Situational Awareness for Complex Environments

VDC RESEARCH WEBINAR
Situational Awareness
for Complex Environments
June 17, 2010

Mobile & Wireless Practice
David Krebs, Director

Frequently Asked Questions

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

A full audio recording is available for download at:

http://www.vdcresearch.com/market_research/mobile_wireless/freeresearch.aspx

1– 2010 VDC Research Group, Inc.

VDC Research Group

Complimentary Insights and Marketing Data on
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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 Email attachments and Application generators
applications on purpose personal repositories and device proliferation
built devices
Personal Productivity Knowledge Distribution Collective Intelligence
Focused Situational Awareness

Traditional Mobility Technology Drivers New Mobility
• Device convergence
• Limited mobile HW • Ease of use • Diversity in device choices
choices • Wireless ubiquity • Social software and
Business Drivers collaboration
• Siloed approach to
• Team-based
solution development • Migration away from
collaboration
• Uneven wireless coverage green-box solutions
• Real time business
• Limited mobile processing processes driving • Impact of consumer
capabilities operational change products on business
user expectations
• Immature I/O solutions HR Drivers
• Workforce
demographics

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

High

Collective
& Predictive
Team Intelligence
Value

& Worker (Situational awareness;
Collaboration Predictive policing)

Evidence (Team
collaboration; wikis
Capture & and mash-ups;
Management workflow
management)
(Digital video)
Dispatching
& Records
Management
(Citation; emergency
Low comms)
Low Complexity & High
Time to Market

Government & Public Safety Mobile Worker Trends
Mix of logistics and command and control applications driving demand

Total Mobile Workers: • National defense budgets account for between
National Government 5-20% of federal expenditures with US spend
(„000 workers) ranking highest in terms of total spend and percent
of federal spend.

120,000
• Military command and control and homeland
security solutions remain one of the fastest
growing segments of government IT spending.
100,000 Technology spend is expected to be especially
Federal: Military strong for more advanced situational awareness
Federal: Non-Military applications and the software solutions that
80,000
support them including GIS, CAD (computer aided
dispatch) and RMS (record management systems).
60,000
• VDC estimates the total military and federal non-
military mobile worker population at 14.9 and
40,000 102.5 million respectively.
• The installed base of mobile computing devices
20,000 supporting military applications is estimated at
approximately 2.5 million units. The installed base
supporting federal non-military applications is 1.6
0 million.
Global Americas EMEA Asia-Pacific


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.

10 – 2010 VDC Research Group, Inc.

Executive Findings: Military Solutions
Major transition for key military SA programs

• 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.


Net-Centric Operations – Beyond Connectivity
THE BATTLEFIELD

Situational Awareness
Collaborative for Decision Making Mission Effectiveness
Connectivity Environment

THE BUSINESS
MC2
Integrated
1 Technology
Development Labs C4ISR
F-22 Candidate Stakeholder

J-UCAS

AWACS
ABL
DEMPC

FCS Philadelphia
Wichita
C4ISR
BIC
EAST
FAB-T
FAB- C4ISR F-15
Mesa F-18
JTRS Huntsville
BIC
Satellite
Boeing Integration
2 Center
C-17

Virtual Warfare Center
3
Situational Awareness Mission Assurance/
Collaborative for Decision Making Program Success
Connectivity Environment

FBCB2 Migration: State of Flux
Salvaging FCS investments a key theme/barrier

• 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.


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



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

• 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.


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 Applications
Dispatch and reporting are the main uses of mobile computing solutions

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

Dispatching (911, CAD) 71.4%

Reporting 47.6%

Automatic Vehicle Location (AVL), GPS, Mapping 38.1%

Criminal Records 33.3%

License Plates - Vehicle Records 28.6%

Driver's Licenses - Driving Records 28.6%

Tickets and Citations 28.6%

Building Maps, Sewer and Hydrant Locations 19.1%

Prior Calls for Service 14.3%

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


GIS Enhanced Public Safety Situational Awareness

System • Sensory Data
Integration
Complexity • Live Video Feeds
• Weather Data
Advanced • Multimedia Access
Situational • Enterprise Application
• Data sharing Integration
• Workflow Awareness • Transportation Layers
management

Essential
Dynamic
Data Mission
• Gather basemap data. Complexity
• Identify key asset
locations ( population Basic • Resource Location
and critical Information Tracking
infrastructure). • Threat and Hazard Data
• Develop potential hazard Needs • Incident Data
map (earthquakes,
storm surges, flooding,
fire risks)
• Analyze value/hazard
relationships
• Analyze vulnerabilities.
• Develop mitigation
measures

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
Officials are cautious but open to smaller 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.


Smartphones – Public Safety Snapshot
Broader application appeal – beyond traditional telephony and messaging

Hardware Marketshare Which of the following business processes and workflows are currently
70.0% supported on Smartphones?

60.0% 100%
90%
50.0% 80%
40.0% 70%
60%
30.0%
50%
20.0% 40%
30%
10.0%
20%
0.0% 10%
BlackBerry Windows Apple Other 0%
Mobile RMS Collaboration Workflow

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

How does your organization deploy Smartphones?
70%
60%
50%
40%
30%
20%
10%
0%
Company Only Employee Only Both

Must Have Next Generation Applications
Budgetary concerns are shaping the future

• 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.


Summary, Observations
Increasing interest for new, improved solutions

• 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.


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
davidk@vdcresearch.com | 508.653.9000 x136

Gerrald Smith
Account Executive
gsmith@vdcresearch.com | 508.653.9000 x113

Chris Rezendes
Executive Vice President
cjr@vdcresearch.com | 508.653.9000 x120


Situational Awareness for Complex Environments

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