Resource Brokering Service: Timely and Efficient Information Resource Allocation

Abstract

We address supporting unanticipated users and uses of limited information resources (sensors, databases, weapons - any resource intrinsically tied to digital information) in a timely and efficient fashion. Platform-centric systems often preclude users and uses not identified when the system was developed and deployed. Net-centric approaches, however, can address these problems by allowing services and information to be discovered and accessed at run-time. We have developed a resource brokering service that uses net-centric principles and semantic metadata to enable multi-domain information and resource sharing and support for unanticipated users and uses. The resource brokering service uses federated brokering agents and a modular software component framework for dynamically composing and tasking heterogeneous resources including sensors, data feeds, processors, archived data, networks, and even analysts into resilient, mission-oriented workflows. The resource brokering service is applicable to multiple sense-decide-act military domains including missile defense, space situation awareness, ISR, border protection, and cyber defense. In this paper we present a concept and architecture for resource brokering and describe current applications. Our architecture is aligned with the U.S. DoD's NCES (Net-Centric Enterprise Services).