Connecting the Battlespace: C2 and IoT Technical Interoperability in Tactical Federated Environments

With the emergence of available wireless technologies in combination with small-sized hardware, the Internet of Things (IoT) has become one of the defining technology trends of the last decade. It has additionally gained the attention of military technology innovators as a means to gain information dominance in the battlespace through enhanced situational awareness. Conducted as part of the NATO research task group IST-176 on “Federated Interoperability of Military C2 and IoT Systems”, this research investigates a secure approach to connect heterogeneous assets that rely on widely used and standardized technologies. To demonstrate the approach, a set of planned experiments are presented in which systems from different nations are connected in a federated environment. The results of the experiments aim to demonstrate the feasibility of integrating battlefield assets, including soldier systems and IoT devices, in supporting collective C2