An innovative GIS-based telecommunications infrastructure integration system for Schriever Air Force Base cable plant management
A.S. Homjak, W.B. Howard · 2002
Due to the exponential increase of data during this "information age" the most basic practices of infrastructure and network architecture management have become increasingly unwieldy. This has been accelerated by the availability of affordable memory storage and the proliferation of enterprise networks in use across all types of commercial, governmental, and military organizations today. Previously considered just an infrastructure service, modern telecommunications has become a world-leading industry, a whole spectrum of new technologies, and in an era where "cyberwarfare" is a reality it is being viewed now as a weapon system by the military. This evolution has placed renewed importance of configuration information security, as data transmissions and command and control functions (C2) become central operational capabilities in their own right. Applying the advantages offered by geographical information system (GIS) techniques and massive programmable databases, we are ready to take the leap from evolutionary to the revolutionary in terms of data accessibility and situational awareness capabilities. The critical link which many organizations and software developers have been independently working on is how to access multiple, diverse datasets in separate locations across a network and read directly into the GIS application one is using. This is the approach the United States Air Force Space Command at Schriever Air Force Base (SAFE) is taking to implement its new advanced Communications Base Integration System (CBIS).