An active communications system consists of dynamic elements - active software, active information, active hybrid networks and active resource allocation. These active elements are introduced to make future military wireless computer and communications networks more robust, more powerful and more flexible under a wide variety of operating environments. Active elements will be coordinated by a novel architecture that uses advanced agents to manage network, computer and information assets delivering high confidence communications and computing. An important strength of this project is that the team members have already made significant contributions in these areas thereby offering a unique opportunity to immediately apply advanced research results. This project will coordinate research across these disciplines and will prototype a new generation of intelligent agent systems for wireless systems.
Active software has the ability to migrate from node to node within a computer network.
This capability allows code to move to large datasets for intensive processing, enhances fault tolerance in volatile networks and facilitates network management overall. The active software component will be based on our existing successful implementations of Agent Tcl and dynamic classes for network management. Active information has the ability to organize itself using semantic and statistical analysis and can self-route automatically within a network. These capabilities are essential for moving information from archives and field deployed sensors attached to mobile and stationary platforms. Active information will be correlated to produce timely operational and tactical intelligence.