Product Development and Planning for "Unblinking Eye" Networks
By Luigi Peluso
Managing Director of Industrial-Revolutions, LLC

Technology companies developing next generation surveillance hardware and systems are at a decision-making crossroads: they must correctly guess in what direction IPv6 networking is evolving for their products, or risk producing incomplete or sub-optimized hardware. Such companies (ours included) face a complex product development world as IP addressing standards continue to change. We are confronted with a daunting IPv6 transition paradigm: building to a largely undefined and un-deployed future standard. Over the past several years, as our range of standalone video and audio sensors were in field trials with various entities within local, state, and federal government, we have had to “guess” how to design to future IPv6 network meshing upgrades.

Product development during a time of standards change is not a new phenomenon — electronics companies face this all the time. However, with the loose ends of present-day IPv6 standards, and an incomplete US Government IPv6 transition plan, we have a major concern for future product adaptability. So where does a company such as ours see itself in three to five years, in recognition of the fact that our government customers will be implementing the Next Generation Internet? Careful analysis makes one thing clear: if the National Intelligence and Department of Defense vision of a truly global “unblinking eye” of surveillance is ever to be achieved, it can only be through a massive integration of sensor networks, including a panoply of sensors ranging from commercial cell phone cameras to MILSPEC allied surveillance equipment. So —in what technical direction are our company’s sensors going? Will they support IPv6 and peering? The simple answer is “Yes!” – while the complex execution plan is still TBD.

Because of this unclear adoption road map, our company has to ensure that firmware is adaptable to emerging US Department of Defense IPv6 standards. While there are emerging government transition design plans, what designers really need is an operational level of detail, ranging from revocation list processes to levels of encryption envisioned at the edge of the GIG (Global Information Grid) for sensors and address directory service procedures. One very practical near-term action could greatly help us (and many other surveillance technology development companies): the inclusion by the DoD of sensors at the front end of IPv6 networking validation and experimentation. Major domestic exercises for the remainder of FY07 and FY08 should contain enclaved IPv6 experiments with sensors, focusing network planners on both the vast opportunities and challenges of networking all sorts of devices under IPv6 and making them (where appropriate) truly peer-to-peer. These experimental results should be the subject of an upcoming conference coupled with academic proceedings for industry designers hungry for such information.

What are some examples of IPv6-enabled sensor networks we could experiment with during future initiatives, such as scheduled Joint Forces Command (JFCOM) exercises? One that comes to mind is the networked video capture device that many of us carry (and intelligence operatives, too) — the cell phone. Our company’s engineers have several times suggested that the cell phone is one of the most natural networking devices we could put into the sensor chain, because of its cost, coverage and ubiquity. Almost anywhere in the world, much of the footprint to be covered by the intelligence community and operational military are within cell service areas. Since US-based phone companies lag in IPv6 deployment, a good place to put IPv6 meshed phones to the test (as part of the sensor chain) would be Asia. Perhaps the next big PACOM (Pacific Command) exercise could include a more modern version of the “coast watchers” of World War II. Instead of giving allies short wave radios to form an intelligence network, the PACOM J-2 (Intelligence officer) could actually deploy a network of IPv6 device laden coast watchers. IPv6 might be the perfect technology for such an application, with the opportunity for operators to figure out its practical worth and need on the front end, starting with sensors and netted intelligence assets.

For those of us in the “go slow” community, I think the intelligence gatherers and operators will probably pull us all along, because of the greater urgency of their applications. I personally have always believed that sitting on the technical sidelines for the correct amount of time can pay off — for instance, I never owned a Betamax or a bag phone. However, it appears to make operational sense for there to be an acceleration of IPv6 standards for US intelligence efforts – which would benefit both the IC (Intelligence Community) as well as sensor hardware development companies such as ours that are looking for IPv6 design guidance.

So — how much is actually happening in the way of advanced tests, demonstrations and pilot projects for IPv6, especially for the IC? I tried googling “Intelligence IPv6 Experimentation,” which led to thousands of hits, but none that appeared to describe actual US or inter-allied IPv6 intelligence experimentation. Many phone calls and other investigation turned up little more. The DoD (with its allies) appears to be moving forward into a near-future IPv6 capability that is sorely needed — but without any of the carefully scheduled pilot programs and field experiments that were originally called for in the mandate by John Stenbit, then Asst. Secretary of Defense for NII (Networks and Information Integration), for the military to transition to the New Internet. Practical experiments of this type could greatly help elucidate what the evolving IPv6 system requirements for the US and its allies would actually look like. The US actually has a military command tasked with conducting such allied field tests, under realistic conditions and on a global scale, the ACT (Allied Command Transformation), located in Norfolk, Virginia.

If there is any technology that could be considered “transformational,” it surely must be the planned transition of massive amounts of analog systems to IP-based networks. Let us hope that funding and initiatives for such demonstrations emerge soon — so that advanced hardware makers can start to soundly develop equipment for what our warfighters will need in the future, instead of trying to project upcoming requirements based only on the hardware and systems used in the past.

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Luigi Peluso is Managing Director of Industrial-Revolutions, LLC a technology investment firm, and serves on the Board of Directors of Intelepresence Corporation, which specializes in intelligence gathering technology. Mr. Peluso has provided management and consulting services to a wide range of Fortune 100 companies and government entities over the past 20 years. He earned a BS in Mechanical Engineering from the Worcester Polytechnic Institute and holds an MBA from the University of Connecticut.