Decision Making in the Battlefield-of-Things

Abstract

This paper accentuates the paradigm shift in battlefield-environments. In perspective of a decision-maker to enable shrinking of his decision-cycle, the contributions of this paper are threefold. First, the paper enumerates the significant parameters of a soldier accoutered with a Body-Area-Network along with the hierarchy of command, control and communication; its interpretation in distributed networks within the scope of the concepts of Battlefield-of-Things (BoTs). Second, the study states the critical need to understand the nature of data; models its flow, collection, aggregation, mutation, dissemination and analysis based on dimensions in battlefield to enable taking tactical decisions technically. Third, best-fit model, which can be replicated for all levels in hierarchy for intelligence generation in decision making and battlefield support using data from soldier is proposed; extendible to armoured fighting vehicles. Theoretical results established via a battlefield scenario demonstrate that BoTs, enables faster and effective decision-making, dominance in Command-Control-Intelligence-Battlefield Support with superiority in battlefield management. The study is a preliminary step and concludes that proliferation in communication, computation, sensor technologies and analytics in BoTs promises to improve survivability and wax the culmination point of a force in the modern-battlefields. The future work urges the research community with the challenges envisaged.