An IoT Inspired Distributed Data Fusion Architecture for Coastal Surveillance Applications

Abstract

In this paper, we address the distributed data fusion problem considering a real scenario with multiple sensor sites geographically scattered around a bay. The advance of IoT, with more and more objects being connected, delivering and sharing huge amount of data, represents a big challenge. A timely fusion, using data obtained from different sources, like IoT and others, to provide efficient, reliable and accurate information to the decision makers is a requirement of modern data fusion systems. The paper presents a conceptual approach for a distributed data fusion system, applied in a maritime environment, where the common operational picture is obtained through a tactical datalink network. The concept and implementation of the proposed system follows the paradigm of Network Centric Warfare, which is an information age theory of warfare.