Geographically-Aware and Targeted Secure Information Dissemination (GATSID)

ABSTRACT: The overall objective is to enable users on-the-move to reliably and securely send and receive information, targeted for recipients' geographic locations, filtered on their credentials, made persistently available if so designated, and tailored for their devices, facilitating their rapid reaction to changing operational conditions. The team proposes to integrate: wireless physical layer broadcast; link layer multicast where supported by hardware and firmware of mobile devices and infrastructure; network layer multicast where supported by routing infrastructure; an efficient, reliable, scalable multicast transport protocol; DDS topics scoped per geography, credentials and metadata markups; automated means for tailoring per those markups; and a secure, robust, distributed file system. This will yield a publish-subscribe-query Data Distribution Service (DDS) with archival of persistent messages (a blackboard), where DDS topics map to multicast addresses and correspond to geographic and other filtering criteria. Policy Based Access Control to DDS topics will support restriction based upon security classification/clearance, roles and credentials, and will be enforced with strong encryption and capability based security. GATSID will address a major aspect of the challenge of delivering "On-demand Information: What you need, When you need it", enabling situation awareness systems to exploit tactical sensor data and deliver customized, location-specific intelligence products. BENEFIT: The transition and commercialization of GATSID will be driven by its ability to deliver secured, automated, delay-tolerant, role-based accessed, location-based messaging services across multiple communication channels to multiple platforms and using a distributed storage/archive technique. The enhanced GATSID DDS will specifically deliver four unique technical benefits, and form a competitive advantage for both the DoD/DHS and the commercial product lines. First, this software will provide a much higher, capabilities-based security to a greater granularity of tailored, geographically aware topics than current DDS products. Second, it will provide BOTH geographically- and role-filtered services AND geographic privacy of the individual user. Third, the DDS will provide efficient, scalable, reliable, multicast transport services tailored for classes of platforms and link types. Finally, GATSID will also deliver the pub/sub/query interfaces and administrative APIs that enable superior management of role-based access, topic control, and publisher/subscriber lists. The applications will be addressed in multiple spirals of transition and commercialization demonstrations and customized productization efforts. Generally, these spirals will consist of three strategic applications. First, there will be the demonstration and acceptance of GATSID as an enhancement to existing mass notification communication and networking programs already paid for and deployed by DoD and DHS users. Each of these GATSID applications will be tailored to enhance a greater number of automated LBS message types, greater use of delay tolerant transport, routing, and distributed storage techniques, a greater number of utilized link types and platforms, a greater number of enabled mobile nodes/users. A number of such enhancement opportunities have already been identified, and include USAF AtHoc+GATSID, FEMA EAS and FEMA Desktop Alert MNSv5 products, and an emerging commercial LBS product line design, sales, and distribution company involved in multiple industrial sectors (i.e. LocAid). Second, there will be the demonstration, marketing, and sales of GATSID as a free-standing software product, sold as licensed software as a new LBS OEM to an existing mobile wireless platform and as an upgrade or enhancement to existing LBS software product line for different commercial or retail spaces spaces and existing LBS hardware/software product line for different industrial spaces. Each of these GATSID software formats will be tailored to the specific platform hardware and customized to enhance a greater number of automated LBS message types, DTN and either a private or public cloud, and a greater number of commercial links. A number of such industrial opportunities have been identified, most specifically our registration and emerging participation as an Enterprise Partner for a top smartphone designer, manufacturer, and global distributor interested in our LBS design The Third strategy is centered upon the teams Grand Vision Product/Service bundle. The software product will be an instantiation of GATSID and its enhanced DDS technologies, RADTiN/DAM3ON attestation capabilities, PocoDoc/IMP, DTN routing techniques, and access-controlled access to distributed data storage. The hardware platform will either be a next-gen smartphone or a three-factor authenticated USB platform with secured integration of multiple micro-visored (VMs) of a users OS, data, and apps. The service would entail agent-controlled access to distributed storage as well as backup services and guaranteed replacement, hosted by multiple clouds.