Cloud-based Communications Planning Collaboration and Interoperability

Abstract

Communications planning is a key part of the Marine Corps operational planning process. The ability to design and analyze communication network plans efficiently and accurately has a direct impact on the ability of commanders to command and control actions on the battlefield. Portions of the current process of communications network planning for military exercises and operations in the Marine Corps are unnecessarily inefficient and susceptible to human error. At the heart of network planning is the creation of accurate high-level diagrams that depict the details of the planned network topology for use in network installation, maintenance and operation. These diagrams are referenced at all levels in the planning, installation, operation and maintenance of the resultant communications architecture. Development and iterative refinement of these high-level network diagrams is a fragmented manual process. Despite the heavy reliance on network diagrams in the planning process, no software application currently exists that is designed specifically for their creation. This thesis proposes a cloud-based application for communications planning. It describes the benefits achievable through automation, collaboration and application interoperability, and provides recommendations for development of such a system. It concludes by presenting an implementation of these recommendations via a proof of concept application.