SBIR-STTR Award

The objective of this proposal is to demonstrate methods for extending the Battlespace Infosphere to mobile platforms using optimized COTS technologies. The 1999 USAF Scientific Advisory Board report titled Building the Joint Battlespace Infosphere identifies the eXtensible Markup Language (XML) as one of the most promising technologies for representing JBI information objects. Indeed, many DoD users are already adopting XML for wired applications. However, transmitting XML data over wireless data links and processing it on embedded and mobile platforms has proved challenging due to the size and complexity of XML data. Effectively, this creates a data representation rift between wired and wireless users of the Battlespace Infosphere. We propose novel and uniquely efficient methods for encoding and processing XML data to eliminate this rift. The resulting methods promise to enable deployment of XML solutions on small embedded and mobile devices with limited bandwidth, memory, processing power and/or battery life. This will afford mobile users unprecedented access to the wealth of enterprise information encoded in XML and enable enterprise users easy access to information gathered by mobile users. In addition, it promises to drastically increase the performance of existing XML solutions and increase opportunities for exploiting COTS software on embedded and mobile platforms.

Benefits:
We anticipate our research will result in increased interoperability and information sharing between fixed and mobile platforms. It will drastically reduce costs by enabling the use of COTS software in environments where it is not feasible today. It will increase the performance, battery life and available bandwidth for mobile platforms and introduce new opportunities for advanced development.

Keywords:
wireless, compression, XML, encoding, mobile, COTS, data, infosphere

The objective of this proposal is to develop and demonstrate methods for extending the Battlespace Infosphere to small, mobile and embedded systems using optimized COTS technologies. The USAF Scientific Advisory Board report titled Building the Joint Battlespace Infosphere identifies XML as one of the most promising technologies for representing information objects. Many DoD organizations have adopted XML and established policies for broad XML use. However, transmitting XML over wireless data links and processing it on small, mobile and embedded systems has proved challenging due to the size and complexity of XML data. This creates a data representation rift between fixed, mobile and embedded users of the Battlespace Infosphere. We will develop novel and uniquely efficient methods for encoding and processing XML data to eliminate this rift. These methods will enable deployment of XML solutions on small, embedded and mobile platforms that have limited bandwidth, memory, processing power and/or battery life. They will afford mobile users unprecedented access to the wealth of enterprise information encoded in XML and enable enterprise users easy access to information gathered by mobile users. They will also increase the performance of existing systems and increase opportunities for exploiting COTS software on embedded and mobile platforms.

Keywords:
Wireless, Compression, Xml, Encoding, Mobile, Cots, Data, Infosphere