situational awareness for complex environments

VDC RESEARCH WEBINAR

Situational Awareness

for Complex EnvironmentsJune 17, 2010

Mobile & Wireless Practice

David Krebs, Director

Frequently Asked Questions

1 – 2010 VDC Research Group, Inc.


These slides are from a webcast presented on 06/17/10

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Today’s Speakers

• David Krebs, Director – Mobile & Wireless Practice

David has more than ten years experience in mobile computing systems, wireless data

communication and automated data-capture research and consulting. David’s experience in

consulting includes: end-user segmentation and adoption analyses for next-generation mobile

platforms and communication networks, automatic data-capture technology migration mobile

software middleware and interfaces; development of proprietary forecast methodologies;

comparative product performance evaluation; missionary sales and market expansion requirements

analysis; and merger and acquisition due diligence advisory support.

David is a graduate of Boston University.





Table of Contents

Definitions & Context

Military Opportunities & Trends

Public Safety Opportunities & Trends

Situational Awareness Overview

• Situation awareness (SA) involves being aware of what is happening around you to

understand how information, events, and your own actions will impact your goals and

objectives, both now and in the near future. Key elements of SA include:

Knowing and understanding what is happening around you

Predicting how it will change with time

Being unified with the dynamics of your environment

• Application of technology to achieve situational awareness having significant impact in

variety of military and sophisticated public safety settings.

• Moreover, situational awareness concepts have potential to support a wide range of

applications beyond current military and advanced public safety solutions.



Embracing Open Platforms & Consumer Influence,

Mobility Evolves Considerably

1990+ 2000+ 2010+

Custom designed

applications on purpose

built devices

Email attachments and

personal repositories

Application generators

and device proliferation

Traditional Mobility

• Limited mobile HW

choices

• Siloed approach to

solution development

• Uneven wireless coverage

• Limited mobile processing

capabilities

• Immature I/O solutions

Technology Drivers

• Device convergence

• Ease of use

• Wireless ubiquity

Business Drivers

• Team-based

collaboration

• Real time business

processes driving

operational change

HR Drivers

• Workforce

demographics

New Mobility

• Diversity in device choices

• Social software and

collaboration

• Migration away from

green-box solutions

• Impact of consumer

products on business

user expectations

Personal Productivity

FocusedKnowledge Distribution Collective Intelligence

Situational Awareness



Leading Mobile Applications: Migration from Data Access /Distribution to Collaboration & Situation Awareness

Dispatching & Records Management

(Citation; emergency comms)

Evidence Capture & Management

(Digital video)

Team & Worker Collaboration

(Team collaboration; wikis and mash-ups; workflow management)

Collective & Predictive Intelligence

(Situational awareness; Predictive policing)

Valu

e

Complexity &

Time to Market

High

Low

Low High



Government & Public Safety Mobile Worker Trends

• National defense budgets account for between

5-20% of federal expenditures with US spend

ranking highest in terms of total spend and percent

of federal spend.

• Military command and control and homeland

security solutions remain one of the fastest

growing segments of government IT spending.

Technology spend is expected to be especially

strong for more advanced situational awareness

applications and the software solutions that

support them including GIS, CAD (computer aided

dispatch) and RMS (record management systems).

• VDC estimates the total military and federal non-

military mobile worker population at 14.9 and

102.5 million respectively.

• The installed base of mobile computing devices

supporting military applications is estimated at

approximately 2.5 million units. The installed base

supporting federal non-military applications is 1.6

million.

Mix of logistics and command and control applications driving demand

0

20,000

40,000

60,000

80,000

100,000

120,000

Global Americas EMEA Asia-Pacific

Total Mobile Workers: National Government

(„000 workers)

Federal: Military

Federal: Non-Military



Table of Contents






Situational Awareness in Context of

Military Decision Making

• Information warfare and its primary objective – achieving information dominance over

enemy forces – has evolved as a major area of emphasis for future military operations.

• The concept of information dominance and the issues involved in attaining it are explored

through a model of situation awareness within the context of complex distributed military

units.

• Achieving information dominance involves far more than having more data than the enemy.

It will require that the available data be transformed into the required information in a timely manner for a

multitude of forces each with varied but interrelated information needs and properly understood by each in the

context of a joint mission.

This is becoming a key issue for Military operations. Significant amounts of data, video feeds, etc. are being

captured daily creating a scenario where military will be “swimming in sensors and drowning in data”.

• By examining what is know about the way people access and interpret information to

develop situation awareness and how it fits within the decision making cycle clear directions

for the development of systems to support the goal of information dominance are

established.



Executive Findings: Military Solutions

• Technology & Application Trends:

Primary applications for national government solutions continue to revolve around mission planning and

operations, logistics, maintenance and repair/asset management and border control/protection. Key solutions are

becoming increasingly complex – not only in terms of the types of applications supported, but also with regard to

the breadth of users, especially across multiple agencies.

Situational awareness is proving to be a key requirement for next generation solutions across both military and

federal non-military customer classes. However, various issues surrounding encryption requirements, radio

support and software configuration are creating roadblocks as the military looking to expand SA capabilities.

This convergence of current and evolving applications is the cornerstone of how the Army will incorporate

emerging capabilities into the current network.

The Command Post of the Future (CPoF) and Tactical Ground Reporting System (TiGR) are examples of this

approach to incorporate new or increased capabilities quickly into the force. The JBC-P will replace FBCB2 and

improve situational awareness by reducing latency, supporting rapid task reorganization, and improving

interoperability with U.S. Marine Corps ground forces.

The fielding of the integrated network occurs within multiple capability packages, beginning with initial fielding

to an Infantry BCT in FY11.

Major transition for key military SA programs



Mission Assurance/ Program Success

Situational Awareness for Decision Making

Net-Centric Operations – Beyond Connectivity

Mission Effectiveness

Collaborative Environment

Integrated Integrated TechnologyTechnology

Development LabsDevelopment Labs C4ISRC4ISR

C4ISRC4ISR

C4ISRC4ISR

FF--2222

MC2MC2

JJ--UCASUCAS

FF--1818

SatelliteSatellite

ABLABLAWACSAWACS

DEMPCDEMPC

BICBIC

CC--1717

Candidate Stakeholder

Philadelphia

Huntsville

WichitaWichita

MesaMesa

FF--1515

22Boeing IntegrationBoeing Integration

CenterCenter

11

33Virtual Warfare CenterVirtual Warfare Center

JTRSJTRS

FABFAB--TT

FCSFCS

BIC

EAST

Integrated Integrated TechnologyTechnology

Development LabsDevelopment Labs C4ISRC4ISR

C4ISRC4ISR

C4ISRC4ISR

FF--2222

MC2MC2

JJ--UCASUCAS

FF--1818

SatelliteSatellite

ABLABLAWACSAWACS

DEMPCDEMPC

BICBIC

CC--1717

Candidate Stakeholder

Philadelphia

Huntsville

WichitaWichita

MesaMesa

FF--1515

22Boeing IntegrationBoeing Integration

CenterCenter

11



JTRSJTRS

FABFAB--TT

FCSFCS

BIC

EAST

THE BUSINESS

Connectivity

Situational Awareness for Decision MakingCollaborative

Environment

THE BATTLEFIELD

Connectivity



FBCB2 Migration: State of Flux

• Investments in situational awareness solutions in the military have been substantial and far

reaching (such as Force XXI Battle Command Brigade and Below – FBCB2).

• The highly successful FBCB2 program which has significantly improved unit SA is being

upgraded to address its platform-level interoperability issues. The US Military is in the

process of migrating to JBC-P by way of the FBCB2-JCR (Joint Capabilities Release).

• The key elements of JBC-P are expected to include:

JBC-P Full. The will include the core hardware, display and software with integrated SAASM-based GPS.

JBC-P Partial. These are solutions that are capable of supporting the same C2/SA content, however, based on

their usage environment (for example a helicopter cockpit) require different hardware configurations and user

interfaces.

JBC-P Beacon. This will include a one-way beacon used to populate the SA application with Blue-Force

(friendlies) icons.

Salvaging FCS investments a key theme/barrier



FBCB2 Migration: Key Issues with Legacy Elements

• However, while the need and potential for next generation SA platforms is great, significant

issues need to be addressed/ overcome. Included among the most critical are:

Leveraging (Salvaging) Legacy FCS Investments: Looking to salvage/leverage pieces of SOSCOE software.

Not having a lot of success with SW. Unmanned ground systems and unmanned sensors may become

exclusive domain for SOSCOE.

Software Elements. While JCR offers transitional software elements as FBCB2 migrates to JBC-P there are

only minimal improvements in this platform. The current software has an inflexible database structure that is

updated quarterly. To address issue new SW developed that will upgrade DB with “self descriptive SA” that will

enable FBCB2 operators to update user profile without major reprogramming.

Hardware Form Factors: There continues to be a movement away from the one size fits all mentality for

military SA applications. The most significant push is for ground solider systems and dismountable

applications. Next generation tablet and ultra-mobile form factors are being considered in addition to wearable

devices. Additional programs such as GSS (Ground Soldier Systems) are being developed in conjunction to

deploy a highly modular architecture for ground soldier SA.

Radio/Communications: Two variants currently exist: ELPRS and a Sat-Com version. Key issues with system

latency and bandwidth. Next generation solution looking to integrate both and increasing bandwidth for ELPRS

network.

Encryption Requirements: There is an undercurrent towards Type I but not Type II encryption for several SA

applications. However, this is a slow moving development and no key executive decision makers have yet to

make a firm commitment to next generation requirements (or decision to waive certain current requirements).



Ground Soldier Solutions:

The Next Wave of Deployment

• Although many ground vehicles are equipped with blue force tracking solutions, when

soldiers dismount to patrol on foot they currently lose digital awareness of surroundings.

• Troubled Land Warrior Program – which included a wearable computer, GPS, radio and

monocle display ensemble – was designed to address this issue.

• Current recognition that there is no “one size fits all” solution. Key distinction between

dismountable solutions – which typically are used within a 2km radius of the vehicle – and

dismounted solutions which are typically smaller form factor solutions.

• DRS’s Joint Platform Tablet is a good example of the shift away from the US Military’s

product philosophy. The platform provides hardware commonality with other Joint

programs and support the transition to Joint Battle Command – Platform (JBC-P).

• Several other initiatives underway to address dismounted applications – including the

distributed operations (DIsOps) system from Lockheed Martin and their recently released

Tactical Digital Assistant (TDA) for dismounted situational awareness.

• The TDA is one of the first military devices to mimic intuitive user interfaces so common on

consumer devices today. The device interfaces with both FBCB2 and emerging JBC-P

systems. The device also provides the flexibility to host Google’s Anroid OS.



Military’s iPhone Dreams: Evidence of an

Antiquated Development & Sourcing Model?

• New “apps” contest launched by US Army evidence of their desire for more sophisticated

next generation form factors. Moreover, this is a stark reminder of the US Military’s

reluctance to take advantage of commercial/consumer technology.

• Part of the issue is security requirements and lack of control over open source solutions.

Any mobile device that connects to the military information network requires Type I

encryption. Both Apple and Google are in the process of requesting NSA certification

(however, this will also significant add to cost of device).

• However, the military is shifting away from its traditional “big green-box” solutions to ones

more capable of adapting to users’ needs in the battlefield. Much of this has to do with the

mobile devices deployed as with how the networks supporting them are architected.

• A recent initiative to develop a “global enterprise” that provides a single email address to

service members regardless of location. Today’s battle command networks still run on local

servers in tactical operations centers. However, these applications could also eventually

find their way to the cloud as part of a global “enterprise system”.



Table of Contents






• Technology & Application Trends:

Primary applications for public safety solutions continue to revolve around citation and record management

solutions, mobile ticketing and other workforce management related applications.

Social networking and collaboration tools are increasingly the norm for a variety of public safety applications.

In addition to using them for internal communication, agencies are also utilizing them for evidence

management and more advanced situational awareness solutions.

Organizations are expressing renewed interest in next generation security and evidence collection applications

such as digital video. Although representing a smaller share of the overall market, they are expected to

represent a critical catalyst moving forward.

A key element of many next generation public safety solutions – especially surrounding evidence collection –

are geographic information systems (GIS). These solutions also represent a key pillar for SA applications in

public safety.

Most demand in GIS solutions is from agencies with homeland security, law enforcement and emergency

management responsibilities. Beyond standard mapping functions, GIS solutions provide critical leverage to

drive other core applications through dedicated interfaces to mobile devices, emergency management systems

and location intelligence.

Better Preparedness, Increased Efficiency & Increased Mobility are Common Public Safety Themes



Situational Awareness Taxonomy

Source: ESRI



Key Data Sources for

Public Safety Situational Awareness

• Commonly used applications and solutions such as computer-aided dispatch (CAD), GIS,

automatic vehicle location (AVL), records management systems (RMS), weather services,

video camera feeds, dashboards, and some enterprise applications provide the opportunity

to select the desired data to create specific situational awareness for public safety.

• Computer-Aided Dispatch Provides Incident Data

CAD is a source of event, incident, and resource availability data. New incidents and unit statuses are captured

within CAD, providing an accurate picture of what is occurring in the community as well as the community's

capacity to handle and respond to new incidents.

• AVL Tracks Location of Resources

When interfaced with other server-based technologies, AVL records the user's position so data and information

relating to the public safety user's location and activity can be provided, displayed, and accessed on a map on

a mobile data terminal, in an Emergency Operations Center (EOC), or on other connected computer systems.

• GIS Aggregates Data in a Spatial Context

GIS can access and display data from local GIS databases or other GIS services. In addition to incident

locations, emergency responders and incident commanders need to know the location of essential resources,

assets, and infrastructure. This data, when combined with planning and assessment data (high-risk areas,

hazard areas, critical infrastructure, etc.), results in relevant and actionable information.

• RMS Provides Historical Information

RMS provides historical incident data such as locations of crimes and fires, emergency medical responses

(including vehicle and personal injury accidents), and citizen assist responses.



Primary Mobile ApplicationsDispatch and reporting are the main uses of mobile computing solutions

14.3%

19.1%

28.6%

28.6%

28.6%

33.3%

38.1%

47.6%

71.4%

0% 10% 20% 30% 40% 50% 60% 70% 80%

Prior Calls for Service

Building Maps, Sewer and Hydrant Locations

Tickets and Citations

Driver's Licenses - Driving Records

License Plates - Vehicle Records

Criminal Records

Automatic Vehicle Location (AVL), GPS, Mapping

Reporting

Dispatching (911, CAD)

What are the primary applications supported by your in-vehicle computing solutions?



GIS Enhanced Public Safety Situational Awareness

Mission

Complexity

System

Complexity

Basic

Information

Needs

Essential

Dynamic

Data

Advanced

Situational

Awareness

• Gather basemap data.

• Identify key asset

locations ( population

and critical

infrastructure).

• Develop potential hazard

map (earthquakes,

storm surges, flooding,

fire risks)

• Analyze value/hazard

relationships

• Analyze vulnerabilities.

• Develop mitigation

measures

• Data sharing

• Workflow

management

• Resource Location

Tracking

• Threat and Hazard Data

• Incident Data

• Sensory Data

Integration

• Live Video Feeds

• Weather Data

• Multimedia Access

• Enterprise Application

Integration

• Transportation Layers



Source: ESRI

Fusion Centers: Breaking Down Public Safety

Stovepipes

• Fusion Center is a terrorism prevention and response center that was started as a joint

project between the Department of Homeland Security and the US Department of Justice’s

Office of Justice Programs between 2003 and 2007.

• Support the integration of intake, analysis, fusion and synthesis of intelligence information

with and emphasis on terrorism threat intelligence

• Identify patterns and trends that may be indicative of emerging threat conditions

• Provide relevant and actionable intelligence in a timely manner to prevent, mitigate and

respond to emergent threats

• Produce timely, relevant and accurate value added intelligence products for the region while

providing analytical case support, trend identification and performance of strategic analysis

and reporting.



Optimistic Outlook for New Mobile Form Factors

• Laptops or two/three piece mobile computing solutions remain the leading form factors in

the public safety sector for in-vehicle computing and communications. Ensuring that they are using the most current mapping software is essential for the officials since it enables them

with most up-to-date information such as where they are located, where the incident is taking place, and how they can get there in addition to storing the building maps for schools and public and commercial buildings.

Other than the emerging/ next generation applications, the departments are using the laptops for mainly reporting and note taking/ interviewing purposes.

• Touchscreen functionality is a critical purchased requirement for all vehicle-based solutions.

The performance of touchscreen solutions, however, varies considerably (respondents have

complained about the responsiveness of the touchscreens in their Panasonic Toughbook).

Next generation functionality such as multi-touch is a growing requirement in the public safety segment – especially

for more advanced mapping and GIS applications – is an emerging requirement.

• However, increasing proportion of public safety officials carrying Smartphones. Deployment of these devices is starting from the executive staff and continue with officers. BlackBerry is

the dominant platform with almost 60% of the installed base.

Email continues to be the most popular application supported by Smartphones. However, officers are looking for access to backend systems such as records management.

Officials are cautious but open to smaller form factors



Smartphones – Public Safety Snapshot

0.0%

10.0%

20.0%

30.0%

40.0%

50.0%

60.0%

70.0%

BlackBerry Windows Mobile

Apple Other

Hardware Marketshare

0%

10%

20%

30%

40%

50%

60%

70%

80%

90%

100%

RMS Collaboration Workflow

Currently Support Plan to support in the next year No plans to support

0%

10%

20%

30%

40%

50%

60%

70%

Company Only Employee Only Both

Which of the following business processes and workflows are currently

supported on Smartphones?

How does your organization deploy Smartphones?

Broader application appeal – beyond traditional telephony and messaging



Must Have Next Generation Applications

• Public safety organizations are treating their CAD as their most important asset and VDC expects it to continue in the next years. Departments are continuously looking for possible improvements for their CAD solutions in order to get the

right information to the right place at the right time to improve real-time decision making capabilities.

Some departments have already contacted their solution providers to extend their CAD software to their smartphones in order to enable the employees to take calls when they are away from their vehicles.

• VDC observed that the fire departments are not really satisfied with their CAD solutions since the majority of the CAD solutions available in the market are made for police departments. Hence, the fire departments are only left with two options; to either develop a custom solution which is costly, or get a solution which is tweaked from the one for police departments.

• With the improvements in technology, the appetite for solutions using geographical improvements (i.e. AVL, GIS, GPS, mapping software) is constantly increasing.

• While a lot of agencies are interested in getting a RMS, budgetary pressures represent a key barrier.

• Despite being doubtful about the security and privacy concerns, departments are more welcoming to both internal and external communication and collaboration tools. VDC estimates that the demand for these tools will increase in the upcoming years.

Budgetary concerns are shaping the future



Summary, Observations

• Progression in technology, in addition to generational changes and consumerization of technology have impacted the mobile computing solutions in public safety industry.

Public safety organizations were able to gain the trust of their workforce by building their appetite on the emerging and next generation technologies.

The agencies are open to learning about new technologies and are constantly evaluating available solutions in order to determine their needs for their next generation deployment.

• Funding and budgetary concerns for these organizations have increased tremendously due to the current economic downturn.

Even though, the majority of the organizations have average replacement cycles for the mobile computing devices that are currently in use, they have a difficulty with sustaining that rate due to low budgets and unavailability of grants.

Many units have been focusing on the maintenance and minor upgrades of their mobile computing solutions during the economic downturn, to ensure the operability of these systems.

• While public safety officials are highly thankful for these new mobile devices which increase their productivity and efficiency, they are demanding more customizable applications that are easily integrated with their current systems for the future.

Similarly, they are looking to adopt all-in-one solutions that can reduce the amount of time required for integration and training.

Some departments are already in the process of creating in-house solutions since they were not able to find any all-in-one solutions that fit their needs.

Increasing interest for new, improved solutions



What is next?

• Situational awareness concepts have potential to support a wide range of applications

beyond current military and advanced public safety solutions.

• Leverage to create demand for integrating a wide range of emerging technologies, including

low cost sensors, robotic vision systems, 3D modeling, virtual augmentation, location

services and social networks.

• Potential next generation commercial applications are far reaching and may include:

Disease surveillance, response and outbreak management

Smart infrastructure management

Civicware and political transparency



Q&A Session

Thank You for Attending this VDC Webcast

For more information about VDC Research coverage – please contact:

David Krebs

Director, Mobile & Wireless Practice

[email protected] | 508.653.9000 x136

Gerrald Smith

Account Executive


Chris Rezendes

Executive Vice President




mailto:[email protected]



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