When you’re trying to pilot 14-ton, $43 million fighter jet through a hailstorm of enemy fire, you just don’t want to deal with little technological glitches like a computer system freeze-up or a circuit-busy signal.

No question, U.S. warfighters are equipped with far more technological advantages than ever before. In Desert Storm in 1990-1991, it could take up to two days to get coordinates and photos of a target, plan a mission and get the information to the bomber crew. Now commanders can deliver the same information to the crew in flight, close to real time.

But, as any computer user knows, technology is only great when it works.

“The right answer delivered at the wrong time is the wrong answer,” points out Vanderbilt Professor of Computer Science Douglas C. Schmidt.

He and his associates are working on software that will coordinate and leverage the vast diversity of communications technologies to empower pilots and other warfighters and their commanders to communicate with each other accurately, quickly and seamlessly.

The software they are developing will harness the impressive powers of the Global Information Grid and will have long-term applications for business and personal communications, as well.

The Global Information Grid includes all the communications networks, from the Internet and “land lines” to cell phones and satellite communication.

“The Internet has existed for decades, but it only became accessible to most people with the invention of the World Wide Web and software such as Netscape and Internet Explorer,” Schmidt says. “It’s helpful to think of the GIG as presenting a similar, but actually even more complex, challenge in terms of integrating the technologies sufficiently for them to work together.”

An additional challenge is to ensure that these technologies will interface efficiently, reliably, and at the levels of security required by the military, Schmidt says.

Schmidt is lead principal investigator, partnering with Carnegie Mellon University, for a $1.2 million Air Force Research Laboratory grant to tackle the multi-dimensional challenge of developing software that enables U.S. military commanders to use the disparate resources of the GIG in an effective fashion. He is also teaming with the University of California, Berkeley, and Cornell University on a $3 million related AFRL project to coordinate use of the GIG.

“The software we are creating not only will broaden communications capabilities by utilizing the GIG to augment Air Force communications technology, such as warfighters’ radio, landline and satellite communications, but also will ensure that all communications are delivered according to commander priorities and are protected from interception and disruption,” he says.

That’s about as tough as it sounds, but Schmidt is no stranger to world-class challenges.

Author of communication environment software ACE (for Adaptive Communication Environment) and its quality-of-service enforcing sidekick, TAO, Schmidt is a pioneer in the international “open source”
movement. The “open source” community of hundreds of computer scientists collaborate to create software and check, correct and build on each other’s code. He has been an international leader in developing middleware, which is the software that brokers interactions between different layers of software and hardware.

Middleware, which is also integral to developing the Next Generation Internet, happens to be a particular strength of the Vanderbilt School of Engineering and is a major reason Schmidt chose to work at Vanderbilt.

“We have about 30-35 projects going on right now in the Institute for Software Integrated Systems,” Schmidt says.