1 The final destination: Building test bed apps for DIL environments Arild Bergh Cyber Systems and Electronic Warfare Division Norwegian Defence Research Establishment (FFI) Kjeller, Norway Recent years have seen a massive growth in the everyday use of smartphones and tablet (here called smart mobile devices or SMDs) and a turn towards app based software to connect to cloud based services. This has had a huge impact on how people access information and communicate in all spheres of life, with always online now being the default mode for most people. These changes also affect the military, albeit at a slower pace. Moving towards a diversified app-architecture for sharing and processing information has clear operational benefits [1]. However, a key differentiator between civilian and military contexts is the fact that in actual operations the military will, at least on the tactical level, operate on disadvantaged, intermittent and/or limited (DIL) networks. The IST-118 working group is exploring solutions to deal with DIL related issues, and to be able to test these as realistically as possible could be very beneficial. This paper proposes a possible solution, the MLAB App Builder developed at the Norwegian Defence Research Establishment (FFI). MLAB lets non- developers create SMD apps for Android, iOS, Windows Phones, etc. simply by using point and click. This means that polished apps can be created easily, and using built-in facilities for monitoring of user interaction will help to test everything from content filtering to offline use. Apps created in MLAB uses an architecture that allow apps to work on and offline when connections are intermittent and allow for transparent connections to external services or local substitutes. Keywords: app development, test bed, mobile devices, smartphones, disadvantaged networks, mil-app market I. INTRODUCTION We are in the midst of an on-going explosion in the use of smart mobile devices (SMDs) such as smartphones and tablets. Currently 1.75 billion people use a smartphone, with numbers expected to rise to 2.5 billion in 2017 [2], and more than a billion smart phones were shipped per year in 2013 and 2014 [3]. The percentage of people using a smartphone is rapidly increasing in most countries, with more than 50% of the population using them in nine countries [4]. This rapid uptake has also pushed the price below 30 USD for basic smartphones. At the same time there are millions of “apps” (the small, task oriented applications that all SMDs rely on to provide access to information, communication and services) available to tailor these generic devices to one’s own taste and needs. In short, SMDs and apps are currently the default ICT for most people around the world. Given that these devices have an array of sensors and communication methods they are an interesting proposition for a range of uses, from medicine [5] to emergency situations [6]. This also applies to the military, the idea of using commercial off the shelf (COTS) resources means that there is a number of research projects looking into mobile phone use, both on the end user/app side [7], [8] and the networking side [9], [10]. This is not only an issue of costs, albeit that is a considerable benefit. For the next generation of military recruits SMD and app use is the default way of accessing and sharing information and knowledge. Failing to capitalize on the skills that younger people build up around these devices will likely mean a less effective use of information services in the military. At the same time “power to the edge” has been a rallying cry in network based warfare/defence for some time [11]. The Norwegian military is also moving from a “need-to-know” way of working, to a “responsibility to share” paradigm. The sharp end of this change will ultimately play out in the tactical domain. The combined benefits of low costs devices with a variety of sensors and communication methods; and the ability to create apps to act as front-end interfaces to different web services makes SMDs ideal as a generic starting point for future gateways to information in a service oriented architecture (SOA). A key challenge when trying to use COTS SMDs in the tactical domain is connectivity issues in so-called Disadvantaged, Intermittent and/or Limited (DIL) networks [12]. This is not the only problem; the design of devices (size, durability) and battery time are examples of other pertinent issues. However, these can be worked around, whereas connectivity issues are core to the benefits that can be derived from SMDs. To provide reliable access to web services in such environments have been a core issue for many researchers, and in a summary paper from Johnsen et. al. [13] the different issues that the protocol stack needs to handle are summed up. As we can see in Figure I.1 below, the final destination is “the application” or, in the SMD world, the app. Whereas the other elements in this stack do not have a (end) user interface, the app element will ultimately fail or succeed based on user Dette er en postprint-versjon / This is a postprint version. DOI til publisert versjon / DOI to published version: 10.1109/VTCSpring.2015.7146128