352. The Internet Protocol (IP) is a protocol used by source and destination hosts for communicating data across a packet-switched inter-network. Data in an IP inter-network are sent in blocks referred to as packets. No setup of "path" is needed before a host tries to send packets to a host it has previously not communicated with.

353. The Internet Protocol provides an unreliable datagram service (also called best effort); i.e. It makes almost no guarantees about the packet. The packet may arrive damaged, it may be out of order (compared to other packets sent between the same hosts), it may be duplicated, or it may be dropped entirely. If an application needs reliability, it is provided by other means, typically by upper level protocols transported on top of IP.

354. Inter-network routers, forward IP packets across interconnected layer 2 networks. The lack of any delivery guarantees means that the design of packet switches is made much simpler. (Note that if the network does drop, reorder or otherwise damage a lot of packets, the performance seen by the user will be poor, so most network elements do try hard to not do these things - hence the best effort term. However, an occasional error will produce no noticeable effect.)

355. In a network-enable NATO, there is a need for support for an unlimited number of site addresses for wireless communications devices, remote sensors, vehicles and precision-guided munitions. Therefore, with any large-scale operation, the current finite number of IP addresses becomes a resource that must be managed and closely monitored.

356. The ad-hoc nature of future NATO operations dictates the need for easily configurable networks. Since most of the devices connected to NATO networks will be mobile devices, a device must be able to arbitrarily change locations on the Internet and still maintain existing connections.

357. Security requires that systems and users are protected against attack, disruptions, and threats. Data must also be kept private and free of malicious or corrupted content as it travels throughout the enterprise. And the network infrastructure itself must be protected against exposure to attacks that impacts internal servers and end user systems. In the mid-term time frame the initial goal is encryption for the core network, and the final goal is edge-to-edge encryption with a network that is hardened against denial of service.

358. Ensuring availability means that systems themselves are always available, and that information is readily accessible to users and other authorized individuals, especially as it relates to regulatory compliance and legal discovery. Migrating older, yet still useful, data poses an added challenge to availability, as users still demand immediate access and IT requires high degrees of ease and automation to achieve this.

359. A key feature of network-enabled NATO is the ability to provide individual soldiers and commanders with relevant timely information. But pushing information to users in the area of operation is difficult because the number of items that can link to the network exceeds the current messaging protocol’s ability to assign addresses. Technologies that allow wireless systems to plug into tactical and theatre networks seamlessly without straining resources may permit the military to deploy more network-enabled devices.

360. This capability fits into a concept known as “only handle information once” (OHIO), where an information producer posts data once but permits authorized users to access it. This approach differs from requiring the producer to know the address of every user that may want the information.

361. All NATO participants or business process owners make their data available on the network as soon as it is created. Posting data does not mean just making accessible, it also means tagging (describing) the data appropriately for its content. Processing of data will be done as needed by specialized web services invoked by the data consumer.

362. The two solutions in use for data synchronization are called “Push” and “Pull”. Smart Pull is just a further refinement of the Pull solution.

363. Generally the immediate notification of push is desirable, however when building our own applications, the simplicity of pull is more attractive. This is where Smart Pull comes in. An example of the concept of smart pull that has been gained a lot of attention since the announcement is the Microsoft Messaging and Security Feature Pack (MMSF). MMSF provides Windows Mobile 5.0 Smartphone with full connectivity to their Exchange server, keeping Outlook data up-to-date including receiving email as soon as it arrives at the server. The technique used to maintain synchronization is basically a long-running web service call.

364. The smart pull mechanism seems like the kind of solution that will address many common scenarios faced when developing mobile applications that require close synchronization with a server. Applications encourage discovery; users can pull data directly from the network or use value-added discovery services.

365. In a data-centric approach the data separate from applications, or services. Communications between services occurs by posting data. The steps involved in a data-centric approach are:

366. Users can pull multiple services to access same data (e.g., for collaboration). This idea reinforces the underlying concept of the data being independent of the services that manipulate the data.

367. Assured sharing means trusted accessibility to net resources, such as: data, services, apps, people, collaborative environment, etc. Access is assured for authorized users, but denied for unauthorized users by maintaining thorough security policies.

368. Data timeliness, accuracy, completeness, integrity, and ease of use.