All-Domain Sensor Network Orchestration from Seabed-to-Space

Abstract

The DoD seeks to conduct all-domain operations, requiring Intelligence Surveillance and Reconnaissance (ISR) across all domains of conflict. For the Navy, this uniquely includes the deep seabed, undersea, sea surface, air, space and cyberspace operations. All-Domain ISR encompasses and integrates information from all domains of the maritime environment, sensors and sources from seabed-to-space, to provide commanders with the most complete picture of adversary activities. This capability supports the Navy approach to Distributed Maritime Operations (DMO), an operational concept that enables widely dispersed naval units to perform sensing, command and control and weapon activities such that the distributed platforms act as a coherent whole. All-domain ISR requires a network to enable widely dispersed sensors to exchange and combine sensor data (the fusion of data) to provide a complete understanding of the operational picture, and to provide targeting information for long-range engagement required by DMO. This research studies the diverse sensor access time horizons, sensor mode options, observation feasibilities, and relative contribution of all-domain sensors (seabed-to-space) which pose a significant mathematical and computational challenge to achieve all-domain ISR. Furthermore, the delays from sensing to fusion across such a wide range of sensors can diminish the contribution of some combinations of sensing modes. The study also evaluates the distribution of fusion nodes across an all-domain network to improve the delivery of information across the network.