Our modern information society provides us with a tremendous amount of information. Several issues have surfaced due to the complexity inherent in the handling of the information systems. One of the most important issues is that of providing an architecture and methodology that provide for the development and maintenance of complex, distributed information systems. As the information flow and quantity hinders us from having qualitative information when needed, the architecture must address the reach, richness and value of the information. Network-centric warfare is a problem domain that has been initiated to meet the power of information. To be able to support such continouos sustainability, a robust network infrastructure is critical. A systemic perspective on network-centric environments as well as a technical perspective on network-centric environment shows that, although promising, contemporary implementations having a service-oriented architecture lack support for physical scalability and a cognitive decoupling that would provide for multiple users acting on the same environment. Consequently, a service-oriented layered architecture for communicating entities is presented where these issues are addressed. For verification, a demonstrator is developed upon a service-oriented layered architecture for communicating based on a network-centric warfare scenario.

Includes supplemental material. / Based on public law and Presidential mandate, ballistic missile defense development is a front-burner issue for homeland defense and the defense of U.S. and coalition forces abroad. Spearheaded by the Missile Defense Agency, an integrated ballistic missile defense system was initiated to create a layered defense composed of land-, air-, sea-, and space-based assets. The Ship Anti-Ballistic Response (SABR) Project is a systems engineering approach that suggests a conceptualized system solution to meet the needs of the sea portion of ballistic missile defense in the 2025-2030 timeframe. The system is a unique solution to the sea-based ballistic missile defense issue, combining the use of a railgun interceptor and a conformable aperture skin-of-the-ship radar system.

Approved for public release; distribution is unlimited / The US Department of Defense is currently pursuing the most comprehensive transformation of its forces since the early years of WWII. This transformation is a holistic approach to update both the equipment that the forces will fight its conflicts with and the way in which they will fight. This transformation relies heavily on fully networked air, ground and space based platforms. While many experts agree that in the course of the next 10 years communications equipment will emerge to support the networking of these systems, there remains much uncertainty on how operations will be effected if the technology does not mature enough to meet expectations. This research shows that even a 25 percent degradation in communications range could pose significant challenges for this Future Force. Additionally, even small delays (latencies greater than one minute) and constraints on network throughput can increase the Future Force casualties and the duration of battle. While the end result in all analysis shows that the Future Force is a superior element with the same battle end state-victory, the cost of that victory depends significantly on effective communications. / Captain, United States Army

Approved for public release, distribution is unlimited / Organizational structure has profound effects on a joint force commander's ability to perform military actions. Organizations and their environment exhibit an interdependent relationship, requiring a commander to evolve his organization to rapidly achieve mission accomplishment. The CNO Strategic Studies Group XIX report of September 2000 has identified the FORCEnet as being the basis for the U.S. Navy's future network-centric organization, and outlines a military environment that includes multitudes of manned and unmanned vehicles, platforms, sensors, weapons and warfighters. These naval elements will operate jointly, leveraging organizational structure to rapidly sense, assess, and respond to the defense of the nation's security interests as directed by the President. The focus of this research is to examine this envisioned future military environment, the military actions required to achieve success in that environment and the organizational structure(s) that will best fit those action requirements. / Lieutenant Commander, United States Navy

In response to technological advances, especially in the field of information and communication technology (ICT), the so called revolution in military affairs (RMA) and later the concept of network-centric warfare (NCW) emerged as a theory to further utilize technology for military command and control (C2). Advocates of the Swedish ROLF 2010-vision and the concept of NCW have made claims and assumptions that future technology will improve mission effectiveness by, for example, increasing the understanding of a current situation and its development, the speed of command, and providing means to utilize more efficient forms of organizations. The scope of this thesis is to critically dissect and assess some of these claims and assumptions. Four papers are included: (1) An observational study involving military officers participating in a training session at the Swedish National Defence College’s command and control laboratory. (2) A study performed with a microworld is presented with a discussion considering using microworlds as a tool for investigating the effects of introducing characteristics of novel tech- nology. (3) An experimental study introducing a method to measure individual’s apprehension and assessed development of a situation. (4) Finally, an experiment is presented addressing assumptions of the efficiency of different C2 architectures and effects of graphical support for communication of intentions. The overall conclusion is that the strong benefits from implementing new technologies can be questioned. Results from the qualitative observations indicate that traditional working practices are used regardless introduction of technology with future characteristics. The results show that the strong positive effect that networked and technology enhanced C2 architecture was expected to have generally could not be demonstrated experimentally. However, it appeared that such a C2 architecture can provide some advantages of C2 performance over traditional counterparts under conditions of moderate complexity. Under situations of high complexity, neither the networked nor the traditional C2 architecture performed better than the control condition who lacked C2 capabilities. / Som svar på tekniska framsteg, särskilt inom fältet information och kommunikationsteknologi (IKT), uppstod den så kallade revolutionen i militära angelägenheter (RMA) och senare konceptet nätverksbaserad krigföring (NCW). Det senare har efterhand utvecklats till en teori om hur teknik kan utnyttjas för att effektivisera militär ledning. Bland förespråkare för nätverksbaserad krigföring har antaganden gjorts om hur genomförandet av framtida uppdrag kommer att kunna förbättras och effektiviseras med stöd av framtida teknik. Till exempel antas framtida teknologier kunna; öka förståelsen för en rådande situation och dess fortsatta utveckling, medge att tempot i vilket ledningen bedrivs kommer att kunna ökas samt medge att nya och mer effektiva organisationsformer kommer att kunna utnyttjas. Det övergripande syftet med denna avhandling är att kritiskt analysera och bedöma några av de antaganden som gjorts inom ramen för den svenska ROLF 2010-visionen samt konceptet för nätverksbaserad krigföring. I avhandlingen ingår fyra artiklar. (1) En observationsstudie av en militär stabsövning genomförd i Försvarshögskolans ledningslaboratorium. (2) Resultatet från en studie där en mikrovärld använts som ett verktyg för att undersöka effekterna på ledning där egenskaper hos ny teknik införs. (3) En experimentell studie där en metod introduceras för att mäta olika individers förmåga att uppfatta och bedöma en situation och dess troliga utveckling. (4) Slutligen presenteras ett experiment som syftar till att utvärdera antaganden om olika ledningsarkitekturer och deras effektivitet samt effekter av grafiskt stöd för kommunikation. Den allmänna slutsatsen är att de antaganden som görs där starka fördelar skall kunna uppnås genom implementering av ny teknik kan ifrågasättas. Resultat från de kvalitativa observationerna indikerar att traditionella arbetsmetoder används trots att teknik med nya egenskaper har införts. Resultaten visar att de starka positiva effekter som nätverksbaserad och teknikstödd ledningsarkitektur förväntades ha generellt inte kunde påvisas experimentellt. Emellertid visade det sig att en sådan ledningsarkitektur kan ge vissa lednings- och prestandafördelar jämfört med traditionella motsvarigheter i situationer med måttligt förhöjd komplexitet. I situationer med kraftigt höjd komplexitet visade det sig att vare sig den nya eller den traditionella ledningsarkitekturen var effektivare än kontrollbetingelsen som saknade ledning.

Thesis (Master').

Recent development has lead to the emergence of distributed Wireless Sensor and Actor Networks (WSAN), which are capable of observing the physical environment, processing the data, making decisions based on the observations and performing appropriate actions. WSANs represent an important extension of Wireless Sensor Networks (WSNs) and may comprise a large number of sensor nodes and a smaller number of actor nodes. The sensor nodes are low-cost, low energy, battery powered devices with restricted sensing, computational and wireless communication capabilities. Actor nodes are resource richer with superior processing capabilities, higher transmission powers and a longer battery life. A basic operational scenario of a typical WSAN application follows the following sequence of events. The physical environment is periodically sensed and evaluated by the sensor nodes. The sensed data is then routed towards an actor node. Upon receiving sensed data, an actor node performs an action upon the physical environment if necessary, i.e. if the occurrence of a disturbance or critical event has been detected. The specific characteristics of sensor and actor nodes combined with some stringent application constraints impose unique requirements for WSANs. The fundamental challenges for WSANs are to achieve low latency, high energy efficiency and high reliability. The latency and energy efficiency requirements are in a trade-off relationship. The communication and coordination inside WSANs is managed via a Communication Protocol Stack (CPS) situated on every node. The requirements of low latency and energy efficiency have to be addressed at every layer of the CPS to ensure overall feasibility of the WSAN. Therefore, careful design of protocol layers in the CPS is crucial in attempting to meet the unique requirements and handle the abovementioned trade-off relationship in WSANs. The traditional CPS, comprising the application, network, medium access control and physical layer, is a layered protocol stack with every layer, a predefined functional entity. However, it has been found that for similar types of networks with similar stringent network requirements, the strictly layered protocol stack approach performs at a sub-optimal level with regards to network efficiency. A modern cross-layer paradigm, which proposes the employment of interactions between layers in the CPS, has recently attracted a lot of attention. The cross-layer approach promotes network efficiency optimization and promises considerable performance gains. It is found that in literature, the adoption of this cross-layer paradigm has not yet been considered for WSANs. In this dissertation, a complete cross-layer enabled WSAN CPS is developed that features the adoption of the cross-layer paradigm towards promoting optimization of the network efficiency. The newly proposed cross-layer enabled CPS entails protocols that incorporate information from other layers into their local decisions. Every protocol layer provides information identified as beneficial to another layer(s) in the CPS via a newly proposed Simple Cross-Layer Framework (SCLF) for WSANs. The proposed complete cross-layer enabled WSAN CPS comprises a Cross-Layer enabled Network-Centric Actuation Control with Data Prioritization (CL-NCAC-DP) application layer (APPL) protocol, a Cross-Layer enabled Cluster-based Hierarchical Energy/Latency-Aware Geographic Routing (CL-CHELAGR) network layer (NETL) protocol and a Cross-Layer enabled Carrier Sense Multiple Access with Minimum Preamble Sampling and Duty Cycle Doubling (CL-CSMA-MPS-DCD) medium access control layer (MACL) protocol. Each of these protocols builds on an existing simple layered protocol that was chosen as a basis for development of the cross-layer enabled protocols. It was found that existing protocols focus primarily on energy efficiency to ensure maximum network lifetime. However, most WSAN applications require latency minimization to be considered with the same importance. The cross-layer paradigm provides means of facilitating the optimization of both latency and energy efficiency. Specifically, a solution to the latency versus energy trade-off is given in this dissertation. The data generated by sensor nodes is prioritised by the APPL and depending on the delay-sensitivity, handled in a specialised manor by every layer of the CPS. Delay-sensitive data packets are handled in order to achieve minimum latency. On the other hand, delay-insensitive non critical data packets are handled in such a way as to achieve the highest energy efficiency. In effect, either latency minimization or energy efficiency receives an elevated precedence according to the type of data that is to be handled. Specifically, the cross-layer enabled APPL protocol provides information pertaining to the delay-sensitivity of sensed data packets to the other layers. Consequently, when a data packet is detected as highly delay-sensitive, the cross-layer enabled NETL protocol changes its approach from energy efficient routing along the maximum residual energy path to routing along the fastest path towards the cluster-head actor node for latency minimizing of the specific packet. This is done by considering information (contained in the SCLF neighbourhood table) from the MACL that entails wakeup schedules and channel utilization at neighbour nodes. Among the added criteria, the next-hop node is primarily chosen based on the shortest time to wakeup. The cross-layer enabled MACL in turn employs a priority queue and a temporary duty cycle doubling feature to enable rapid relaying of delay-sensitive data. Duty cycle doubling is employed whenever a sensor node’s APPL state indicates that it is part of a critical event reporting route. When the APPL protocol state (found in the SCLF information pool) indicates that the node is not part of the critical event reporting route anymore, the MACL reverts back to promoting energy efficiency by disengaging duty cycle doubling and re-employing a combination of a very low duty cycle and preamble sampling. The APPL protocol conversely considers the current queue size of the MACL and temporarily halts the creation of data packets (only if the sensed value is non critical) to prevent a queue overflow and ease congestion at the MACL By simulation it was shown that the cross-layer enabled WSAN CPS consistently outperforms the layered CPS for various network conditions. The average end-to-end latency of delay-sensitive critical data packets is decreased substantially. Furthermore, the average end-to-end latency of delay-insensitive data packets is also decreased. Finally, the energy efficiency performance is decreased by a tolerable insignificant minor margin as expected. The trivial increase in energy consumption is overshadowed by the high margin of increase in latency performance for delay-sensitive critical data packets. The newly proposed cross-layer CPS achieves an immense latency performance increase for WSANs, while maintaining excellent energy efficiency. It has hence been shown that the adoption of the cross-layer paradigm by the WSAN CPS proves hugely beneficial with regards to the network efficiency performance. This increases the feasibility of WSANs and promotes its application in more areas. / Dissertation (MEng)--University of Pretoria, 2009. / Electrical, Electronic and Computer Engineering / unrestricted

<p>So- called “Network Based Defense” (NBD) was introduced in Sweden in connection with the transformation of the Swedish Armed Forces in 1999. NBD is based on the U.S. variant Network Centric Warfare (NCW), which in turn is derived from research on the concept of Revolution in Military Affairs (RMA). In Sweden the concept was introduced and included not only the Armed Forces but was intended to also support the Swedish civilian agencies in order to create networks and hence share the available information and thus more effective crisis management and to provide more "bang for the buck." In developing the concept of NBD the Swedish Armed Forces used both economic and human resources, in the form of research, new technologies, new organization and new methods.</p><p>Between year 2004 and 2006 the Armed Forces once again entered the process of reorganization. This time to “classic” military hierarchical organization and NBD as development engine disappeared due to economic cutbacks, together with the decision to participate in the European Union (EU) rapid reaction force. The purpose of this essay is to study the theories and ideas behind the concept and why the concept "disappeared" a few years later. The result of the work suggests that the concept of NBD in its abstract form was too theoretical. The process of organization introduced by HKV -04 is the clearest example of this abstract ambiguity concerning command and responsibility. Research suggests that responsibility is the basis of military organization and operations. The results also shows that a number of experiences from the development of the NBD has been used in the more practically oriented transformation of the Armed Forces necessary by the commitments for the so- called Nordic Battle Group (NBG-08).</p><p>The results have also shown correlation between NBD development and the increased Nordic cooperation in the form of sea and air surveillance and the well-developed body interaction within the framework of the national crisis management capacity in Sweden.</p> / <p>Nätverks Baserat Försvar (NBF) infördes i Sverige inom ramen för transformationen av Försvarsmakten från ett invasionsförsvar till ett insatsförsvar. NBF bygger på den amerikanska varianten <em>Network Centric Warfare</em> (NCW) som i sin tur härstammar från forskningen kring begreppet <em>Revolution in Military Affairs</em> (RMA). Konceptet infördes och innefattade inte bara Försvarsmakten utan även stödmyndigheter i syfte att skapa ett nätverk och därmed dela tillgänglig information och därmed effektivisera krishanteringen och ge mer ”pang för pengarna”. Kring utvecklingen av konceptet NBF lades stora resurser i form av forskning, ny teknik, ny organisation och nya metoder.</p><p>År 2004 till 2006 omorganiserades Försvarsmakten återigen från införd processorganisation enligt NBF till klassisk militär hierarkisk organisation och NBF som utvecklingsmotor försvann i och med ekonomiska neddragningar tillsammans med beslutet om att delta i Europeiska Unionens (EU:s) snabbinsatsstyrka.</p><p>Syftet med denna uppsats är att studera tankar och teorier som ledde fram till NBF och vad som kan vara en förklaring till att NBF försvann några år senare.</p><p>Resultatet av arbetet med uppsatsen tyder på att konceptet NBF i sin abstrakta form blev för teoretiskt. Den processorganisation som infördes med HKV -04 är det tydligaste exemplet på denna abstrakta oklarhet främst vad gäller befäl och därtill kopplat ansvar.  Forskning pekar på att ansvar utgör grunden i militär organisation och verksamhet.  Resultaten visar också på att de positiva lärdomarna från utvecklingen av NBF i form av vikten av ”nätverkande” låg som grund till det mer praktiskt inriktade transformeringen av Försvarsmaktens delar genom Nordic Battle Group, (NBG-08). Resultatet har också påvisat samband mellan NBF utvecklingen och det utökade nordiska samarbetet i form av sjö och luftövervakning samt den likaså utvecklade myndighetssamverkan inom ramen för den nationella krishanteringsförmågan i Sverige.</p>

So- called “Network Based Defense” (NBD) was introduced in Sweden in connection with the transformation of the Swedish Armed Forces in 1999. NBD is based on the U.S. variant Network Centric Warfare (NCW), which in turn is derived from research on the concept of Revolution in Military Affairs (RMA). In Sweden the concept was introduced and included not only the Armed Forces but was intended to also support the Swedish civilian agencies in order to create networks and hence share the available information and thus more effective crisis management and to provide more "bang for the buck." In developing the concept of NBD the Swedish Armed Forces used both economic and human resources, in the form of research, new technologies, new organization and new methods. Between year 2004 and 2006 the Armed Forces once again entered the process of reorganization. This time to “classic” military hierarchical organization and NBD as development engine disappeared due to economic cutbacks, together with the decision to participate in the European Union (EU) rapid reaction force. The purpose of this essay is to study the theories and ideas behind the concept and why the concept "disappeared" a few years later. The result of the work suggests that the concept of NBD in its abstract form was too theoretical. The process of organization introduced by HKV -04 is the clearest example of this abstract ambiguity concerning command and responsibility. Research suggests that responsibility is the basis of military organization and operations. The results also shows that a number of experiences from the development of the NBD has been used in the more practically oriented transformation of the Armed Forces necessary by the commitments for the so- called Nordic Battle Group (NBG-08). The results have also shown correlation between NBD development and the increased Nordic cooperation in the form of sea and air surveillance and the well-developed body interaction within the framework of the national crisis management capacity in Sweden. / Nätverks Baserat Försvar (NBF) infördes i Sverige inom ramen för transformationen av Försvarsmakten från ett invasionsförsvar till ett insatsförsvar. NBF bygger på den amerikanska varianten Network Centric Warfare (NCW) som i sin tur härstammar från forskningen kring begreppet Revolution in Military Affairs (RMA). Konceptet infördes och innefattade inte bara Försvarsmakten utan även stödmyndigheter i syfte att skapa ett nätverk och därmed dela tillgänglig information och därmed effektivisera krishanteringen och ge mer ”pang för pengarna”. Kring utvecklingen av konceptet NBF lades stora resurser i form av forskning, ny teknik, ny organisation och nya metoder. År 2004 till 2006 omorganiserades Försvarsmakten återigen från införd processorganisation enligt NBF till klassisk militär hierarkisk organisation och NBF som utvecklingsmotor försvann i och med ekonomiska neddragningar tillsammans med beslutet om att delta i Europeiska Unionens (EU:s) snabbinsatsstyrka. Syftet med denna uppsats är att studera tankar och teorier som ledde fram till NBF och vad som kan vara en förklaring till att NBF försvann några år senare. Resultatet av arbetet med uppsatsen tyder på att konceptet NBF i sin abstrakta form blev för teoretiskt. Den processorganisation som infördes med HKV -04 är det tydligaste exemplet på denna abstrakta oklarhet främst vad gäller befäl och därtill kopplat ansvar.  Forskning pekar på att ansvar utgör grunden i militär organisation och verksamhet.  Resultaten visar också på att de positiva lärdomarna från utvecklingen av NBF i form av vikten av ”nätverkande” låg som grund till det mer praktiskt inriktade transformeringen av Försvarsmaktens delar genom Nordic Battle Group, (NBG-08). Resultatet har också påvisat samband mellan NBF utvecklingen och det utökade nordiska samarbetet i form av sjö och luftövervakning samt den likaså utvecklade myndighetssamverkan inom ramen för den nationella krishanteringsförmågan i Sverige.

Approved for public release, distribution is unlimited / Singapore and many parts of Asia were hit with Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome (SARS) in March 2003. The spread of SARS lead to a rapidly deteriorating and chaotic situation. Because SARS was a new infection, there was no prior knowledge that could be referenced to tackle such a complex, unknown and rapidly changing problem. Fortunately, through sound measures coupled with good leadership, quick action and inter-agency cooperation, the situation was quickly brought under control. This thesis uses the SARS incident as a case study to identify a set of network centric warfare methodologies and technologies that can be leveraged to facilitate the understanding and management of complex and rapidly changing situations. The same set of methodologies and technologies can also be selectively reused and extended to handle other situations in asymmetric and unconventional warfare. / Office of Force Transformation, DoD US Future Systems Directorate, MINDEF Singapore. / Lieutenant, Republic of Singapore Army / Civilian, Defence Science and Technology Agency, Singapore