IFORGE: IoT Framework for Organizing a Resilient Generalizable Ecosystem

Digital technologies, such as the Internet of Things (IoT), represent one class of solutions that would greatly improve coordination, productivity, standardization, and compliance across the Department of Defense (DoD). Their widespread application and use, however, must overcome two critical shortcomings. The first is that there is currently no flexible ecosystem to streamline the design, testing, evaluation, and deployment of IoT solutions for the DoD. The second shortcoming is that, unfortunately, commercial IoT applications currently lack critical cybersecurity considerations, which has hindered government adoption. In response to this need, Aptima and its partner, Sentinel Occupational Safety Inc., propose to develop the IoT Framework for Organizing a Resilient Generalizable Ecosystem (IFORGE) which will adapt and extend Aptima’s reusable, standards-based hardware-software platform, IRONPIPE. IFORGE will position the USAF to launch innovative variations of IoT technologies, while ensuring efficient implementation and compliance with key cybersecurity standards across these IoT applications. IFORGE will allow users to easily transition from small-scale proof of concept to full-scale cloud deployments. Finally, IFORGE will provide an ecosystem with a simulation framework for IoT paired with a flexible methodology that allows users to design, develop, test, evaluate, and deploy secure IoT solutions.