N-CET: Network-centric exploitation and tracking

The Network-Centric Exploitation and Tracking (N-CET) program is a research effort to enhance intelligence exploitation in a tactical environment by cross-cueing sensors and fusing data from on-board sources with processed information from off-board platforms and sharing the resulting products in a net-centric manner. At the core of N-CET are information management services that decouple data producers and consumers, allowing reconfiguration to suit mission needs. Network-centric algorithms utilize the availability of information from both homogeneous and complementary on-board and off-board sensors. Organic capabilities facilitate the extraction of actionable information from high bandwidth sensor data and ensure the necessary information arrives at other platforms and users in a timely manner. This paper provides an overview of the N-CET architecture and the sensors and algorithms currently implemented upon it. The extent to which such algorithms are enhanced in a network-centric environment is discussed and the challenges of managing the resulting dynamic information space in a tactical publish/subscribe/query model are presented.