Final Report Summary - LOBOS (LOw time critical BOrder Surveillance)
Executive Summary:
LOBOS was a project funded by the European Commission’s Seventh Framework Programme (FP7). The aim of the project was to develop and demonstrate pre-operational industry provided space-based monitoring for the “low-time critical” components of the European Concept of Operations (CONOPS) document.
LOBOS cooperated closely with another FP7 project – SAGRES, which focused on the “high-time critical” components of the CONOPS. The two projects were very closely linked and therefore shared some activities, in particular common User Advisory Board meetings, joined dissemination materials and collaboration on innovation activities.
Consortium:
The LOBOS consortium included 14 partners from 8 European countries: industrial large companies, SMEs and also national institutes/organisations. The list of beneficiaries is given below:
- SPOT Image
- Infoterra Ltd
- Nederlandse Organisatie voor Toegepast Natuurwerenschappelijk Onderzoek
- GMV Aerospace and Defence SA Unipersonal
- GMV Skysoft SA
- Cassidian SAS
- Terraspatium
- Industrieanlagen Betriebsgesellschaft MBH
- European Union Satellite Centre
- Infoterra GmbH
- Astri Polska Spolka Z.O.O
- Centre for Security Studies
- Mercator Ocean Societe Civile
- Uniwersytet Warszawski
Work plan:
The project was divided into 8 Work Packages as follows:
WP1: Overall Management
WP2: Technical and Scientific Coordination
WP3: User Requirements
WP4: Service Specifications
WP5: Innovation
WP6: Demonstrations
WP7: Dissemination
WP8: Recommendations
Considering the above Work Breakdown Structure the activities can be grouped into the following main areas:
1. Interfaces with end users for requirements capture and refinements as well as test and evaluation.
2. Development and refinement of the specifications defining the services.
3. Future/new developments to enhance the services provided through innovation activities.
4. Development/integration, running and technical demonstration and validation for:
a. V1: Initial pre-operational services
b. V2: Pre-operational services
c. V3: Enhanced pre-operational services
5. Recommendations
These activities were conducted according to the following workflow, supported by an underlying innovation activity:
1. Refine the requirements (supported by WP3)
2. Update the specifications (supported by WP4)
3. Run/demonstrate the service (supported by WP6)
4. Test and evaluate the service (supported by WP3 and WP4)
5. Develop R&D activities to support the development and assessment of potential enhancements to be integrated into new versions of the service (supported by WP5)
The project followed an iterative approach to the service evolution, structured around the three versions listed above. In this way the service capability evolved towards the required pre-operational service capability with each new version informed by the lessons learned from the prior.
Requirements:
This part of the project (WP3) aimed to summarise and refine the requirements of the EUROSUR CONOPS conjointly with feedback received from the users (primarily FX). It also addressed the validation process.
Of particular importance was the refinement of user requirements regarding:
- Products and services (content, scale/resolution, update times, delivery times, geographic area and coverage etc), and
- Accuracy and precision.
This part delivered requirements and needs from Member State users (particularly Greek and Polish users) while maintaining a continuous dialogue with FX. The output of this activity helped to define in detail the technical characteristics of each of the proposed services. It also enabled the re-definition of the services and assisted in the establishment of the validation procedures to ensure that the requirements were effectively addressed.
Service description:
The starting point for definition of the individual service scenarios was the service scenarios described within the European CONOPS. For the low time critical elements, these included:
S1: Punctual monitoring of neighbouring 3rd country ports,
S2: Punctual monitoring of neighbouring 3rd country beaches,
S9: Updated reference maps,
S10: New ambient land features alert,
S11: Punctual monitoring of immediate pre-frontier or 3rd country specific locations.
The services were defined primarily for border surveillance including (but not exclusively) for the European situational picture, national situational pictures, risk assessment, monitoring of migration and drug trafficking and support to operations.
Although the CONOPS document considered inputs from several different platform options (i.e. satellites, UAVs, aircraft etc.) the services and products requested for the low time critical elements of the EU border surveillance service were expected to be derived primarily from satellite imagery data, complemented where relevant by ancillary data (such as open source intelligence). Satellite imagery data were accessed through the European Space Agency’s (ESA) Copernicus Space Component Data Access system (CSCDA).
The products and services were based primarily on image interpretation (through any combination of automatic, semi-automatic or manual extraction methods) but also required GIS modelling capabilities (e.g. for permeability mapping analyses) and other technologies (such as open source intelligence analyses conducted online).
Although the S1, S2, S9, S10 and S11 service scenarios listed above represent the low time critical service scenarios defined within the CONOPS, the experience within the LOBOS project led FX to reconsider the requirement for classifying the required services in this way. Overlaps, duplications, and significant similarities emerged in the way in which services were requested across the CONOPS-defined service scenarios leading to unnecessary complications and redundancies in the corresponding product specifications. This also led to greater risk of misinterpretation concerning what should, and should not, be included in the analyses which were undertaken within the different service scenarios. Consequently, for the final phase of the service evolution, the low time critical surveillance scenarios were simplified as follows:
S1 and S2 combined to form a Coastal Monitoring service scenario.
S9 remained as an individual service scenario for Reference Mapping.
S10 and S11 were combined to form a Pre-frontier Monitoring service scenario.
Monitoring within each of the service scenarios was requested through ‘activations’ which were received via FX/European Satellite Centre (EUSC) in the form of a Service Request Form (SRF). Thus, at a high level, the tasks which made up the end-to-end monitoring activities included the following:
- Assessment of the completeness of the information provided in the SRF along with an assessment of any technical limitations which may prevent a comprehensive response to the request.
- Preparation of the relevant EO imagery procurement requests and submission to the CSCDA Service Desk. The specifications of these procurement requests were largely informed by the information that was included in the SRF (i.e. in terms of area coverage, temporal frequency of acquisitions) and in the product specifications (i.e. in terms of spatial resolution).
- Coordination tasks to monitor, track and control progress throughout the activations, keeping FX and all relevant service participants informed of the status of activations, the availability of EO data, the availability of products etc.
- Retrieval, Quality Control and subsequent distribution of the procured EO imagery to support the monitoring tasks.
- Production tasks to prepare the various products e.g. briefing notes, map products, report products etc. and the Quality Control of these products prior to dissemination.
- Maintenance, administration and operation of the developed service platform infrastructure.
- Reporting.
Service portfolio:
The LOBOS product portfolio was constructed on the basis of a “nested” logic. This meant that a number of different levels were conceived within the different product definitions. These different levels included:
1. Services, within which a number of different…
2. Products, were identified. Each Product consisted of several…
3. Components, with each Component in turn consisting of one or more…
4. Parameters. Finally, the Parameters were themselves made up of different…
5. Features.
Demonstration activities:
The objective of this work package (WP6) was to demonstrate a pre-operational border surveillance capability over an extended period. Activities were built around the three service evolution phases:
1. An initial pre-operational service based on existing capabilities.
2. A pre-operational service reflecting the lessons learned in V1 i.e. previous service enhanced with new capabilities.
3. An enhanced pre-operational service reflecting the lessons learned in V2 i.e. previous service enhanced with new capabilities, including relevant innovation activities emerging from WP5.
At the conclusion of the demonstration activities LOBOS had responded to a total of 25 activations – 10 during V1 of the service evolution, 8 during V2 of the service evolution and 7 during V3 of the service evolution.
Innovation:
This work package (WP5) supported a set of innovation tasks and activities intended to support the demonstration activities undertaken through WP6. The innovation activities were aimed at the investigation and development of additional monitoring capabilities that could add further value to the baseline service specifications defined through the CONOPs. The following five sub-tasks were undertaken:
- Tasking and data capture management: the objective for this task was to define enhanced strategies for understanding the planning and tasking of satellite overflights and data capture with a view to delivering potential improvements in service levels.
- Open source intelligence: The objective for this task was the integration of Open Source INTelligence data (OSINT) into the production workflow to support the monitoring and analysis based on the imagery.
- Meteo and ocean parameters: The objective for this task was to investigate the potential for meteorological and oceanographic products and data streams to complement the baseline monitoring activities.
- Permeability analyses: The objective of this task was to develop and demonstrate capabilities for extracting permeability indicators from a combination of the EO imagery and the reference mapping products. The task was thus linked to the reference mapping service scenario.
Innovation activities started from the beginning of the project with permeability monitoring included in the demonstration activities even during the V1. For the remaining activities a key milestone was a dedicated R&D workshop that was organised at FX premises in April 2014. This workshop enabled all partners involved in the innovation activities to present their progress directly to FX, with feedback received accordingly. This workshop was a joint event which also included representatives from SAGRES.
Dissemination:
This work package focused on the dissemination activities within LOBOS. Components included:
- Dissemination activities: including the website, promotional material etc.
- Intellectual property management: including a plan for dissemination activities
- User Advisory Boards: formal, bi-monthly meetings to support an ongoing and effective exchange of information between the project coordinator and relevant WP leaders and representatives from FX. Setup, managed and attended jointly with SAGRES.
Project Context and Objectives:
Since 2008 work has been ongoing to establish a European Border Surveillance System (EUROSUR) to reinforce the control of the Schengen external border, especially the southern maritime and eastern land borders. The relevance of this work has been emphasised in recent years through international political events such as the Arab spring and the recent migrant catastrophe off the Italian island of Lampedusa. EUROSUR seeks to establish an information sharing and cooperation mechanism enabling the border control authorities of Member States (MS) to collaborate with FRONTEX (FX) on multiple levels: tactical, operational and strategic. The aim is to improve EU border surveillance capabilities through increasing situational awareness at external borders and through improved reaction capabilities on the part of national authorities who survey EU borders.
What is required now is the security information that should provide the input to the EUROSUR information sharing and cooperation mechanism.
Within Europe it is acknowledged that there is significant potential for space-based services, in conjunction with other terrestrial and airborne technologies, to contribute significantly to the security information requirements of the EUROSUR system. Hence the Copernicus programme includes a border surveillance element within its overall Security Service component. The clear objective of the foreseen EU border surveillance service is to contribute to an enhanced border surveillance capability for the EU by providing valuable monitoring information to enrich the intelligence content available through the EUROSUR.
The overriding objective for the LOBOS project has thus been the demonstration of a pre-operational capability to deliver space-based monitoring in line with the requirements defined for the EU border surveillance service. The baseline for these requirements, and thus the starting point for the LOBOS service specifications, has been the European Concept of Operations (CONOPS) document. Implicit in such a demonstration is thus also an investigation into the suitability/applicability of the requirements that are defined in the CONOPS for the relevant service scenarios, and, indeed, the suitability/applicability of the service scenarios themselves.
Project Results:
This section provides a summary of the progress that was made within LOBOS from the perspective of developing and demonstrating the required pre-operational service capability i.e. the extent to which the service capability (reached by the end of the project) is aligned with user expectations and ready to support genuine operational service delivery.
At the conclusion of the demonstration activities LOBOS had responded to a total of 25 activations – 10 during V1 of the service evolution, 8 during V2 of the service evolution and 7 during V3 of the service evolution.
The LOBOS experience is thus considered to be relatively robust, including a good spread across all of the service scenarios i.e. those originally defined within the CONOPS (relevant for V1 and V2) as well as the consolidated service scenarios agreed with FX for V3. It is also relevant that within each activation, numerous individual products have been prepared. This is summarised as follows:
Version 1: 10 activations with a total of 32 products
Version 2: 8 activations with a total of 48 products
Version 3: 6 activations with a total of 30 products
This includes a mix of Fast Deliveries (FD), Complete Products (CP), Reference Maps (RM) and change detection products.
A key observation across the entire duration of the project is that the iterative approach to the service evolution delivered according to expectations i.e. although the V1 activities were largely unsuccessful from the user expectation perspective, the issues that were raised did support an extremely rapid learning curve which was used to inform strong progress in V2. The success of V2 in turn was the catalyst for further improvements, refinements and enhancements in V3, supported by increased levels of confidence on the part of FX.
As at the end of the project, following is a summary of the building blocks that were developed, implemented and demonstrated for supporting operational service capabilities:
1. Dedicated service platform to support efficient sharing of files and products (FTP-based, not considered a long term solution).
2. Bespoke directory structures and file naming conventions to support efficient administration of the service platform.
3. Pre-defined and fixed format for Activation IDs to support efficient reporting and controlling of all related activation tasks.
4. Monitoring and tracking tools at both the service level and individual activation level to promote efficient controlling and reporting capabilities.
5. Detailed end-to-end activation workflow defining consistent procedures for activation handling. Clarifies the various interactions that should occur, the order in which they should occur, the ownership of the various tasks and has the very important function of removing doubt and inconsistency from the overall service levels.
6. Clearly defined roles and responsibilities – linked to the activation workflow, these support efficiency and consistency in the service delivery.
7. A well defined product portfolio – based initially on the guidelines provided in the CONOPS but refined through the accumulated pre-operational experience and through feedback directly from FX/EUSC.
8. Well defined and clear product specifications supporting much improved levels of quality, consistency and standardisation in the service delivery as well as a much clearer set of expectations on the part of FX.
9. A set of bespoke tools to support the product specifications, including ;
a. Pre-defined geodatabase of features, based on known industrial standards, for each of the in-scope services
b. Pre-defined symbology to support consistency in terms of quality and ‘look and feel’
c. Pre-defined product templates to further support consistency in terms of quality and ‘look and feel’
10. Pre-defined QC templates to assist both PPs and SC in performing consistent internal QC.
11. A well-developed competence base for handling data access mechanisms and processes. This extends across several partners with a view to supporting a potential 24/7 service requirement. Competence base covers data access through both the standard (‘non-rush’) order mechanism and the GEST (‘rush’) order mechanism.
Thus all of the major building blocks for a sustainable operational service capability have been developed, implemented and demonstrated within the LOBOS project. By their very nature, service specifications will always evolve, what is important is having a stable platform from which to support such evolutions. For example, the EUROSUR platform itself has been evolving in parallel to the LOBOS activities. As such there would be expected to be opportunities to improve the coherence of the product specifications with the expected format for ingestion/dissemination via EUROSUR.
The vast majority of the above-listed service building blocks were already in place at the end of V2 of the service evolution. However, at that point it was noted that there was room for improvement with respect to the extent that the various building blocks were embedded and mature i.e. the extent to which the service providers were comfortable and confident with the various elements that made up the end-to-end services.
At the end of V1, the ratio of non-compliant to partial compliant to compliant was 8 :19 :5. For V2 the same ratio was 4 :29 :15. And for V3 the ratio was 0 :9 :21. From this analysis the following major observations can be made :
During V1 the high proportion of non-compliant products reflects the low levels of alignment with user expectations. This was expected given the absence at that point of a proper service specification, product portfolio, dissemination platform, monitoring and control mechanisms, product templates etc. Already towards the end of V1 this situation was improving as evidenced by the higher numbers of partially compliant products.
V2 was the phase during which a step-change was delivered in terms of the service capability. All the items listed as missing from V1 i.e. proper service specification, product portfolio, dissemination platform, monitoring and control mechanisms, product templates etc. were defined, developed and implemented for V2. Thus V2 was the service evolution phase during which a fit for purpose pre-operational service capability was developed and demonstrated. This is reflected in the lower numbers of non-compliant products. However, the maturity of the developed service capability, and the extent to which the PPs were comfortable and confident with the procedures and mechanisms was still maturing during V2, clearly evidenced by the high numbers of partially compliant products.
V3 was also characterised by improvements in the service specifications and mechanisms to deliver the service, but most importantly was the service evolution phase during which the service capabilities matured. The increasing experience of the PPs is clearly reflected in the total absence of non-compliant products and the higher ratio of compliant products to partially compliant products.
A very important criterion for assessing the success of the service delivery, from the operational perspective, is the ability to consistently meet the timeliness specifications for the different products. It is clear that in order to deliver the required value, from the border surveillance perspective on the ground, the products must deliver the required information within the expected timeframes.
LOBOS, although considered ‘low time critical’ from the perspective of the CONOPS, is in reality operating in ‘rush’ mode with Fast Deliveries (FD) expected within two hours after image reception. Delivery timeframes in the order of ‘hours’ after image reception are only achievable consistently by following well defined procedures, supported by well defined and mature mechanisms and protocols.
V1 shows a higher proportion of timeliness ‘OK’s than ‘NOK’s than in V2. However this is slightly misleading since the timeliness of some products was not properly recorded at the time (measures for robust monitoring and control were not yet in place) and a high proportion of those products that were delivered were non-compliant. The step-change in V2 is clear in the recorded statistics which show is that, in order to meet the timeliness requirements, the implemented service specifications must be properly embedded in PP working arrangements. This was achieved in V3, with a significant improvement seen in the ratio of timeliness ‘OK’s to ‘NOK’s.
Complete Products (CP) are required within 24 working hours of availability of the imagery. Although longer than the two hours available for the FDs, this is still a significant challenge since the amount of work involved in preparing the CP is significantly greater than in the FD briefing notes.
The same trend is visible in the CPs as with the FDs i.e. an improving ratio of timeliness ‘OK’s to ‘NOK’s through V1 and V2, with a step-change improvement in timeliness in V3, as the implemented service specifications matured.
In summary, the trajectory of improvement in terms of meeting user expectations is considered to be very positive and inline with the planned iterative approach to service evoluion. V1, although subject to major issues, facilitated a rapid learning curve which informed the step-change in V2. V3 in turn shows clearly the improving maturity of the V2 service specifications and the associated increases and stabilisation in the achieved performance levels.
The final word on the extent to which the LOBOS service evolution delivered the required pre-operational service capabilities is left to FX, as the key user and stakeholder. Formal feedback was received for all activations. For the version 3 activations, this formal feedback confirmed that for all 3 of the in-scope service scenarios, the expected levels of quality and content were reached.
Potential Impact:
The LOBOS project benefited from a clearly defined core objective. The project also benefited from a clearly defined user requirement, and an associated close interaction with the relevant user organisation. As a result, the project expected impacts are well understood. As the project moved through the planned service evolution phases it moved towards a more mature pre-operational border surveillance service capability. This capability was developed directly in response to well defined European institutional requirements and as such is expected to be the subject of a programme of continuity through competitively released tenders for service provision.
Thus, once implemented, the developed service capability will represent genuinely operational service delivery through the Copernicus programme supporting increased safety and security for all European citizens.
Given the security context within which the project was working, the project was the subject of both initial and final ethical oversight reviews. These were conducted by an independent expert who reviewed the activities of the project by considering the key deliverables. The reports both concluded that the project was not engaged in any activities that were unacceptable from an ethical perspective but did make several recommendations to help the project improve its awareness of potential ethics-related issues.
The final word on the extent to which the LOBOS service evolution delivered the required pre-operational service capabilities is left to FX, as the key user and stakeholder. Formal feedback was received for all activations. For the version 3 activations, this formal feedback confirmed that for all 3 of the in-scope service scenarios, the expected levels of quality and content were reached.
List of Websites:
http://www.copernicus-lobos.eu/(öffnet in neuem Fenster)
Contact: andrew.groom@astrium.eads.net
LOBOS was a project funded by the European Commission’s Seventh Framework Programme (FP7). The aim of the project was to develop and demonstrate pre-operational industry provided space-based monitoring for the “low-time critical” components of the European Concept of Operations (CONOPS) document.
LOBOS cooperated closely with another FP7 project – SAGRES, which focused on the “high-time critical” components of the CONOPS. The two projects were very closely linked and therefore shared some activities, in particular common User Advisory Board meetings, joined dissemination materials and collaboration on innovation activities.
Consortium:
The LOBOS consortium included 14 partners from 8 European countries: industrial large companies, SMEs and also national institutes/organisations. The list of beneficiaries is given below:
- SPOT Image
- Infoterra Ltd
- Nederlandse Organisatie voor Toegepast Natuurwerenschappelijk Onderzoek
- GMV Aerospace and Defence SA Unipersonal
- GMV Skysoft SA
- Cassidian SAS
- Terraspatium
- Industrieanlagen Betriebsgesellschaft MBH
- European Union Satellite Centre
- Infoterra GmbH
- Astri Polska Spolka Z.O.O
- Centre for Security Studies
- Mercator Ocean Societe Civile
- Uniwersytet Warszawski
Work plan:
The project was divided into 8 Work Packages as follows:
WP1: Overall Management
WP2: Technical and Scientific Coordination
WP3: User Requirements
WP4: Service Specifications
WP5: Innovation
WP6: Demonstrations
WP7: Dissemination
WP8: Recommendations
Considering the above Work Breakdown Structure the activities can be grouped into the following main areas:
1. Interfaces with end users for requirements capture and refinements as well as test and evaluation.
2. Development and refinement of the specifications defining the services.
3. Future/new developments to enhance the services provided through innovation activities.
4. Development/integration, running and technical demonstration and validation for:
a. V1: Initial pre-operational services
b. V2: Pre-operational services
c. V3: Enhanced pre-operational services
5. Recommendations
These activities were conducted according to the following workflow, supported by an underlying innovation activity:
1. Refine the requirements (supported by WP3)
2. Update the specifications (supported by WP4)
3. Run/demonstrate the service (supported by WP6)
4. Test and evaluate the service (supported by WP3 and WP4)
5. Develop R&D activities to support the development and assessment of potential enhancements to be integrated into new versions of the service (supported by WP5)
The project followed an iterative approach to the service evolution, structured around the three versions listed above. In this way the service capability evolved towards the required pre-operational service capability with each new version informed by the lessons learned from the prior.
Requirements:
This part of the project (WP3) aimed to summarise and refine the requirements of the EUROSUR CONOPS conjointly with feedback received from the users (primarily FX). It also addressed the validation process.
Of particular importance was the refinement of user requirements regarding:
- Products and services (content, scale/resolution, update times, delivery times, geographic area and coverage etc), and
- Accuracy and precision.
This part delivered requirements and needs from Member State users (particularly Greek and Polish users) while maintaining a continuous dialogue with FX. The output of this activity helped to define in detail the technical characteristics of each of the proposed services. It also enabled the re-definition of the services and assisted in the establishment of the validation procedures to ensure that the requirements were effectively addressed.
Service description:
The starting point for definition of the individual service scenarios was the service scenarios described within the European CONOPS. For the low time critical elements, these included:
S1: Punctual monitoring of neighbouring 3rd country ports,
S2: Punctual monitoring of neighbouring 3rd country beaches,
S9: Updated reference maps,
S10: New ambient land features alert,
S11: Punctual monitoring of immediate pre-frontier or 3rd country specific locations.
The services were defined primarily for border surveillance including (but not exclusively) for the European situational picture, national situational pictures, risk assessment, monitoring of migration and drug trafficking and support to operations.
Although the CONOPS document considered inputs from several different platform options (i.e. satellites, UAVs, aircraft etc.) the services and products requested for the low time critical elements of the EU border surveillance service were expected to be derived primarily from satellite imagery data, complemented where relevant by ancillary data (such as open source intelligence). Satellite imagery data were accessed through the European Space Agency’s (ESA) Copernicus Space Component Data Access system (CSCDA).
The products and services were based primarily on image interpretation (through any combination of automatic, semi-automatic or manual extraction methods) but also required GIS modelling capabilities (e.g. for permeability mapping analyses) and other technologies (such as open source intelligence analyses conducted online).
Although the S1, S2, S9, S10 and S11 service scenarios listed above represent the low time critical service scenarios defined within the CONOPS, the experience within the LOBOS project led FX to reconsider the requirement for classifying the required services in this way. Overlaps, duplications, and significant similarities emerged in the way in which services were requested across the CONOPS-defined service scenarios leading to unnecessary complications and redundancies in the corresponding product specifications. This also led to greater risk of misinterpretation concerning what should, and should not, be included in the analyses which were undertaken within the different service scenarios. Consequently, for the final phase of the service evolution, the low time critical surveillance scenarios were simplified as follows:
S1 and S2 combined to form a Coastal Monitoring service scenario.
S9 remained as an individual service scenario for Reference Mapping.
S10 and S11 were combined to form a Pre-frontier Monitoring service scenario.
Monitoring within each of the service scenarios was requested through ‘activations’ which were received via FX/European Satellite Centre (EUSC) in the form of a Service Request Form (SRF). Thus, at a high level, the tasks which made up the end-to-end monitoring activities included the following:
- Assessment of the completeness of the information provided in the SRF along with an assessment of any technical limitations which may prevent a comprehensive response to the request.
- Preparation of the relevant EO imagery procurement requests and submission to the CSCDA Service Desk. The specifications of these procurement requests were largely informed by the information that was included in the SRF (i.e. in terms of area coverage, temporal frequency of acquisitions) and in the product specifications (i.e. in terms of spatial resolution).
- Coordination tasks to monitor, track and control progress throughout the activations, keeping FX and all relevant service participants informed of the status of activations, the availability of EO data, the availability of products etc.
- Retrieval, Quality Control and subsequent distribution of the procured EO imagery to support the monitoring tasks.
- Production tasks to prepare the various products e.g. briefing notes, map products, report products etc. and the Quality Control of these products prior to dissemination.
- Maintenance, administration and operation of the developed service platform infrastructure.
- Reporting.
Service portfolio:
The LOBOS product portfolio was constructed on the basis of a “nested” logic. This meant that a number of different levels were conceived within the different product definitions. These different levels included:
1. Services, within which a number of different…
2. Products, were identified. Each Product consisted of several…
3. Components, with each Component in turn consisting of one or more…
4. Parameters. Finally, the Parameters were themselves made up of different…
5. Features.
Demonstration activities:
The objective of this work package (WP6) was to demonstrate a pre-operational border surveillance capability over an extended period. Activities were built around the three service evolution phases:
1. An initial pre-operational service based on existing capabilities.
2. A pre-operational service reflecting the lessons learned in V1 i.e. previous service enhanced with new capabilities.
3. An enhanced pre-operational service reflecting the lessons learned in V2 i.e. previous service enhanced with new capabilities, including relevant innovation activities emerging from WP5.
At the conclusion of the demonstration activities LOBOS had responded to a total of 25 activations – 10 during V1 of the service evolution, 8 during V2 of the service evolution and 7 during V3 of the service evolution.
Innovation:
This work package (WP5) supported a set of innovation tasks and activities intended to support the demonstration activities undertaken through WP6. The innovation activities were aimed at the investigation and development of additional monitoring capabilities that could add further value to the baseline service specifications defined through the CONOPs. The following five sub-tasks were undertaken:
- Tasking and data capture management: the objective for this task was to define enhanced strategies for understanding the planning and tasking of satellite overflights and data capture with a view to delivering potential improvements in service levels.
- Open source intelligence: The objective for this task was the integration of Open Source INTelligence data (OSINT) into the production workflow to support the monitoring and analysis based on the imagery.
- Meteo and ocean parameters: The objective for this task was to investigate the potential for meteorological and oceanographic products and data streams to complement the baseline monitoring activities.
- Permeability analyses: The objective of this task was to develop and demonstrate capabilities for extracting permeability indicators from a combination of the EO imagery and the reference mapping products. The task was thus linked to the reference mapping service scenario.
Innovation activities started from the beginning of the project with permeability monitoring included in the demonstration activities even during the V1. For the remaining activities a key milestone was a dedicated R&D workshop that was organised at FX premises in April 2014. This workshop enabled all partners involved in the innovation activities to present their progress directly to FX, with feedback received accordingly. This workshop was a joint event which also included representatives from SAGRES.
Dissemination:
This work package focused on the dissemination activities within LOBOS. Components included:
- Dissemination activities: including the website, promotional material etc.
- Intellectual property management: including a plan for dissemination activities
- User Advisory Boards: formal, bi-monthly meetings to support an ongoing and effective exchange of information between the project coordinator and relevant WP leaders and representatives from FX. Setup, managed and attended jointly with SAGRES.
Project Context and Objectives:
Since 2008 work has been ongoing to establish a European Border Surveillance System (EUROSUR) to reinforce the control of the Schengen external border, especially the southern maritime and eastern land borders. The relevance of this work has been emphasised in recent years through international political events such as the Arab spring and the recent migrant catastrophe off the Italian island of Lampedusa. EUROSUR seeks to establish an information sharing and cooperation mechanism enabling the border control authorities of Member States (MS) to collaborate with FRONTEX (FX) on multiple levels: tactical, operational and strategic. The aim is to improve EU border surveillance capabilities through increasing situational awareness at external borders and through improved reaction capabilities on the part of national authorities who survey EU borders.
What is required now is the security information that should provide the input to the EUROSUR information sharing and cooperation mechanism.
Within Europe it is acknowledged that there is significant potential for space-based services, in conjunction with other terrestrial and airborne technologies, to contribute significantly to the security information requirements of the EUROSUR system. Hence the Copernicus programme includes a border surveillance element within its overall Security Service component. The clear objective of the foreseen EU border surveillance service is to contribute to an enhanced border surveillance capability for the EU by providing valuable monitoring information to enrich the intelligence content available through the EUROSUR.
The overriding objective for the LOBOS project has thus been the demonstration of a pre-operational capability to deliver space-based monitoring in line with the requirements defined for the EU border surveillance service. The baseline for these requirements, and thus the starting point for the LOBOS service specifications, has been the European Concept of Operations (CONOPS) document. Implicit in such a demonstration is thus also an investigation into the suitability/applicability of the requirements that are defined in the CONOPS for the relevant service scenarios, and, indeed, the suitability/applicability of the service scenarios themselves.
Project Results:
This section provides a summary of the progress that was made within LOBOS from the perspective of developing and demonstrating the required pre-operational service capability i.e. the extent to which the service capability (reached by the end of the project) is aligned with user expectations and ready to support genuine operational service delivery.
At the conclusion of the demonstration activities LOBOS had responded to a total of 25 activations – 10 during V1 of the service evolution, 8 during V2 of the service evolution and 7 during V3 of the service evolution.
The LOBOS experience is thus considered to be relatively robust, including a good spread across all of the service scenarios i.e. those originally defined within the CONOPS (relevant for V1 and V2) as well as the consolidated service scenarios agreed with FX for V3. It is also relevant that within each activation, numerous individual products have been prepared. This is summarised as follows:
Version 1: 10 activations with a total of 32 products
Version 2: 8 activations with a total of 48 products
Version 3: 6 activations with a total of 30 products
This includes a mix of Fast Deliveries (FD), Complete Products (CP), Reference Maps (RM) and change detection products.
A key observation across the entire duration of the project is that the iterative approach to the service evolution delivered according to expectations i.e. although the V1 activities were largely unsuccessful from the user expectation perspective, the issues that were raised did support an extremely rapid learning curve which was used to inform strong progress in V2. The success of V2 in turn was the catalyst for further improvements, refinements and enhancements in V3, supported by increased levels of confidence on the part of FX.
As at the end of the project, following is a summary of the building blocks that were developed, implemented and demonstrated for supporting operational service capabilities:
1. Dedicated service platform to support efficient sharing of files and products (FTP-based, not considered a long term solution).
2. Bespoke directory structures and file naming conventions to support efficient administration of the service platform.
3. Pre-defined and fixed format for Activation IDs to support efficient reporting and controlling of all related activation tasks.
4. Monitoring and tracking tools at both the service level and individual activation level to promote efficient controlling and reporting capabilities.
5. Detailed end-to-end activation workflow defining consistent procedures for activation handling. Clarifies the various interactions that should occur, the order in which they should occur, the ownership of the various tasks and has the very important function of removing doubt and inconsistency from the overall service levels.
6. Clearly defined roles and responsibilities – linked to the activation workflow, these support efficiency and consistency in the service delivery.
7. A well defined product portfolio – based initially on the guidelines provided in the CONOPS but refined through the accumulated pre-operational experience and through feedback directly from FX/EUSC.
8. Well defined and clear product specifications supporting much improved levels of quality, consistency and standardisation in the service delivery as well as a much clearer set of expectations on the part of FX.
9. A set of bespoke tools to support the product specifications, including ;
a. Pre-defined geodatabase of features, based on known industrial standards, for each of the in-scope services
b. Pre-defined symbology to support consistency in terms of quality and ‘look and feel’
c. Pre-defined product templates to further support consistency in terms of quality and ‘look and feel’
10. Pre-defined QC templates to assist both PPs and SC in performing consistent internal QC.
11. A well-developed competence base for handling data access mechanisms and processes. This extends across several partners with a view to supporting a potential 24/7 service requirement. Competence base covers data access through both the standard (‘non-rush’) order mechanism and the GEST (‘rush’) order mechanism.
Thus all of the major building blocks for a sustainable operational service capability have been developed, implemented and demonstrated within the LOBOS project. By their very nature, service specifications will always evolve, what is important is having a stable platform from which to support such evolutions. For example, the EUROSUR platform itself has been evolving in parallel to the LOBOS activities. As such there would be expected to be opportunities to improve the coherence of the product specifications with the expected format for ingestion/dissemination via EUROSUR.
The vast majority of the above-listed service building blocks were already in place at the end of V2 of the service evolution. However, at that point it was noted that there was room for improvement with respect to the extent that the various building blocks were embedded and mature i.e. the extent to which the service providers were comfortable and confident with the various elements that made up the end-to-end services.
At the end of V1, the ratio of non-compliant to partial compliant to compliant was 8 :19 :5. For V2 the same ratio was 4 :29 :15. And for V3 the ratio was 0 :9 :21. From this analysis the following major observations can be made :
During V1 the high proportion of non-compliant products reflects the low levels of alignment with user expectations. This was expected given the absence at that point of a proper service specification, product portfolio, dissemination platform, monitoring and control mechanisms, product templates etc. Already towards the end of V1 this situation was improving as evidenced by the higher numbers of partially compliant products.
V2 was the phase during which a step-change was delivered in terms of the service capability. All the items listed as missing from V1 i.e. proper service specification, product portfolio, dissemination platform, monitoring and control mechanisms, product templates etc. were defined, developed and implemented for V2. Thus V2 was the service evolution phase during which a fit for purpose pre-operational service capability was developed and demonstrated. This is reflected in the lower numbers of non-compliant products. However, the maturity of the developed service capability, and the extent to which the PPs were comfortable and confident with the procedures and mechanisms was still maturing during V2, clearly evidenced by the high numbers of partially compliant products.
V3 was also characterised by improvements in the service specifications and mechanisms to deliver the service, but most importantly was the service evolution phase during which the service capabilities matured. The increasing experience of the PPs is clearly reflected in the total absence of non-compliant products and the higher ratio of compliant products to partially compliant products.
A very important criterion for assessing the success of the service delivery, from the operational perspective, is the ability to consistently meet the timeliness specifications for the different products. It is clear that in order to deliver the required value, from the border surveillance perspective on the ground, the products must deliver the required information within the expected timeframes.
LOBOS, although considered ‘low time critical’ from the perspective of the CONOPS, is in reality operating in ‘rush’ mode with Fast Deliveries (FD) expected within two hours after image reception. Delivery timeframes in the order of ‘hours’ after image reception are only achievable consistently by following well defined procedures, supported by well defined and mature mechanisms and protocols.
V1 shows a higher proportion of timeliness ‘OK’s than ‘NOK’s than in V2. However this is slightly misleading since the timeliness of some products was not properly recorded at the time (measures for robust monitoring and control were not yet in place) and a high proportion of those products that were delivered were non-compliant. The step-change in V2 is clear in the recorded statistics which show is that, in order to meet the timeliness requirements, the implemented service specifications must be properly embedded in PP working arrangements. This was achieved in V3, with a significant improvement seen in the ratio of timeliness ‘OK’s to ‘NOK’s.
Complete Products (CP) are required within 24 working hours of availability of the imagery. Although longer than the two hours available for the FDs, this is still a significant challenge since the amount of work involved in preparing the CP is significantly greater than in the FD briefing notes.
The same trend is visible in the CPs as with the FDs i.e. an improving ratio of timeliness ‘OK’s to ‘NOK’s through V1 and V2, with a step-change improvement in timeliness in V3, as the implemented service specifications matured.
In summary, the trajectory of improvement in terms of meeting user expectations is considered to be very positive and inline with the planned iterative approach to service evoluion. V1, although subject to major issues, facilitated a rapid learning curve which informed the step-change in V2. V3 in turn shows clearly the improving maturity of the V2 service specifications and the associated increases and stabilisation in the achieved performance levels.
The final word on the extent to which the LOBOS service evolution delivered the required pre-operational service capabilities is left to FX, as the key user and stakeholder. Formal feedback was received for all activations. For the version 3 activations, this formal feedback confirmed that for all 3 of the in-scope service scenarios, the expected levels of quality and content were reached.
Potential Impact:
The LOBOS project benefited from a clearly defined core objective. The project also benefited from a clearly defined user requirement, and an associated close interaction with the relevant user organisation. As a result, the project expected impacts are well understood. As the project moved through the planned service evolution phases it moved towards a more mature pre-operational border surveillance service capability. This capability was developed directly in response to well defined European institutional requirements and as such is expected to be the subject of a programme of continuity through competitively released tenders for service provision.
Thus, once implemented, the developed service capability will represent genuinely operational service delivery through the Copernicus programme supporting increased safety and security for all European citizens.
Given the security context within which the project was working, the project was the subject of both initial and final ethical oversight reviews. These were conducted by an independent expert who reviewed the activities of the project by considering the key deliverables. The reports both concluded that the project was not engaged in any activities that were unacceptable from an ethical perspective but did make several recommendations to help the project improve its awareness of potential ethics-related issues.
The final word on the extent to which the LOBOS service evolution delivered the required pre-operational service capabilities is left to FX, as the key user and stakeholder. Formal feedback was received for all activations. For the version 3 activations, this formal feedback confirmed that for all 3 of the in-scope service scenarios, the expected levels of quality and content were reached.
List of Websites:
http://www.copernicus-lobos.eu/(öffnet in neuem Fenster)
Contact: andrew.groom@astrium.eads.net