Global Information Grid (GIG)-Enabling Middleware (MW) Portals

Improved situational awareness is only accomplished when the “right” information is available to the warfighter at the “right” time. The DoD Network-Centric Warfare initiatives have spurred the development of networks to assist in providing such information. With the development of the Global Information Grid, the infrastructure for ubiquitous information sharing is quickly becoming a reality. What is lacking are 1) the enabling technology that provides the infrastructure to support applications exchanging information via a publish/subscribe communications model for accessing this information in a timely and efficient manner 2) the services that allow emerging and future networks to operate with legacy networks 3) and a testing infrastructure for obtaining and analyzing data transactions. The ForceNet enabling Information Portals (FIP) product developed by Lakota will leverage publish/subscribe technology and provide a Services Oriented Architecture that supports information dissemination via a flexible, extensible information-enabling solution. FIP, utilizing dynamic registration and discovery services, allows the seamless integration of new capabilites and systems with legacy sensors and systems. As FIP is based on open architecture messaging techniques, system interoperability is improved. Additional facilities will be incorporated in FIP to support the development of quantitative metrics for use by the end-user in make architectural decisions.