Challenge

The Department of National Defence and the Canadian Armed Forces (DND/CAF) are seeking innovative solutions to support the compilation of a consistent common operational picture in constrained environments through the efficient exchange and processing of data and information originating from multiple distributed sources.

Background and Context

The number, distribution, and heterogeneity of the data sources required for continental surveillance and defence significantly increase the complexity of the Command & Control (C2) architectures and the underlying data and information processing. Historically, this processing has mostly been done manually; but the task has grown difficult, if not impossible, due to the increased volume and variability of data and the shrinking of the processing time available imposed by the constantly evolving operational environment. Furthermore, C2 systems for continental defence tend to be distributed over large areas, with limited and changing connectivity. In such constrained environments, the data and information exchange and processing can be severely impeded. Therefore, design decisions must be made about the nature and level of the processing to be performed locally (at the edge on-board the individual nodes under computational constraints) versus globally (at the central node, if any, under communication constraints). These decisions are directly influenced by the topology of the processing architecture and the nature and the amount of data and information that can be shared within the network and impact the optimality of the resulting compiled picture. Under such circumstances, the best to aim for is a consistent common operational picture, i.e., a picture that is free of conflicts and over-confidence.

Essential Outcomes

DND/CAF is looking for innovative technological solutions (i.e., architectures and algorithms) to support operators in charge of continental defence.

The proposed solutions must:

• Offer a set of network topologies (e.g., centralized, decentralized, hybrid) and provide a mechanism for the selection of the network topology based on the context and the constraints it imposes;
• Provide a set of data exchange logics that control the nature and amount of the data and information to be exchanged among the nodes, and provide a means to switch between the logics based on the selected network topology and the communication constraints;
• Implement a set of algorithms to process (e.g., fuse, learn from, reason on) large volumes of data and information and provide a mechanism for the selection of the processing algorithms based on the selected topology. The algorithms must result in a consistent common operational picture considering the number, distribution, and heterogeneity of the data and information sources and processing nodes, as well as the computational and communication constraints; and
• Show the potential for scalability if demonstrated using a small number of sources and processing nodes and/or a limited amount of data.

Solutions must show potential for other domains and must be relevant to continental defence, e.g., tracks, flight plans.

Desired Outcomes

Proposed solutions should include capabilities such as, but not limited to, the following:

• The ability to select their key features (i.e., architecture topology, data/information exchange logics, and processing algorithms) based on the context of operations and the constraints it imposes.
• The ability to adapt their key features to the nature and quality of the sources involved.

The solutions should be limited to the picture compilation task, i.e., the Tracking and ID phases of the Joint Engagement Sequence (JES). Solutions can also be demonstrated using data from a single domain (i.e., air, land, sea, cyber, space or information).

Supplemental Information

The focus of this Challenge is on technological solutions, i.e., architectures and algorithms, with human factors considerations being out of the scope.