GWE/GDES concept

Air Force Distributed Common Ground System (DCGS)
PlugFest Plus Initiative: Expansion of the GEOINT Workflow Enhancement
Use Case and Architecture



Challenge Problem Description

The AF DCGS enterprise currently allocates significant manpower to the generation of geospatial intelligence products due to inefficient legacy workflow processes. All sites that have received the new Bulk Release 10B system have rejected its associated "Web-based Workflow" toolset. As such, they still utilize legacy tactics, techniques, and procedures with this new system. Based on operator input and functionality shortfalls of the GEOINT workflows delivered with previous Bulk Releases, the System Program Office began work on a GEOINT Workflow Enhancement (GWE) project to address analyst needs and establish Government control over core workflow services, architecture, interfaces, and standards - augmented with COTS and open source tools where appropriate. The GWE Phase 1 development effort is complete and is slated to field to 15 DGS sites. This phase will deliver a reference data capability, a government owned enterprise service bus called GEOINT Data Exchange Services (GDES), a high altitude workflow, and a secondary image creation and quality assurance process. Planning for GWE Phase 2 development efforts is currently underway. Phase 2 is expected to fine tune the Phase-1 tools, automate time intensive FMV processes, streamline the high-to-low "reliable review" process through the TMAN cross domain solution, and develop an improved image screening tool. If Phase 2 development can be completed prior to the August PlugFest Plus event, additional validated requirements could be leveraged to achieve rapid acquisition of commercial innovations using this interoperability demonstration.

Solution Sought

Technology capabilities that leverage the GWE system's open architecture to integrate additional capabilities into the analyst workflow. The GDES system will facilitate loose coupling of system components via its Apache ServiceMix Enterprise Service Bus (ESB) and Apache Camel routing and mediation engine capabilities. GDES is an extension of the open source code Distributed Data Framework (DDF), which is used by the DI2E to comply with the requirement for Content Discovery and Retrieval (CD&R) specifications.

Associated requirements (AF Form 1067 for AF DCGS Weapon System):
480thISRW 11-05-13 FMV GeoCoordinate Improvement
480thISRW 11-05-14 Video Resolution Improvement
480thISRW 11-08-18 Auto Production of DSIP Products
480thISRW 11-08-19 Support for Rich Media Intelligence Products
480thISRW 11-10-23 Automatic generation of 3D Graphics
480thISRW 11-11-27 Replay of FMV Feeds

Figure 1. Proposed data flow for initiative




Figure 2. Proposed use cases for Expansion of the GEOINT Workflow Enhancement initiative

The GEOINT Workflow within AF DCGS enables processing, exploitation, analysis, prediction and production of ISR data. Processing and exploitation of sensor information is a part of the PCPAD process that transforms collected information into forms suitable for further analysis and/or action by man or machine through both:

Data transformation - the ability to select, focus, simplify, tag, and transform overtly or covertly collected data into human or machine interpretable form for further analyst or other action.

Information categorization - the ability to identify, classify and verify information associated with time sensitive objectives enabling further analysis or action.

Analysis, prediction and production, also a part of the PCPAD process, is the ability to integrate, evaluate, interpret, and predict knowledge and information from available sources to develop intelligence and forecast the future state to enable situational awareness and provide actionable information. In order to execute these functions AF DCGS analysts require timely and coherent access to sensor data, reference data, foundation data, and supporting data without jumping in and out of multiple systems and applications. Utilization of GDES to expand the current GWE activities would improve analyst productivity, reduce dissemination timelines, and increase enterprise capacity
The above use case (Figure 2.) discusses the environment which would be provided to support the Plugfest Plus to include actors, systems, and information. It also discusses "new capabilities" which would meet existing validated requirements to support analysts. These capabilities include: improved coordinate accuracy, vehicle follow and tracking, 3D modeling of compounds and facilities, video quality improvement, enriched metadata tagging, APIs for data access, sensor modeling as a service to correct NITF headers, and a BE numbering functionality. Additionally, technology capabilities that use GDES to demonstrate access to National, Joint, and Air Force databases (MIDB, RDOTS, Atlantis, SIGINT products via vMDC, NES, NGDS, etc.) to break the reliance on GXP Xplorer for query and enable multi-source analysis. Finally, technology capabilities that use functionality already "plugged" into GDES, such as redaction models and auto-population of product templates to assist in meeting the need for multi-releasable intelligence product generation and ensure solutions are compatible to the analyst workflow.