Innovative decentralized decision-making enabling capability on mobile edge devices

Abstract

Hardware and software limitations found in legacy communications equipment organically assigned to the edge users are unable to meet the ever increasing information exchange requirements. The computational and throughput capability in current fielded communication systems are unable to keep pace with the ever increasing bandwidth intensive information exchange requirements. Expeditionary units at the tactical edge are forced to rely on external personnel and equipment to overcome the existing capabilities gap in order to remain agile, highly responsive, and achieve shared operational picture. The purpose of this study was to analyze the requirements and feasibility of adapting a local cloudlet model for enabling mobile application deployment and data dissemination capability to Marine units in an expeditionary environment. An empirical analysis comparing current systems requirements to the cloud model system requirements was performed. Additionally, an evaluation was conducted on the impact of mature technologies from academia, government, and commercial research onto availability of local cloudlet at the tactical edge. The significance of the aforementioned analysis and evaluation determined the local cloudlet model provided an operationally viable alternative to the current method of information sharing in edge organizations. This study should prompt the Marine Corps to invest in further research.