Introduction

The United States Air Force Office of Scientific Research’s Directorate of Mathematics and Space Sciences is sponsoring a workshop to investigate the concept of “Infospheric Science” or “Infospherics.” Infospherics is the scientific foundation for the design and operation of large-scale global information systems and networks, including such challenges as:

• quantitative modeling of large-scale information flow and distribution;
• security definition and management in complex domains;
• heterogeneous network modeling and management;
• monitoring and managing large-scale global information systems.

Large-scale global information systems are currently being envisioned by all three US military services. The major goal of the workshop is to identify the basic scientific principles that would underlie the successful deployment and operation of such systems. The basic sciences that will play a key role in Infospheric Science could be drawn from many areas, including: network theory, statistics, computer science, systems and control engineering, operations research, applied mathematics, physics, biology.

Participants in the workshop will be expected to contribute to the writing of a concise report that outlines the scientific foundations and open problems of Infospheric Science.

1. Background

Operating in an uncertain and volatile setting, the United States military must have diverse organizations and increasingly agile capabilities to support our Nation’s critical global interests. Promoting National security, the military must be preeminent across a diverse and complex set of military operations ranging from peaceful persuasion to decisive combat. To succeed, this force will rely upon the integration of several core competencies. Most significant is the worldwide availability of information, information products and information superiority. Information superiority, or the ability to collect, process and disseminate an uninterrupted flow of information across a large-scale global information system, is perhaps the key enabler to a flexible and responsive military force of the future.

The science that studies, describes and provides analytic explanations of large-scale global information networks is essential to developing such information superiority and operating the worldwide information systems that support it. In this context, this workshop will initiate the study of “Infospheric Science” by identifying the relevant technical challenges and scientific tools.

2. Infospheric System Properties

A viable, globally accessible information system has several general required properties:

• Global real-time availability,
• High reliability,
• Mobility,
• Scalability,
• Flexible extendibility,
• Stability,
• Multi-platform (mainframe to sensor to embedded processor) capability,
• Ease of use and,
• Agility.

All of these properties are crucial to the successful employment and operation of global information grids, especially in light of the unforeseeable changes in the dynamic operating environment. The following documents describe several requirements and operational visions and are recommended background reading.

3. Infospheric Science Research Areas

Merely scaling, hardening, replicating and/or securing existing network architectures and services cannot build complex global systems. New approaches to designing, engineering and building large-scale, distributed, reliable information systems need to be explored. "Infospheric Science" or "Infospherics" is the science underlying this new paradigm of global information systems. Specific Infospheric Science areas that will be considered in the workshop include:

• Predictive understanding of large-scale behavior from small-scale analysis,
• Semantic and functional convergence of service negotiations,
• Self-validation and self-repair,
• Consistency under extendibility,
• Large-scale security infrastructure and management,
• Survivability,
• Self-adaptation for sustaining quality of service and application performance,
• Self-organizing directory and location services.

4. Workshop Participants and Goals

The Workshop will bring together three communities:

• People familiar with the functional requirements of future global military information systems;
• People who have experience building and/or operating some form of global or large-scale information systems in the commercial or military sectors;
• People with demonstrated research records in the modeling and analysis of new computing, communications and information technologies.

These three groups will present their experiences, capabilities and requirements with the goal of developing a scientific research agenda that will establish the basic tenets of Infospheric Science. The deliverable will be a presentation format report, prepared during the intense two-day meeting that summarizes the findings and recommended actions of the workshop participants.

5. Workshop Format

On the Evening of Day Zero (July 17), there will be an informal welcome reception with light refreshments and snacks.

Day One (July 18) begins with the keynote speaker describing requirements of and visions for future US military global information grid architectures. Four panels will address various aspects of large-scale information systems. Each 6 member panel will have a Panel Leader who will make a 20 minute presentation summarizing a position on the technical challenges in the panel's area and on the modeling, mathematical and computational techniques suitable for addressing the challenges. Each of the other 5 panel members will make brief statements (5 minutes each) on their own positions. A general discussion, questions and answers will fill the remaining panel time. At the end of Day One, breakout group formation and tasking will be discussed. Members of the breakout groups are encouraged to dine together in the evening to begin their discussion and report planning.

Day Two (July 19) is devoted to breakout group discussions, report writing, and group presentations as indicated in the schedule.

Workshop participants are encouraged to be forward thinking and bold about the scientific needs and foundations of Infospheric Science. This workshop promises to be a seminal event.

6. Administrative Details and Logistics