Enabling Tactical Edge Mashups with Live Objects

Abstract : We introduce the Live Objects framework, which leverages our distributed object-oriented programming model and enables tactical edge mashups for battlefield command and control. Unlike most deployed web services, which are typically limited to client-server interactions, Live Objects can simultaneously support multiple patterns of communication, including direct client-to-client protocols. This means that when clients are forward deployed or accessible only through disadvantaged links, a Live Objects system can remain highly responsive, whereas more standard solutions might slow down precipitously, become unresponsive, or fail outright. Here, we summarize the approach and then suggest that, when using it, a new kind of Service-Oriented Collaboration (SOC) application can be created that will combine direct client-to-client sharing of imagery, videos, or other real-time data captured in the field, with service-hosted data, including geographic information systems, weather prediction systems, social networks, and other databases. The client-to-client solutions can include powerful new collaboration features implemented to help the user achieve tactical Command and Control (C2) goals that require split-second coordination, for which reach-back to a server might be impossibly slow. We showcase key properties of our platform through a functional, proof-of-concept Combat Search and Rescue (CSAR) scenario.