Peering Into the Future

"This thesis focuses on the capabilities of an emerging technology known as Peer-To- Peer (P2P) technology and its potential to improve intelligence support to operational and tactical warfighters. First popularized by a popular music-sharing program called Napster in May 1999, P2P technology enabled the sharing of millions of music files over the Internet between anyone who wanted to share. Some advocates believe that P2P technology will fuel the next Internet revolution. A radical departure from previous hierarchical networking technologies, P2P promises to empower users at the edges of a network by giving them the ability to connect to each other directly without going through a central server. This thesis evaluates this new technology and its potential to link operational and tactical users at the edges of military networks directly to sensors and analysts that provide intelligence information. This study seeks to answer the question, "How would peer-to-peer technology improve the current intelligence tasking, processing, exploitation and dissemination (TPED) process to benefit operational and tactical users?" To answer this question, the study surveys the various deployments of P2P technology that are currently in use in the commercial marketplace, explores some conceptual foundations of P2P technology and discusses the promises and perils that the technology brings. Following this conceptual overview of the technology, the study defines the TPED process and explores its current strengths and weaknesses. Finally, this study explores the intersections between each step of the intelligence process and proposes options for P2P technology to improve each step by evaluating applicability, effectiveness, and ease of implementation. The study concludes that P2P technology offers operational and tactical users at the edges of a network unprecedented power. It offers them direct access to sensors, other users, information, and ultimately knowledge of the b