Enabling Multi-Access Edge Computing for DND

The Department of National Defence (DND) is the department of the Government of Canada which supports the Canadian Armed Forces in its role of defending Canadian national interests domestically and internationally. DND supports the Canadian Armed Forces who serve on the sea, on land, and in the air with the Navy, Army, Air Force and Special Forces to defend Canadians’ interests at home and abroad.

Under the umbrella of the Innovation for Defence Excellence and Security (IDEaS) program, DND identified the need to accelerate their digitization projects - something the team at Edge Signal took on, in collaboration with the University of Ottawa (uOttawa). The goal was achieved by implementing AI-backed autonomous decision-making models, providing DND with dynamic resource management among different levels of edge computing, from the device (far) edge to the fog edge, and from multi-access edge to centralized public/private cloud. While autonomy via edge computing was a key objective, DND also highlighted the importance of achieving scalability, reliability, and security.

The project scope included:

• Reliable and secure edge compute infrastructure management
• Load balance with 5G MEC (Multi-Access Edge Computing)
• Applying IT and security policies to remote systems
• Managing vehicle computing systems
• Predictive maintenance and analytics
• Data anonymization
• Real-time, situation-aware insights, such as distracted driving

Edge Signal and uOttawa provided DND with an edge-based ecosystem, unlocking various use cases and enabling DND to manage all edge services and applications within a single edge infrastructure to increase efficiencies, scalability, and security.

Further use cases are being evaluated as the project progresses.

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