Tactical Edge Research Articles

KRIOTA: A framework for Knowledge-management of dynamic Reference Information and Optimal Task Assignment in hybrid edge–cloud environments to support situation-aware robot-assisted operations

Enabling an autonomous robotic system (ARS) to be aware of its operating environment can equip the system to deal with unknown and uncertain situations. While several conceptual models have been proposed to establish the fundamental concepts of situational awareness, it remains a challenge to make an ARS situation aware, in particular using a combination of low-cost resource-constraint robots at the tactical edge and powerful remote cloud nodes. This paper proposes a dynamic reference information (DRI) based knowledge management and optimal task assignment framework that manages knowledge extracted from DRI to assess the current situation as per given mission objectives and assigns tasks to different computing nodes, which include a combination of edge robots, edge computing nodes and cloud-hosted services. The proposed framework is referred to as KRIOTA. The framework has been designed using an architecture-centric approach. We have designed ontologies to classify and structure different elements of DRI hierarchically and associate the processing components of an ARS with the DRI. We have devised algorithms for the ARS to optimally assign tasks to relevant processing components on robots, edge computing nodes and cloud-hosted services for adaptive behaviour. We have evaluated the framework by demonstrating its implementation in a testbed named RoboPatrol. We have also demonstrated the performance, effectiveness and feasibility of the KRIOTA framework.

Operational Environments at the Extreme Tactical Edge

You can’t get more “on the tactical edge” than in space. No other operational domain suffers from the combinations of distance from the operator, harsh environments, unreachable assets with aging hardware, and increadably long communications as space systems. The complexity of developing and deploying AI solutions in satellites and probes is far more difficult than deploying similar AI on Earth. This talk explores some of the considerations involved in deploying AI and machine learning (ML) in the space domain.

Using combat simulations to determine tactical responses to new technologies on the battlefield

Although military technology can provide a tactical edge in combat, its efficacy often diminishes once the opposing force adapts. To address this issue, the study proposes a systematic approach to predict, model, and quantify the responses of soldiers on the battlefield to new technology. The method uses virtual simulations to identify changes in behavior and tactics, which are then modeled in constructive simulations to quantify lethality, survivability, and mission effectiveness. The approach is demonstrated through a case study on grenade-equipped quadcopters using the Infantry Warrior Simulation, a constructive simulation, and Virtual Battlespace 3.0, a virtual simulation. The study found that this tactic was initially successful at disrupting operations of soldiers. However, after seven iterations, the soldiers implemented changes in their tactics to minimize the effects of the drone. This process provides insight into better understanding the dynamic, responsive nature of the modern battlefield.

Tactical Data-Oriented Decentralized Communication Scheme in Vehicle-Assisted Networks: Challenges and Solutions

Internet of Battle Things (IoBT) devices can collect tactical data about wide battlefields. They can facilitate battlefield situational awareness in tactical operation centers (TOCs). However, IoBT devices deployed on battlefields without cellular networks cannot directly communicate with TOCs. These IoBT devices in decentralized tactical edge networks (TENs) need to connect to TOCs through tactical relay networks (TRNs). This article views the state-of-the-art TRNs and discusses the priority and challenges of vehicle-assisted TRNs (V-TRNs). To solve the remaining problems in the V-TRN application, this article presents the vehicle-assisted tactical data communication scheme (VTDCS) based on V-TRNs. VTDCS can provide reliable data aggregation in TENs, efficient data uploading from TENs to V-TRNs, and adaptive data forwarding in V-TRNs and offloading from V-TRNs to TOCs. Experiment results demonstrate that VTDCS can help TOCs obtain battlefield data more rapidly and receive urgent tactical data earlier. Finally, this article provides some suggestions for future research directions.

The Evolution of Moore’s Law Through Chipletized Architectures

Staying ahead of America’s adversaries requires control of the electromagnetic spectrum and therefore an evolution of the sensor processing chain. Agile, chip-scale, direct analog-to-digital solutions at the sensor edge are needed to overcome data bandwidth and latency limitations that are inherent with legacy EW and radar systems, and reduce design cycles, size, weight, power, and cost (SWaP-C). Heterogeneous, 2.5D integration is the next phase of Moore’s Law enabling a new approach to microelectronics based on chipletized architectures. The acceleration of deployable modular, high-performance microelectronics to the tactical edge is achieved by integrating the best silicon processing nodes for analog/digitization, processing, memory, and AI functionality on one chip. Mercury is partnering with leading semiconductor providers to deliver to defense customers the only trusted, RF system-in-package (RFSiP) devices that utilize an ecosystem of advanced, die-level building blocks, called chiplets, at the speed of innovation and purpose-built for each mission. Through assembly of high-density chiplets on a silicon interposer, on-chip die-to-die interconnects enable efficient conversion between analog and digital signals, signal processing, high-speed IO, and power management while reducing system complexity and SWaP-C. The use of open standard die-to-die interfaces allows chiplets to be rapidly upgraded or modified to meet the intended use case. In this paper, Mercury explores how 2.5D integration of state-of-the-art chiplets on a silicon interposer solves next-generation EW and radar system data processing challenges.

Blockchain at the Tactical Edge: Enabling an Internet of Battlefield Things

Blockchain at the Tactical Edge: Enabling an Internet of Battlefield Things

Routing Edge States in an Anisotropic Elastic Topological Insulator

Topological insulators, protected by nontrivial band topology, exhibit backscattering-immune edge states, conducive to robust waveguiding with high efficiency. However, routing such robust edge states has been restricted by the isotropy in conventional unit cells respecting crystalline symmetries, such as ${C}_{4v}$ symmetry in a square lattice or ${C}_{3}$ symmetry in a hexagonal lattice. We effectively tackle this issue by introducing anisotropic coupling into a square lattice. With theoretical prediction from the discrete mechanical model, we experimentally demonstrate that such anisotropy can enable distinctive topological phases along different directions, giving rise to directional edge states. In addition, when the bands along the two directions are topologically identical and untrivial, the coexisting edge states have distinctive frequency ranges, giving rise to the frequency-routed properties. Our work offers an effective strategy for the robust steering, filtering, detection, and transmission of elastic waves through tactical edge state routing.

Series Editorial: Military Communications and Networks

Making good decisions in a timely manner is intrinsic to the success of military operations. Critical decisions need to be reliably communicated and executed, and may depend on efficient processing of information from multiple sources. Thus, there are tough requirements on military communications and networks, such as tactical networks, operating in the face of adversaries toward the limits imposed by physics. In this context, the articles in this issue cover important topics of cloud processing at the tactical edge, resistance to jamming, and radio communication beyond line of sight.

Quantifying the Performance of Cloud-Oriented Container Orchestrators on Emulated Tactical Networks

Kubernetes is the de facto industry standard for orchestrating containerized applications in clouds. Performance analyses of Kubernetes are often conducted in resource-rich environments on the enterprise or data center level. At the tactical edge domain, network resources are scarce and therefore at the opposite end of the spectrum when compared to resources available to enterprises or data centers. Computing resources (e.g., mobile or edge devices) are typically interconnected via wireless communications links that are characterized by limited bandwidth, low reliability, high latency, and frequent disconnections. This experience article describes lessons learned in constructing a suitable emulation environment for experimentation, and our findings and recommendations for running Kubernetes in tactical networks.

Task Scheduling in Fog Node within the Tactical Cloud

Fog computing architecture competent to support the mission-oriented network-centric warfare provides the framework for a tactical cloud in this work. The tactical cloud becomes situation-aware of the war from the information relayed by fog nodes (FNs) on the battlefield. This work aims to sustain the network of FNs by maintaining the operational efficiency of the FNs on the battlefield at the tactical edge. The proposed solution monitors and predicts the likely overloading of an FN using the long short-term memory model through a buddy FN at the fog server (FS). This paper also proposes randomised task scheduling (RTS) algorithm to avert the likely overloading of an FN by pre-empting tasks from the FN and scheduling them to another FN. The experimental results demonstrate that RTS with linear complexity has a schedulability measure 8% - 26% higher than that of other base scheduling algorithms. The results show that the LSTM model has low mean absolute error compared to other time-series forecasting models.

A Cloud-based experimentation and analysis framework for services at the tactical edge

In this paper we present an experimentation and analysis framework that utilizes a public cloud infrastructure for most of the experimentation environment but also supports interaction with services installed on servers or dedicated hardware on-premises. The framework is enriched with a set of tools that allow for powerful scenario generation and modeling of radio communication in real time. We believe such experimentation and analysis frameworks can promote better cooperation between researchers, product developers and the military end users. We present an example experiment utilizing the framework, that studies the exchange of position updates between BMS applications on 4 moving vehicles and a forward command post, and share our lessons learned.

A Machine Learning Approach to the Determination of Value of Information to Operators and Applications on the Tactical Edge

Value of Information (VoI) is critical to the operators in the field and the backbone of a communications network. With proper determination of VoI the correct information can be routed to the operators that need it and not burden those who don't. VoI is used to determine the relevance, importance, and utility of information objects (discrete elements of information) to an entity (ranging from an individual person to even a software component, such as an agent). The value is always dependent on the context of the receiving entity. In the military domain, context can be defined by the identity, role, current and future activity, current status, current and future location, and type of mission of an operator. Being able to determine the VoI allows systems to prioritize and filter information, thereby reducing information overload on the recipient, as well as network load on the communications infrastructure. The concept of VoI is not new, but has recently begun to be applied to military information systems.

A Bayesian Inference Model for Dynamic Neighbor Discovery in Tactical Networks

This paper introduces a Bayesian Inference model for dynamically changing the neighbor discovery parameters in order to minimize the time to recover from long radio link disconnections in tactical networks. We start with the hypothesis that given a multi-layer tactical system, we can use the in/out chains to learn the distribution of changes in the radio data link with an increasing confidence as time goes by. Moreover, we propose that a static neighbor discovery configuration (e.g., hello time, aggregation time, and so on) in dynamic networks can never be optimal and that it is possible to calculate the close to optimal neighbor discovery configuration dynamically. Thus, we introduce a Bayesian Inference model composed of a Markov-Chain-Monte-Carlo (MCMC) and a Long Short-Term Memory (LSTM) to compute a dynamic configuration by learning the probability distribution of the link conditions (computed using the in/out model) and adapting the configuration parameters dynamically according to this distribution. Our hypothesis was verified with numerical calculations using different patterns of link data rate change. The quantitative analysis suggests that at the tactical edge dynamic control signaling can improve connectivity in ever-changing network scenarios.

To Forward or not to Forward: Considerations on and Experiments with Network Layer Forwarding in Combination with Middleware Services for Group Communications

Group communications is central to information dissemination in tactical edge environments as an approach to delivering information to multiple nodes in a bandwidth efficient manner. The NATO IST-161 Research Task Group on Efficient Group and Information Centric Communications in Mobile Military Heterogeneous Networks has been exploring and evaluating multiple approaches, including specific middleware capabilities that provide group communications. Some of these middleware implementations incorporate their own capabilities for information routing / forwarding, which raises the question of layering them on top of existing IP multicast forwarding mechanisms. This paper examines the benefits and tradeoffs of using an underlying network forwarding approach, Simplified Multicast Forwarding (SMF) aided by the OLSRv2 unicast routing protocol, in combination with group communications middleware. The experiments are carried out in the context of disseminating Blue Force Data in the Anglova scenario with and without the assistance of SMF and OLSRv2. The current results show that further integration is necessary between the middleware protocols and the underlying routing protocols in order to achieve the desired performance.

Conceptualization and cases of study on cyber operations against the sustainability of the tactical edge

The last decade consolidated the cyberspace as fifth domain of military operations, which extends its preliminarily intelligence and information exchange purposes towards enabling complex offensive and defensive operations supported/supportively of parallel kinetic domain actuations. Although there is a plethora of well documented cases on strategic and operational interventions of cyber commands, the cyber tactical military edge is still a challenge, where cyber fires barely integrate to the traditional joint targeting cycle due to, among others, long planning/development times, asymmetric effects, strict target reachability requirements, or the fast propagation of collateral damage; the latter rapidly deriving on hybrid impacts (political, economic, social, etc.) and evidencing significant socio-technical gaps. In this context, it is expected that Tactical Clouds disruptively facilitate cyber operations at the edge while exposing the rest of the digital assets of the operation to them. On these grounds, the main purpose of the conducted research is to review and in depth analyze the risks and opportunities of jeopardizing the sustainability of the military Tactical Clouds at their cyber edge. Along with a 1) comprehensively formulation of the researched problematic, the study 2) formalizes the Tactical Denial of Sustainability (TDoS) concept; 3) introduces the phasing, potential attack surfaces, terrains and impact of TDoS attacks; 4) emphasizes the related human and socio-technical aspects; 5) analyzes the threats/opportunities inherent to their impact on the cloud energy efficiency; 6) reviews their implications at the military cyber thinking for tactical operations; 7) illustrates five extensive CONOPS that facilitate the understanding of the TDoS concept; and given the high novelty of the discussed topics, this paper 8) paves the way for further research and development actions.

Preparing Military Intelligence for Great Power Competition

Military intelligence (MI) is critical to visions of future war. The analytical methodologies of the War on Terror have reshaped how MI teams are trained and deployed. MI personnel are increasingly specialised, with experience and judgement being replaced by rigid adherence to robust data-driven analytical methodologies. While these methods are likely to continue at higher echelons, Jack Watling argues that a large MI presence at the tactical edge will not be practical under the indirect fire threat on the future battlefield. Furthermore, reach-back to higher echelon support will be severely constrained in a contested electromagnetic environment. Tactical echelons will therefore need an expanded organic MI capability, with experienced personnel able to perform a wide range of MI functions.◼

Dispersed Computing for Tactical Edge in Future Wars: Vision, Architecture, and Challenges

In the future, the tactical edge is far away from the command center, the resources of communication and computing are limited, and the battlefield situation is changing rapidly, which leads to the weak connection and fast changes of network topology in a harsh and complex battlefield environment. Thus, to meet the needs of communication and computing to build a new generation of computing architecture for real‐time sharing and service collaboration of tactical edge resources to win the future war, the dispersed computing (DCOMP) seeks a new solution to satisfy the requirements of fast and efficient sensing, transmission, integrating, scheduling, and processing of various information in the tactical edge. Through the research of a traditional computing paradigm of mobile cloud computing (MCC), fog computing (FC), mobile edge computing (MEC), mobile ad hoc network (MANET), etc., it can be found that these computations have difficulty in meeting the high changing and complex battlefield environment and we propose a novel architecture of DCOMP to build a scalable, extensible, and robust decision‐making system, to realize powerful and secure communication, computing, storage, and information processing capabilities for the tactical edge. We illustrate the fundamental principles of building a network model, channel allocation, and forwarding control mechanism of the network architecture for DCOMP called DANET and then design a new architecture, programming model, task awareness, and computing scheduling for DCOMP. Finally, we discuss the main requirements and challenges of DCOMP in future wars.

Cooperative Federated Learning-Based Task Offloading Scheme for Tactical Edge Networks

In this study, we focus on the federated learning (FL) based tactical edge network platform to cooperatively operate computation-hungry tasks as efficiently as possible. Based on the incentive of FL model training, each individual device makes offloading decisions for their tactical tasks in resource-constrained network environments. According to the ideas of two different bargaining solutions - weighted average solution and constant elasticity substitution solution - edge server and IoT devices work together in a coordinated manner to approximate a well-balanced system performance. Therefore, we can reach an agreement while exploring the mutual benefits to leverage a reciprocal consensus between different viewpoints. The main novelty of our approach is to investigate the dual-interactive bargaining process based on the interdependent relationship between IoT devices and the tactical edge server. To the best of our knowledge, this is the first work that jointly considers different bargaining solutions to handle tactical edge-assisted task offloading services. Based on the numerical simulation, it is demonstrated that the proposed approach can increase the system throughput, device payoff and device fairness up to 10%, 15% and 20%, respectively, in comparison with existing protocols.

Exploring Performance Trade-offs in Tactical Edge Networks

Tactical edge networks are characterized by wireless links that have limited capacity and are prone to disconnection. In such a challenging and hostile environment, replication of information could be desirable as it increases information availability through redundancy and accessibility through proximity. However, replication of information has a negative effect on security because it broadens the attack surface -- more nodes may be targeted to obtain sensitive information, thereby potentially increasing the overall risk of the information being compromised or leaked. Furthermore, replicating information takes away resources (particularly communications and power, but also to some extent computation and storage) from other tasks that might also need the same resources. These trade-offs between information availability, information protection, and resource utilization exist and need to be explored in the context of different solutions that could be applied to the challenging problem of information dispersal for assured operations in tactical environments.

Federating Tactical Edge Networks: Ways to Improve Connectivity, Security, and Network Efficiency in Tactical Heterogeneous Networks

This article elaborates on security and routing architectures for mobile tactical heterogeneous networks. It explores challenges and opportunities, and highlights the characteristics of these types of networks and their differences from static and deployed networks. These architectures have value for designing national military networks, as well as for realizing IP-based coalition networks at the mobile tactical edge. The article is based on work done within the NATO research group IST- 124, and may serve as input for standardization of future federated tactical networks.