IoT for Defense and National Security

17Leveraging Commercial Communications for Defense IoT

Keith Gremban¹ and Paul J. Kolodzy²

¹Ann and H.J. Smead Aerospace Engineering Sciences and Silicon Flatirons Center, University of Colorado Boulder, Boulder, CO, USA

²Kolodzy Consulting, LLC, Falls Church, VA, USA

Abstract

The Internet of Things (IoT) can trace its origins back to the forerunner of the Internet, the ARPANET. The ARPANET was a project conceived of and funded by the Advanced Research Projects Agency (ARPA) within the United States Department of Defense (DoD), so in a very real sense, there would be no IoT without the initial investment from DoD. In recent years, with the advent of Internet‐enabled e‐commerce, cellular communications, and Wi‐Fi, the private sector has invested much more heavily in communications technology than DoD. The IoT is a private sector innovation and thus represents a capability transitioning from the commercial world to the DoD. To leverage the full potential of IoT for defense and homeland security, government agencies should look to the private sector and leverage communications innovations to the greatest extent possible, and target government investment towards meeting unique requirements not fully addressed by the private sector.

17.1 Introduction

The Internet of Things (IoT) has a variety of definitions from different individuals and organizations. Wikipedia [1] defines the IoT as follows:

The Internet of things (IoT) describes physical objects (or groups of such objects) ...