IoT for Defense and National Security

20Tactical Edge IoT in Defense and National Security

Paula Fraga‐Lamas and Tiago M. Fernández‐Caramés

Department of Computer Engineering, CITIC Research Center, Universidade da Coruña, A Coruña, Spain

Abstract

The deployment of internet of things (IoT) systems in Defense and National Security faces some limitations that can be addressed with Edge Computing approaches. The Edge Computing and IoT paradigms combined bring potential benefits, since they confront the limitations of traditional centralized cloud computing approaches, which enable easy scalability, real‐time applications, or mobility support, but whose use poses certain risks in aspects like cybersecurity. This chapter identifies scenarios in which Defense and National Security can leverage commercial off‐the‐shelf (COTS) Edge IoT capabilities to deliver greater survivability to warfighters or first responders, while lowering costs and increasing operational efficiency and effectiveness. In addition, it presents the general design of a Tactical Edge IoT communications architecture, it identifies the open challenges for a widespread adoption and provides research guidelines and some recommendations for enabling cost‐effective Edge IoT for Defense and National Security.

20.1 Introduction

The Internet of Things (IoT) is a distributed system that generates value through data by allowing heterogeneous physical objects to share information and coordinate decision‐making. In industrial applications, IoT leads to significant ...