imagery over common data links. The vision is to have commanders identify threats more effectively, make informed decisions, and respond with greater precision and lethality. The information advantage gained through the GIG and network-centric warfare (NCW) allows a warfighting force to achieve dramatically improved information positions, in the form of common operational pictures that provide the basis for shared situational awareness and knowledge, and a resulting increase in combat power. The GIG Precedence and Preemption (P&P) requirements stem from the need to utilize scarce resources at critical times in the most effective way in support of national security, the intelligence community and the war-fighter. Information Assurance (IA) enables all information and data to be available end-to-end to support any mission without delay in accordance to the sensitivity of the task. Together, P&P and IA ensure data availability integrity, authentication, confidentiality, and non-repudiation. This study addresses and analyzes the QoS and P & P requirements and architecture for the GIG. Threat scenarios are presented and used to evaluate the reference architectures. The goal of the study is to assess the Information Assurance concerns associated with implementing Precedence and Preemption within the GIG and to guarantee an acceptable minimum level of security and protection for DoD networks.