N093-177 TITLE: Advanced Data Compression Algorithm and Compressor-Decompressor (CODEC) Offload Engine for Aircraft Launch and Recovery Equipment (ALRE) Health Monitoring Support

TECHNOLOGY AREAS: Information Systems, Materials/Processes

ACQUISITION PROGRAM: Aviation Data Management and Control System (ADMACS)

The technology within this topic is restricted under the International Traffic in Arms Regulation (ITAR), which controls the export and import of defense-related material and services. Offerors must disclose any proposed use of foreign nationals, their country of origin, and what tasks each would accomplish in the statement of work in accordance with section 3.5.b.(7) of the solicitation.

OBJECTIVE: Develop advanced data compression algorithm(s) and bandwidth utilization offload engine that will enable very large amounts of data to be transmitted in bandwidth-limited scenarios from ship to shore.

DESCRIPTION: The U.S. naval vessel of the future will require a much lower level of manning than current vessels, requiring significant levels of automation to attain those levels. High levels of automation increase the demand on data/information access and transfer of data. Performance engineers support maintenance teams in theater over distances identifying and resolving equipment and maintenance problems that have a direct effect on Fleet operational availability.

The volume of data that can be generated by emerging sensors is staggering. For example, a single sensor data collection was 10 MB for just 6 seconds of collection time. Bandwidth in tactical networks is extremely limited and the large amount of data generated by older compression technologies can saturate the network, limiting the amount of data that can be transmitted at any given time. Without bandwidth optimization, downloads and transfers would take significantly longer and create network bottlenecks. The low bandwidth constraint means that a constant, undisciplined, uncontrolled "push" of information is not supportable by the ship to shore communication systems. The constraint places a premium on careful management of information flow, both by application and network layers. By simultaneously optimizing bandwidth utilization, processor performance, and data compression the desired solution should reduce latency, enhance reach back capabilities, and provide "lossless data." Lossless data compression is a class of data compression algorithms that allows the exact original data to be reconstructed from the compressed data. The solution should work with commercial off the shelf (COTS) products, and open source database products existing replication engines, to minimize custom coding.

Mitigation of these communication problems requires compression of the operational and sensor data, optimal transmission of the signal(s) across telecommunication networks, and rapid decompression of the signal(s) by the remote shore based services. The solution must reliably operate over a range of bandwidths and network configurations. It must allow the administrator to manage or tune the service provided based on available communication capabilities. The developed offload engine should be capable of operating at low data rates and be able to rapidly recover from periods of high packet loss. For the purposes of this project assume that there is no control over the physical network layer. Algorithms and the bandwidth offload engine must be capable of being utilized independent of the quality of service available (e.g., amount of bandwidth available or network availability). To properly control information flow, the solution will require continuous knowledge of network performance data, in particular, average session delay and average session throughput.

PHASE I: Develop a conceptual design of a ship to shore based offload engine and demonstrate feasibility through analysis or limited laboratory demonstrations. Develop a concept of operations and provide defendable estimates for cost, reliability and maintainability.

PHASE II: Develop a detailed design and prototype based on the Phase I conceptual design that can demonstrate optimized ship-to-shore data delivery and network utilization. The design should mitigate the impact of latency and communications degradation.

PHASE III: Design, produce, test and evaluate the first production model of a fully integrated Aircraft Launch and Recovery Equipment (ALRE) data transfer engine.

PRIVATE SECTOR COMMERCIAL POTENTIAL/DUAL-USE APPLICATIONS: New compression and network optimization technology can mitigate bandwidth costs and improve the overall quality of service while providing a scalable tool that clearly benefits the private sector in such areas as healthcare, law enforcement, maintenance support and other entities requiring data transfer from net-centric systems over low bandwidth networks.

REFERENCES:
1. Jin Li, J.D. Johnston. 2006. "Perceptually Layered Scalable Codec". Fortieth Asilomar Conference on Signals, Systems and Computers. Oct. 29, 2006-Nov. 1, 2006, pp. 2125 - 2129. http://ieeexplore.ieee.org/xpl/freeabs_all.jsp?arnumber=4176953

2. Motion Imagery Standards Board, MISB Standard 0107, "Bit and Byte Order for Metadata in Motion Imagery Files and Streams", 11 October, 2001 - http://www.gwg.nga.mil/misb/docs/MISP45.pdf

3. S. Andersen, A. Duric, H. Astrom, R. Hagen, W. Kleijn, J. Linden. (2004) "Internet Low Bit Rate Codec (iLBC)."- ftp://ftp.rfc-editor.org/in-notes/rfc3951.txt

KEYWORDS: CODEC; Data Compression; Sensors; Future Combat Systems (FCS); Algorithms; Bandwidth-Limited Data Transmission

** TOPIC AUTHOR (TPOC) **

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