Transformative Apps
Abstract
(U) The goal of the Transformative Apps effort is to put mobile, tactical applications (apps) in the hands of warfighters and to create a new military apps marketplace with a vibrant apps development community. The effort will demonstrate a broad array of apps supporting command and control, enhanced situational awareness, collaboration, geo-spatial visualization, training, and language translation. Many of the applications will require ongoing network connectivity; other applications will require occasional data synchronization. While commercial networks benefit from robust cellular networks and the presence of large data centers, tactical networks are notorious for their limited bandwidth, frequent outages, and high-latency links. Specialized backend architecture and middleware will be developed to enable apps to run while providing optimal user experience and without over-burdening the network. Of particular importance is new data synchronization architecture between the handhelds and the backend computing/storage nodes. Additionally, appropriate middleware services and libraries will be developed to facilitate shared capabilities such as map viewing, apps management, and collection of logs, usage statistics and user feedback. Apps, together with handhelds and networks, will be tested in different training environments as well as in deployed environments. Performance and usage will be carefully tracked and user feedback collected to guide rapid enhancement of apps. The effort will create a vibrant apps development community by aggressively reaching out to non-traditional performers and will explore new models for software acquisitions based on end-user empowerment. The effort will leverage the resources, experience, and lessons-learned derived from the Tactical Ground Reporting System (TIGR).
Document Details
- Document Type
- Accomplishment
- Publication Date
- Oct 01, 2011
- Source ID
- 95c53af7e36e1fcce7ef537f409af67d