Openwings, an information architecture being developed for the
Army and expected to revolutionize battlefield command, control and communications, faces
a challenging hurdle Friday when the technology is demonstrated to the Army’s V Corps
commander in Europe.
The architecture could also be a leap toward what some call pervasive computing, in
which cars, household appliances and an array of other products become connected to the
Internet.
Motorola Inc. and Sun Microsystems Inc. are developing Openwings for the Army and will
demonstrate a prototype to Lt. Gen. James Riley Friday as part of a week-long conference
on Army digitization.
"For this demonstration, we took a narrower focus and looked at some initial,
short-term things that can be done to solve some of their problems," said
Motorola’s Guy Bieber, lead architect for effort. "We’re looking at how
systems can come together with no administration."
One key element of the architecture is that it will allow forces to spontaneously add
new hardware and software without reconfiguring the entire network.
The architecture provides a network of three grids — a sensor grid, a command and
control grid and an engagement grid — tied together via a distributed information
network known as an information grid.
The concept calls for individual elements to automatically join a grid and start
producing information for other elements in the grid. For example, if an unmanned aerial
vehicle sensor flies into a specific mission area, it would automatically be registered
within the sensor grid as a provider of services, such as infrared sensor data.
Once the architecture — which is designed to support distributed command, control,
communications, computer and intelligence operations — infiltrates the Army, industry
sources hope it will spread across the Defense Department and, ultimately, dominate the
commercial sector as well.
Friday’s demonstration is important, according to Army and industry sources,
because — if successful — it will prove the viability of the concept on the
battlefield. The demonstration will include having devices join a network at random
without prior planning or setup.
"This is an important demonstration because it will show how this technology and
approach can help solve some interoperability problems," said David Usechak, Army
product manager for common software in the program executive office for C3 systems.
"[The next step will be] to continue developing the architecture and approach.
Hopefully, the companies involved can get some support to continue this effort."
