SYSTEM, APPARATUS, AND METHOD FOR COMMUNICATION IN A TACTICAL NETWORK

• US 20110103393A1
• Filed: 10/29/2009
• Published: 05/05/2011
• Est. Priority Date: 10/29/2009
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: The Boeing Co.
• Original Assignee: The Boeing Co.
• Inventors: Howard, Ronald J., Zamith, Fernando Afonso, Zuver, Christopher K., Hanks, Carl Joseph, Gray, Michael R., Smith, Brian James, Ayyagari, Arun, Meier, John L.
• Granted Patent: US 8,761,008 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 370/401
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 12/66 Arrangements for connecting between networks having differing types of switching systems, e.g. gateways
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 41/0893 Assignment of logical groups to network elements
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 41/0894 Policy-based network configuration management
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 43/0811 by checking connectivity
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 43/0817 by checking functioning
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 43/0829 Packet loss
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 43/0852 Delays
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 43/0882 Utilisation of link capacity
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 47/2475 for supporting traffic characterised by the type of applications
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 61/5007 Internet protocol [IP] addresses
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/1004 Server selection for load balancing
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/1008 based on parameters of servers, e.g. available memory or workload monitoring of computer activity G06F11/30
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/1014 based on the content of a request
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/288 Distributed intermediate devices, i.e. intermediate devices for interaction with other intermediate devices on the same level
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/568 Storing data temporarily at an intermediate stage, e.g. caching
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 28/088 among core entities
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 40/246 Connectivity information discovery
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 84/18 Self-organising networks, e.g. ad-hoc networks or sensor networks
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 88/16 Gateway arrangements
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 92/24 between backbone network devices

Abstract

A system, apparatus, and method are described for communication in a tactical network. A gateway is communicatively couplable to one or more tactical nodes and to one or more other gateways. The gateway is programmed to transmit information to and/or receive information from other gateways. Information exchanged includes gateway attributes, link attributes, service availability, and/or data availability. The gateway optionally provides quality of service, distributed persistence, load balancing, and/or transformation services. Services are provided in a modular, service-oriented architecture (SOA) to accommodate the addition of services and/or applications.

Claims

1. A system for communicating with a tactical node, said system comprising:

a first gateway communicatively coupled to a tactical node, said first gateway programmed to;

store data from the tactical node to create stored tactical node data;

transmit a data availability message describing the stored tactical node data; and

transmit the stored tactical node data; and

a second gateway communicatively coupled to said first gateway, said second gateway programmed to;

receive from said first gateway the data availability message;

in response to a first data request from a remote device, transmit to said first gateway a second data request for the stored tactical node data based on the received data availability message;

receive from said first gateway the tactical node data; and

transmit the tactical node data to the remote device.

2. The system of claim 1, wherein said second gateway is further communicatively coupled to a global network, said system further comprising a client node communicatively coupled to the global network, wherein said second gateway receives the first data request from the remote device by receiving the first data request from the client node via the global network, and wherein said second gateway transmits the tactical node data to the remote device by transmitting the tactical node data to the client node via the global network.

3. The system of claim 1, wherein said first gateway is further communicatively coupled to a global network, said system further comprising the tactical node, wherein said first gateway is further programmed to:

determine a local identifier for said tactical node;

associate a global network address with the tactical node, the global network address comprising a unique identifier within the global network; and

in response to receiving a message directed to the global network address, transmit the message to said tactical node.

4. The system of claim 3, wherein said first gateway is communicatively coupled to said tactical node via a serial communication interface.

5. The system of claim 1, wherein the remote device is a first remote device, and wherein said second gateway is further programmed to:

store the tactical node data in a memory area; and

in response to a third data request from a second remote device, transmit the tactical node data from the memory area to the second remote device.

6. The system of claim 1, wherein said first gateway is further programmed to:

provide an application service; and

transmit a service availability message describing the application service,

wherein said second gateway is further programmed to;

receive the service availability message; and

in response to a first execution request for the application service, transmit a second execution request to said first gateway based on the received service availability message.

7. A communication gateway comprising:

a communication interface communicatively couplable to a remote gateway; and

a processor programmed to;

provide a first instance of a service;

determine a first gateway attribute for said gateway;

receive from the remote gateway, via said communication interface, a service availability message describing a second instance of the service provided by the remote gateway;

receive from the remote gateway, via said communication interface, a gateway attribute message comprising a second gateway attribute of the remote gateway; and

in response to an execution request for the service, select an execution target from said gateway and the remote gateway based on the first gateway attribute and the second gateway attribute.

8. The gateway of claim 7, wherein said processor determines a first gateway attribute by determining one or more of the following:

a processing capacity indicator, a processing usage indicator, a memory capacity indicator, and a memory usage indicator.

9. The gateway of claim 8, wherein said processor receives a second gateway attribute by receiving one or more of the following:

a processing capacity indicator, a processing usage indicator, a memory capacity indicator, and a memory usage indicator.

10. The gateway of claim 7, wherein said processor is further programmed to initiate a service execution at the selected execution target based on the execution request.

11. The gateway of claim 7, wherein said processor selects an execution target by calculating a cost of execution at each of said gateway and the remote gateway.

12. The gateway of claim 11, wherein said processor calculates a cost by calculating one or more of the following:

an estimated duration of execution and an incremental resource usage indicator.

13. A method for communication in a tactical network, said method comprising:

detecting, by a first gateway, a tactical node;

associating, by the first gateway, a global network address and a name with the tactical node;

transmitting the global network address and the name to an address resolution server via a global network communication interface;

storing tactical node data received from the tactical node in a memory area; and

transmitting a data availability message to a second gateway via a tactical network communication interface, the data availability message including metadata describing the tactical node data.

14. The method of claim 13, wherein storing tactical node data comprises storing one or more of the following:

a sensor reading, an audio sequence, a still image, and a video sequence.

15. The method of claim 13, wherein the metadata includes one or more of the following:

a time at which the tactical node data was captured, a data type, and a geographic location corresponding to the tactical node data.

16. The method of claim 13, further comprising:

receiving from the second gateway a request for the tactical node data; and

transmitting the tactical node data from the memory area to the second gateway.

17. The method of claim 16, wherein the tactical node data is first tactical node data, said method further comprising:

storing second tactical node data received from the tactical node in the memory area;

creating an access pattern based on a plurality of requests for the first tactical node data and a plurality of requests for the second tactical node data; and

if the access pattern indicates the second tactical node data is correlated with the first tactical node data, transmitting the second tactical node data to the second gateway based on the received request without receiving a request for the second tactical node data from the second gateway.

18. The method of claim 17, wherein creating an access pattern comprises comparing a time of receipt and metadata criteria from each of the plurality of requests for the first tactical node data with a time of receipt and metadata criteria from each of the plurality of requests for the second tactical node data.

19. A gateway for communication in a tactical network, said gateway comprising:

an inter-gateway communication interface communicatively couplable to a plurality of remote gateways; and

a processor programmed to;

transmit, via said inter-gateway communication interface, a first gateway identifier for said gateway and a first gateway attribute for said gateway, the first gateway attribute including one or more of the following;

a processing capacity indicator, processing usage indicator, a memory capacity indicator, and a memory usage indicator;

receive, via said inter-gateway communication interface, a second gateway identifier for a remote gateway and a second gateway attribute;

determine a desired primary gateway identifier based on the first gateway attribute and the second gateway attribute, wherein the desired primary gateway identifier is equal to the first gateway identifier or the second gateway identifier; and

transmit, via said inter-gateway communication interface, the desired primary gateway identifier.

20. The gateway of claim 19, further comprising a tactical node communication interface for communicatively coupling said gateway to one or more tactical nodes.

21. The gateway of claim 20, wherein said tactical node communication interface comprises a serial communication interface, and wherein said processor is further programmed to:

associate with the tactical node a command descriptor including one or more of the following;

a command name and a parameter descriptor;

in response to receiving a command for the tactical node, validate the command based on the command descriptor; and

if the validating fails, reject the command.

22. The gateway of claim 20, further comprising a global network communication interface for communicatively coupling said gateway to a global network.

23. The gateway of claim 22, wherein said processor is further programmed to:

associate a global network address and a name with a tactical node communicatively coupled to said gateway; and

transmit the global network address and the name to an address resolution server via said global network communication interface.

24. The gateway of claim 19, wherein the desired primary gateway identifier is a first desired primary gateway identifier, and wherein said processor is further programmed to:

receive, via said inter-gateway communication interface, a second desired primary gateway identifier from the remote gateway; and

determine a primary gateway identifier based on the first and second desired primary gateway identifiers.

25. The gateway of claim 24, wherein the remote gateway is a first remote gateway, and wherein said processor is further configured to:

receive, via said inter-gateway communication interface, a request for tactical network information from a second remote gateway; and

in response to said receiving, transmit the determined primary gateway identifier.

26. The gateway of claim 19, wherein the remote gateway provides a first instance of a service, and wherein said processor is further configured to:

provide a second instance of the service;

determine a link attribute for communication between said gateway and the remote gateway, the link attribute including one or more of the following;

a bandwidth capacity indicator, a bandwidth usage indicator, a latency indicator, a link uptime indicator, a link quality indicator, and a dropped packet metric; and

in response to an execution request for the service, initiate an execution at the first instance or the second instance based on the first gateway attribute, the second gateway attribute, and the link attribute.