Exploitation of Network-Based Information

The transition of Department of Defense (DoD) infrastructure to a Net-centric Enterprise Services (NCES) architecture on a Global Information Grid (GID) is dramatically increasing the connectedness between military, civilian, and intelligence personnel and the networks they employ. With the continued adoption of networked technologies by the DoD and adversaries, it is imperative to simultaneously research and develop technology that can provide insight into the complex behavior of these networks, so as to better understand, protect, defend, monitor, and exploit the networks for strategic goals. Novel contributions are crucial in the growing field of network science that can provide rapid insight into complex behavior of GIG-NCES networks. Toward this end, 21st Century Technologies (21CT) proposes NetMetA, a solution that provides network metric analysis capabilities applicable to the sensor, computer, human communications, and intelligence networks of the GIG. Links within GIG (communication) networks are far from simple, varying over time in the communication frequency, duration, and quantity of information exchanged. NetMetA specifically considers these critically important aspects of communication links in seeking to 1) extract relevant metrics of communication activity, 2) classify the behavior of network entities and their relationships according to common profiles, and 3) identify and measure global communication pathways.