Command and Control Common Semantic Core
Required to Enable Net-centric Operation

Erik Chaum, NUWC
Richard Lee, OSD-DDR&E

May 20, 2008 at 10:30

ABSTRACT

Commanders and decision makers require timely and accurate information. The power of information and information sharing are fundamental tenets of the ongoing defense transformation. Making information discoverable, accessible, and understandable are critical to achieving net-centric capability. Of these, the most difficult to accomplish is the requirement to make shared information "understandable". This paper discusses enabling shared understanding in the joint and multinational operational context and recommends leveraging the ongoing work of the Multilateral Interoperability Programme (MIP). It also looks at cost and performance factors.

BIO

Erik Chaum is a member of the Center for Advanced System Technology at the Naval Undersea Warfare Center, Newport, RI. He performs command and control research, experimentation and standardization work in multiple multinational fora including; the Multilateral Interoperability Programme (MIP) as a member of the U.S. delegation, and The Technical Cooperation Program (TTCP) where he is the U.S. National Leader in Maritime Systems Group's Maritime Command and Control and Information Management Panel. In the recent past he served two years as the Assistant Director, Defense Modeling and Simulation (M&S) Office focused on M&S and C2 interoperability. In this capacity, he additionally served as a M&S TTCP National Leader and NATO RTO co-chair. He has led Navy C2 experimental initiatives looking at innovative techniques to improve man-man and man-machine collaboration through sharing JC3IEDM structured data. Mr. Chaum is a 1977 graduate of the US Naval Academy and a 1984 graduate from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) Management of Technology program.

Richard Lee is the Assistant Deputy Under Secretary of Defense for Information Integration and Operations, Office of the Under Secretary of Defense (Acquisition, Technology & Logistics), Defense Research & Engineering Directorate, Office of the Deputy Under Secretary of Defense for Advanced Systems and Concepts, with oversight for Advanced Concepts and Joint Capabilities Technology Demonstrations in communications, information operations, interoperability, and computer network defense. Mr. Lee served in the United States Navy as a Surface Warfare Officer, commanding USS OLIVER HAZARD PERRY (FFG 7) from 1990 to 1992. Ashore he served as a Military Observer with the United Nations, managed various communications, command and control, and information operations programs. He retired as a Captain in 1999. Mr. Lee joined the Office of the Secretary of Defense in May 2001. He is a graduate of the US Naval Academy with a Bachelor of Marine Engineering degree, and holds a Master of Electrical Engineering degree with a concentration in communications systems from the US Naval Postgraduate School.

Tactical Voice Integration Services
for Dismounted Urban Operations

Thomas Massie, MITRE
Dr. Leo Obrst, MITRE
Dr. Duminda Wijeskera, GMU

May 20, 2008 at 10:30

ABSTRACT

Voice automated computing and speech recognition technology are beginning to revolutionize the commercial industry as speech recognition systems are becoming widely used in many real world applications, such as commercial banking and airline reservations. Speech has many advantages over other forms of communication, which make speech recognition systems useful to businesses and customers. We show the utility of speech recognition technology to support the command, control and information fusion needs of dismounted soldiers engaged in specialized tactical operations. TVIS is presented, in terms of an operational and systems architecture, which includes a vocabulary of grammar and sample voice choreography. These artifacts are used to illustrate autonomous voice access, which is defined as a soldier's ability to voice authenticate, access, search and retrieve tactical information assets from backend systems equipped with speech recognition services. The authors believe that as voice and data networks continue to converge, speech recognition and integrated voice response (IVR) technology will drive the evolution of voice-enabled tactical communication portals, thus enabling soldiers to remotely access information through specialized voice enterprise services.

BIO

Realizing the Army Net-Centric Data Strategy (ANCDS)
in a Service Oriented Archecture (SOA)

Michelle Dirner
Army Net-Centric Data Strategy (ANCDS) Center of Excellence (CoE)

Eric Yuan
Booz Allen Hamilton

James Blalock
Army CIO / G6 Architecture, Operations & Space Directorate

May 20, 2008 at 10:30

ABSTRACT

Net-Centric Operational Warfare (NCOW) describes how the United States Department of Defense (DoD) will conduct business operations, warfare, and enterprise management in the future. It is based on the information technology (IT) concept of an assured, dynamic, and shared information environment that provides access to trusted information for all users, based on need, independent of time and place. NCOW is an information-enabled concept of operations that generates increased combat power by networking sensors, decision makers, and shooters. This enables shared awareness, increased speed of command, higher tempo of operations, greater lethality, increased survivability, and a degree of self-synchronization. In essence, network-centric warfare translates information superiority into combat power by effectively linking knowledgeable entities in the battlespace.

The DoD has mandated that the Global Information Grid (GIG) will be the primary infrastructure capability to support NCOW. Under this directive, all advanced weapons platforms, sensor systems, and command and control centers are eventually to be linked via the GIG. In the DoD vision, implementation of this massive integration effort relies on a Service Oriented Architecture (SOA) model and Net-Centric Data Strategy approach, along with extensive use of the Extensive Markup Language (XML) and other web service standards.

This paper attempts to explain in plain language the inter-relationship between the various IT components that will provide the Net-Centric environment and assist the Army in migrating towards the Net-Centric Warfare concept.

BIO

Mrs. Michelle Dirner is the lead for Data Services team under the Army Net-Centric Data Strategy Center of Excellence charted by The Office of the Army Chief Information Officer (CIO/G6). In this position she is tasked to provide the Data Strategy for the Army Service Oriented Architecture (SOA) Foundation in alignment with the Army Net-Centric Data Strategy (ANCDS) through the implementation of data services, data products, and pilots.

Mrs. Dirner received a BS Degree in Computer Science from Rutgers University - New Brunswick, NJ in 2002 and a MS Degree in Software Engineering from Monmouth University, NJ in 2005.

Eric Yuan is a Senior Associate with Booz Allen Hamilton's Information Technology (IT) Team. He has over thirteen (13) years of professional experience in software development and IT consulting in both commercial and public sectors. In recent years he has provided technical leadership for several Net-Centricity and Service Oriented Architecture (SOA) initiatives across DoD. He is currently supporting defense clients in areas such as SOA standards and specifications, System of Systems evolution and governance, architecture methodologies, and IT portfolio management. Mr. Yuan holds an MS degree in Systems Engineering from University of Virginia.

James Blalock retired from the Army in August 2002. He has a Bachelor of Science degree in Business from Old Dominion University and a Master of Science Degree in Telecommunications from the University of Colorado. From 1998 to 2002 he was responsible for corporate Army data policy and management. He currently supports the Army CIO/G-6 Operations, Architectures, Networks and Space (AONS), Enterprise Architecture Division as a Senior Systems Analyst and Data Strategy SME, supporting the development, oversight and execution of Army Net-Centric Data Strategy policy, guidance and governance. He leads the Army Net-Centric Data Strategy (ANCDS) Current Operations Team, assisting CIO/G6 leadership in the management and oversight of CIO/G6 supported Army, Joint, and Coalition data strategy efforts. In his capacity as the ANCDS Current Operations lead, he also leads the ANCDS Engineering Review Board made up of technical experts and engineers from the Army Net-Centric Data Strategy Center of Excellence.

Mission Thread Market:
A Faster, Better, Cheaper Path to Net-enabled Capability

Chris Gunderson,
Naval Postgraduate School, Joint Interoperability Test Command,
World Wide Consortium for the Grid (W2COG)

David Minton,
Planning Systems Incorporated, QinetiQ North America, W2COG

May 20, 2008 at 12:00

ABSTRACT

Joint Interoperability Test Command (JITC) employs the W2COG Institute (WI), a government and industry expert body established by OSD, to serve as a computer network-enabling "Capability Broker." Accordingly, the WI has designed a "Mission Thread Market" (MTM) process to incentivize sustained COTS software competition around government use case requirements in 90 day production cycles. In particular, Government seeks to incentivize industry to bind innovative SOA solutions to government-furnished high assurance services, e.g. for authentication and authorization. WI executed a case study that compares a typical government-managed pilot project to a pilot managed by a Capability Broker. The Capability Brokered project employs the MTM process. Both eighteen-month pilots, executed simultaneously, aimed to deliver the same SOA enabled C2 and high assurance security capabilities. Both used the same baseline GFE software. The MTM process will deliver an open standard COTS/GOTS architecture that addresses ~80% of government requirements; government cost was ~$100K; COTS (e.g. SAML 2.0) is up to date; availability is 2Q FY09 via COTS procurement. The government pilot has not identified any functional architectures or use cases; government cost was $1.5M; COTS (e.g. SAML 1.1.) is eighteen months out of date; availability TBD, but greater than eighteen months. JITC's capability broker has mapped the MTM process to standard DoD procurement methods. It takes about 90 days to establish an MTM from scratch, and an additional 30 days to deliver MTM-based acquisition documents. Establishing an MTM from scratch costs about $2.4M

BIO

Chris Gunderson is Naval Postgraduate School Associate Research Professor of Information Science. His research interest is effective information exchange across a network of experts. He is detailed to the National Capital Region to support Joint Interoperability Command efforts to create a government/ industry partnership for adaptive collaborative development and validation and verification of netcentric capability modules.

Gunderson retired from the US Navy as a Captain in October 2004 following 27 years' service as a Navy Oceanographer. His last assignment in the Navy was Commanding Officer of Fleet Numerical Oceanographic & Meteorological Center, a high-performance computing center in Monterey, Calif.

David Minton As Chief Engineer, David Minton is responsible for overall systems engineering and integration for the World Wide Consortium for the Grid (W2COG). With more than 20 years’ experience in advanced systems engineering and management of major development and acquisition programs, Minton’s experience includes electronic warfare; database design and mining; anti-submarine warfare; and precise engineering and management of nuclear reactor systems. In addition to his role with W2COG, Minton serves as the Chief Science Officer for Planning Systems, Inc, where he is responsible for the high assurance software and systems engineering.

Prior to his work with Planning Systems, Inc., Minton worked for the Space and Naval Warfare Systems Command for 10 years, where he was a Chief Engineer in the C4ISR Directorate and had overall technical and management responsibilities ranged across a variety of disciplines, contracts, labs and vendors. Minton also worked as head of the Software Engineering Division of the Naval Electronic Systems Command in Vallejo, Calif. and served on the faculty of the physics department at California State University. Minton served in the U.S Army in the Republic of Vietnam and Cambodia from 1969 until 1971.

Minton earned a Bachelor of Arts degree in Physics and Philosophy and a Master of Arts degree in Psychology and Philosophy from California State University and an Associate of Arts degree in Math and Physical Science from American River College.

Framework for an SOA in Bandwidth-Limited Environments

J. D. Boggs
Nova Southeastern University

May 20, 2008 at 13:30

ABSTRACT

Management and use of Web services-based SOA involves message exchanges for discovery, invocation, security, status, control, and response delivery. Most of these messages consume network resources often needed to deliver response payloads in a timely manner. A broad-based engineering methodology is particularly critical when designing network resources to implement mobile access by first responders or by forward-deployed troops. This paper scopes the technical problems of SOA in a bandwidth-limited environment. Additionally, the paper presents an approach to engineer solutions for this environment, identifies promising techniques specific to the technical problems, and proposes research to further potential solutions for using an SOA in constrained conditions.

BIO

James Boggs, a certified enterprise architect, consults in enterprise network communications. Concurrent with his support to federal agencies, he pursues research in implementing Web-based SOA. Mr. Boggs started in electrical engineering, has Masters degrees in management science/operations research and in information architecture, and is an information systems doctoral student at Nova Southeastern University.

Bridging the Digital Divide
with Net-Centric Tactical Services

Scott D. Crane, Charles Campbell, Laura Scannell
Booz Allen Hamilton

May 20, 2008 at 13:30

ABSTRACT

The DoD Net-Centric Data Strategy (May 2003) goals are to make data assets visible, accessible, and understandable [1]. This strategy establishes a Service Oriented Architecture (SOA) approach as the preferred means by which data producers and capability providers can make their data assets and capabilities discoverable on the Global Information Grid (GIG). Likewise, the strategy establishes an SOA approach as the preferred means by which consumers can access these data assets and capabilities. Programs such as the Defense Information Systems Agency's (DISA's) Net-Centric Enterprise Services (NCES) are providing SOA-based infrastructure services to enable information sharing across the Department of Defense (DoD) [2].
The technologies employed in an SOA environment for exchanging data including Extensible Markup Language (XML) and Web Services are conducive for use in fixed environments that have reliable, high bandwidth TCP/IP networks. However, in a tactical environment where communications may be intermittent and bandwidth is limited, this presents problems. In order for data producers and consumers on a tactical network to leverage the capabilities available on the GIG, a framework is needed that will extend the power of enterprise services to users on low bandwidth networks at the tactical edge. This will allow the vision of the Net-Centric Data Strategy to provide value to users at all levels.
Net-Centric Tactical Services (NCTS) provides a gateway and software framework for tactical users to realize the benefits of information sharing across an SOA environment. The framework resides in the tactical environment and supports a set of services and functions to enable communications and messaging translation, data publishing, data subscription, and tactical device management. It is an attempt to bridge the present day technology gap between low bandwidth and high bandwidth data producers and consumers.

BIO

Scott Crane has over 11 years experience in system integration and software solution development for DoD and other government clients. Currently, he is focused on tactical system and sensor integration for the U.S. Army. Mr. Crane provides the U.S. Army with full lifecycle development of mobile systems and is working to provide solutions that bridge-the-gap between low-bandwidth tactical radio networks and enterprise SOA architectures.

Laura Scannell has over 13 years experience developing tactical system solutions for the U.S. Army and other DoD clients. Currently, she is focused on providing the U.S. Army with full lifecycle development of mobile systems and is working to provide solutions that bridge-the-gap between low-bandwidth tactical radio networks and enterprise SOA architectures.

Interoperability Problems Caused by Transitioning
to a Service Oriented Environment

Chris Black, Dick Brown, Stan Levine, Bill Sudnikovich
Simulation to C4I Interoperability (SIMCI)

May 20, 2008 at 13:30

ABSTRACT

A major Department of Defense challenge continues to be the synchronized interoperability of multiple command and control and M&S programs. The Army has three major Command and Control (C2) efforts to contend with: ABCS migration, FCS development, and the Joint Net Enabled Command and Control (NECC) program. These C2 systems will be operating in a Service Oriented Environment (SOE) that will be implemented/fielded in phases over time. There is no single process that is aligning these efforts at a level that includes totally synchronized technical exchanges of standards, data, and re-use of components. Two of the Army's key M&S initiatives also have development cycles that do not parallel the C2 schedules and do not yet fully address operating in a SOE. The JLCCTC development has to date been on an annual development cycle but is currently moving to a 2 year cycle. The other big M&S initiative, LVC-IA, is developing a prototype system with a target date of FY10. Integrating all of these phased C2 and M&S programs will require innovative technical and programmatic methods.

BIO

Christopher Black is a Senior Systems Analyst with the Colsa Corporation. He currently supports the SIMCI and Intra Army Interoperability Certification process as the Program Executive Officer Simulation Training and Instrumentation (PEO STRI) Liaison working in the Central Technical Support Facility at Fort Hood, Texas. Mr. Black has over twelve years experience integrating and testing simulations with the Army Battle Command System (ABCS) development process, and has been a part of the Army C4I and Simulation Initialization System effort since its inception in FY02. He also serves as the lead architect for the SIMCI OIPT. Mr. Black's simulations experience is based on over 25 years in the United States Army where he used simulations for operational tests and unit training, and training simulation management at HQDA, G3. Mr. Black has a Bachelor of Arts degree from Clemson University.

Richard F (Dick) Brown is a consultant to the Battle Command Battle Laboratory working under contract for Billy Murphy and Associates. His current work focuses on simulations and C3 systems interoperability. Over the last 25 years he has worked on tactical fire control systems, integrated equipment and processes that form command posts and several communications systems. Mr. Brown is a 1967 graduate of the University of Massachusetts with a BS in Experimental Psychology. He retired from the US Army Reserve as a lieutenant colonel in 1997. He retired from the US Civil Service in 2006 after more than 39 years.

Stanley H. Levine is Research Professor at George Mason University. He also serves as a senior consultant to several Army and Department of Defense organizations in the areas of information system technologies, architectures, System of Systems acquisition, and interoperability. He has over 36 years experience in systems acquisition. He holds a Bachelor of Science degree in Electronic Engineering and a Master of Science degree in Physics from Monmouth University, and a PhD in Engineering Management from Madison University. Dr. Levine served in many Army civilian positions (including the Senior Executive Service) for over 31 years. He concentrated on Command and Control systems research and development. Dr. Levine is a recipient of over 60 awards, commendations, and letters of appreciation including the Army's three highest Civilian Service Awards. He was selected to be a member of the Federal 100 top executives who had the greatest impact on the government information systems community. Dr. Levine has published 35 papers on a wide variety of technical and management subjects. He has also been a keynote or invited speaker at 33 major national or international symposiums and conferences.

William P. Sudnikovich is a Project Manager for Atlantic Consulting Services in Shrewsbury, NJ and a technical architect for the Army's SIMCI OIPT. Mr. Sudnikovich also supports the Army's CIO/G6 office through the Army Net-Centric Data Strategy Center of Excellence at Ft. Monmouth, NJ. Prior to joining ACS Mr. Sudnikovich held various technical and management positions with the US Army CECOM RDEC and was influential in establishing M&S activities there. He was an active contributor to the development of the IEEE 1278 DIS standard and is a former Chairperson of the C4I Forum of the Simulation Interoperability Standards Organization. Mr. Sudnikovich holds BS and MS degrees in Computer Science from Rutgers University and Fairleigh Dickinson University.

Geospatial Data Quality
for Analytical Command and Control Applications

Robert F. Richbourg and George E. Lukes
Institute for Defense Analyses

May 20, 2008 at 13:30

ABSTRACT

Have you traced a digital representation of a road with so many switchbacks that you questioned the map accuracy? Have you asked an Internet utility to provide a travel route and found the result unintuitive? In each case, flaws in the road network representation may be to blame. Road switchbacks can result from digitization errors such as kinks and kickbacks. Route planning can be defeated by breaks in the network. Much of the digital map data used to represent the physical environment comes from the National Geospatial-Intelligence Agency (NGA). While the NGA has a large holding of internally-produced geospatial data, the agency's current strategy includes substantial data production under contract and a large cooperative effort with other nations under the Multinational Geospatial Co-production Program (MGCP). The development, codification, and enforcement of detailed quality standards are critical to this acquisition strategy. This paper uses the modeling and simulation application area to exemplify problems that can arise when digital feature data is used for command and control purposes such as automated route planning. This paper describes the type of quality standards that are to be applied in production of geospatial feature data and illustrates a process to transform semantic descriptions into specific guidance suitable for software implementation. The process includes experimentation to determine appropriate reasoning strategies that will permit identification of substandard data while minimizing false positive notifications. The paper describes the impact on simulation entities using the digital data to exemplify a typical problem, details the experiment designed to address the problem, and presents the results of conducting the experiment. The paper concludes with observations on the potential impact of these geospatial data developments on computer applications that use the data in various reasoning domains.

BIO

Robert F. Richbourg is a member of the Research Staff at the Institute for Defense Analyses. He is a retired Army officer who earned his Ph.D. in computer science in 1987. In his last active duty assignment, he was an Academy Professor and Director of the Artificial Intelligence Center at the United States Military Academy, West Point. He has been working on applications exploiting geospatial data for 10 years under sponsorship of DARPA, DMSO, JFCOM and NGA.

George E. Lukes is a member of the Research Staff at the Institute for Defense Analyses. From 1994 to 2000, he served as a Program Manager at the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency where his responsibilities included the Synthetic Environment Program for the Synthetic Theater of War (STOW) ACTD and the Image Understanding Program. Previously, he led research and development efforts at the U.S. Army Topographic Engineering Center in automated and computer-assisted photo interpretation, and terrain database generation for advanced distributed simulation.

Geospatially Enabling Battle Command

John Day and David Swann
ESRI

May 20, 2008 at 13:30

ABSTRACT

The paper analyzes and gives a new perspective on how Geospatial Technology can support Battle Command, and more specifically the integration of GIS technology with services architecture concepts. After some general background on desirability and feasibility, the paper will demonstrate how GIS might be used in a services-enabled battlefield. Finally some examples of systems that integrate these concepts for air, ground, and maritime operations will be highlighted.

BIO

John Day is a former British Army officer with 30 years of experience in military engineering. Since joining ESRI in 1997 he has been advising the US Defense and Intelligence Community on how emerging commercial GIS technologies and solutions translate to defense systems. Mr. Day became a US citizen in 2002, and in 2003 was appointed as Director of ESRI's Defense and Intelligence Business Development Team, which is responsible for managing relationships with all ESRI Defense and Intelligence Community customers. Mr. Day has a bachelors degree in Engineering from Cambridge University, England and a masters degree in GIS from Edinburgh University, Scotland. He lives in Dunn Loring, VA with his wife.

David Swann is the International Defense Business Development lead for ESRI. David Swann served for 12 years with the British Army, primarily with the United Kingdom Military Survey, rising to the rank of Major. He was educated at the University of Wales, the Royal Military Academy Sandhurst and received an MSc in Geographic and Geodetic Information Systems from University College London. In the 10 years since he joined ESRI, he has visited 60 countries and witnessed incredible progress in defense uses of GIS. He has contributed chapters to definitive textbooks on GIS as well as numerous articles for defense publications.

Integrating GIS for C2 and Intelligence Analysis

Matt Lewin and William Wright
Oculus Info, Inc.

May 20, 2008 at 13:30

ABSTRACT

Oculus designs and develops specialized visualization systems to support decision-making in complex, information-rich environments. Oculus software products include GeoTime and CPOF CommandSight. GeoTime is a unique capability for analyzing events, objects and activities within a combined temporal and geospatial display. Intelligence analysts can see the who and what in the where and when. CPOF CommandSight Visualizer is the 4D collaborative CPOF workspace component and the integrated visualizer for TAIS the Tactical Airspace Integration System. GeoTime and CPOF CommandSight are currently fielded systems with varying levels of integration with ESRI GIS systems. A brief demo will be provided followed by a discussion of issues, challenges and lessons learned.

BIO

Matthew Lewin is a Senior GIS Consultant with Oculus Info Inc. Since joining Oculus in 2004 he has led integration of the Commercial Joint Mapping Toolkit (CJMTK) with the Tactical Airspace Integration System (TAIS) and Command Post of the Future (CPOF). As a Senior Consultant, he is responsible for identifying and conceptualizing creative integration of geospatial technology and advanced 3D information visualization. His geospatial industry experience ranges from Defense and C4, to commercial financial services, to municipal land record management.

William Wright is a Senior Oculus Partner. His research interests include intelligent, mixed initiative, information visualization systems that enhance human understanding and decision making. Current responsibilities include being a Principal Investigator (PI) for the IARPA ASpace-X “nAble” project, and the DARPA COMPOEX program. For COMPOEX, he is contributing to the design of a system for commanders, ambassadors, and US AID leaders to visualize large complex social, political and economic behaviors, to explore “what-if” actions in those domains, and to understand effects. For ASpace-X, he is investigating adaptive visualization systems that guide novices through software capabilities. Wright is a past PI for DARPA on CPOF and for ARDA on GeoTime. Wright has been a regular member of the program committee of the IEEE InfoViz Conference, the Visual Analytics Science and Technology Conference as well as the NATO Expert Panel on Visualization. He is an international authority on information visualization and has written over 20 papers on the subject.

Towards a Federated SOA Model in Achieving Data Interoperability in DoD

Nick Duan, Ph.D.
ManTech-MBI

May 20, 2008 at 15:30

ABSTRACT

The Department of Defense (DoD) is undergoing a progressive transformation towards a Net-Centric enterprise, and SOA has become a major enabling factor in driving the transformation. One of the major challenges facing many SOA-based programs in DoD is how to define a SOA model that is robust and scalable enough to meet mission-specific needs, while satisfying the Net-Centric requirements for data sharing across the multiple Services and Agencies in the Department. While there have been many SOA initiatives existed in DoD with various successes, data and service interoperability across multiple organizations are still limited due to lack of a coherent and overarching SOA model. In this paper, two different types of SOA models, a centralized and a fully distributed model, are discussed with respect to data interoperability and enterprise scalability. To achieve interoperability, a federated SOA model is introduced, along with a proposed strategy towards implementing a federated enterprise using the SOA principles. The identification and use of enterprise core services will be discussed, with respect to service discovery, security and support of disconnected operations. The benefits in data interoperability of the model and its applicability are demonstrated via a concrete case study on an existing Net-Centric program in DoD.

BIO

Dr. Nick Duan has over 20 years experience in applied research, enterprise software design and development. He has a wide range of knowledge and expertise in distributed enterprise computing, SOA, Web Services, J2EE, and enterprise security. He is currently a Sr. Software/SOA Architect with ManTech MBI, leading the SOA core competency effort of the company. A Sun Certified Enterprise Architect for the J2EE platform, Dr. Duan has worked with leading companies in the Hi-Tech industry, including Bell-Atlantic, webMethods, Northrop Grumman, SAIC, and McDonald Bradley. A graduate from The Penn State University and The Technical University of Aachen, he has published papers in various journals and conferences. He has taught computer language and software engineering courses as an adjunct faculty with local universities since mid 90s. He has been an adjunct faculty member with the Software Engineering Dept of GMU since 2003.

DEVS Unified Process for Web-Centric Development and Testing of System of Systems

Saurabh Mittal and Bernard P. Zeigler
Arizona Center for Integrative Modeling and Simulation,

May 20, 2008 at 15:30

ABSTRACT

A critical aspect and differentiator of a System of Systems (SoS) versus a single monolithic system is interoperability among the constituent disparate systems. A major application of Modeling and Simulation (M&S) to SoS Engineering is to facilitate system integration in a manner that helps to cope with such interoperability problems. A case in point is the integration infrastructure offered by the DoD Global Information Grid (GIG) and its Service Oriented Architecture (SOA). In this paper, we discuss a process called DEVS Unified Process (DUNIP) that uses the Discrete Event System Specification (DEVS) formalism as a basis for integrated system engineering and testing called the Bifurcated Model-Continuity lifecycle development methodology. DUNIP uses an XMLbased DEVS Modeling Language (DEVSML) framework that provides the capability to compose models that may be expressed in a variety of DEVS implementation languages. The models are deployable for remote and distributed real-time executing agents over the Service Oriented Architecture (SOA) middleware. We also compare DUNIP with the Model Driven Architecture (MDA) paradigm and provide overview of various projects that led to the formulation of DUNIP.

BIO

Saurabh Mittal is an Assistant Research Professor at the ECE Department, University of Arizona. He received both MS and PhD in ECE from the University of Arizona in 2004 and 2007 respectively. His research interests include modeling and simulation, net-centric systems engineering, DoDAF-based executable architectures, interoperability and data engineering. He is a recipient of Joint Interoperability Test Command's highest civilian contractor 'Golden Eagle' award for the project GENETSCOPE and NTSA award for Best Crossplatform development in M&S area for the project ATC-Gen. He is currently working on projects at JITC and NGIT.

Bernard P. Zeigler is Professor of Electrical and Computer Engineering at the University of Arizona, Tucson and Director of the Arizona Center for Integrative Modeling and Simulation. He is internationally known for his 1976 foundational text Theory of Modeling and Simulation, recently revised for a second edition (Academic Press, 2000). He has published numerous books and research publications on the Discrete Event System Specification (DEVS) formalism. In 1995, he was named Fellow of the IEEE in recognition of his contributions to the theory of discrete event simulation. In 2000 he received the McLeod Founders Award by the Society for Computer Simulation, its highest recognition, for his contributions to discrete event simulation. He was appointed Fellow of the Society for Modeling and Simulation, International (SCS), 2006.

Grid Enabled Service Infrastructure

Isaac Christoffersen, Christopher Dale, Doug Johnson, and David Schillero
Booz Allen Hamilton

May 20, 2008 at 15:30

ABSTRACT

At the 2006 Network Centric Operations Industry Consortium Conference on Utility Computing, Grids and Virtualization, the Office of the Secretary of Defense for Networks & Information Integration (OSD NII) presented a roadmap for transformation of the Global Information Grid (GIG) to the Net-Centric Environment (NCE). The planned transformation includes a federation of distributed computing resources, available when and where they were needed, and would be built on such technologies as grid computing, server clustering and virtualization. The Grid Enabled Services Infrastructure (GESI) meets OSD NII roadmap requirements as it currently performs mission critical operations at a government client site.

BIO

Isaac Christoffersen has over 10 years experience in system integration and software solution development for commercial and government clients. Currently, he is supporting a Federal Government client in the architecture, design, development and implementation of Service Oriented Architectures utilizing Java Enterprise Edition (JEE), XML and other technologies. Isaac is a professional member of the Association of Computing Machinery (ACM) and a recovering Microsoft Certified Solution Developer.

Christopher Dale has over 15 years experience in system architecture and design for large scale data processing systems for government and commercial clients. Currently, he is supporting a Federal overnment client in the architecture, design and implementation of an SOA enabled grid infrastructure. Christopher is an RHCE and a long time advocate of the open source philosophy.

Doug Johnson (BSCS, JPD, CPD) has over 23 years of experience developing numerous large-scale, multi-tiered client server and web based systems that support a variety of industries. Experience includes development of grid architectures for ultra large database systems, object oriented analysis and design, base class library development, distributed data access and abstraction design, as well as data base design, development and optimization.

David Schillero has over 20 years experience in system integration and software solution development for DoD and other government clients. Currently, he is supporting a Federal Government client in the design, development and implementation of Service Oriented Architectures utilizing Java Enterprise Edition (JEE), XML and other technologies.

Human Terrain and Anthropology

Dr. Susan K. Numrich
Institute for Defense Analyses

May 20, 2008 at 15:30

ABSTRACT

The term "human terrain" was coined recently by the Army in response to critical needs for information about the individuals, groups and the workings of the society in general in Iraq. The call for help and the response to date has focused on tactical operations, but it is essential to consider the possibility that the tactical need points to a strategic issue for the C4ISR community. In this paper I will consider some of the similarities and differences between physical terrain and human terrain and how that has contributed to the rift between the military and some vocal members of the social science community - notably anthropologists. Having alluded to the possibility of a strategic issue, I will attempt to make that case using an analogy from more familiar topics. Finally, I will attempt to point out disconnects and problem areas where the perspectives and capabilities of the C4ISR community could provide a foundation for creating a bridge from the current tactical solution space to the development of a valuable strategic capability for the military now and in the future.

BIO

Dr. Susan K. Numrich is on the Research Staff at the Institute for Defense Analyses (IDA) and has spent the last several years working for the OSD and the Joint Staff on problems that involve cultural factors, data extraction and modeling, but she has a long term interest in games. A physicist by education, Dr. Numrich received her doctorate from American University and did postgraduate research at Cambridge, UK. She spent most of her career in research at the Naval Research Laboratory where she worked in underwater acoustics, parallel processing, signal processing, decision support systems, and modeling and simulation. Prior to assuming her position at IDA, she served as the Deputy Director of the Defense Modeling and Simulation Office. She is a Fellow of the Acoustical Society of America.

Implementing the Cultural Dimension
into a Command and Control System

Rebecca A. Grier, Aptima
Bruce Skarin, Aptima
Alexander Lubyansky, University of Albany
Lawrence Wolpert, Aptima

May 20, 2008 at 15:30

ABSTRACT

Current command and control (C2) operations are centered on addressing the root causes of state failure and instability. For success, these C2 operations require the cooperation of local populations and governments. To win this cooperation, we need to be able to predict changes in the opinions of local populations. Cultural identity is a critical factor in this process. These cultural identities are multi-layered and dynamic. In order to predict the impact of events on a population's attitude, one must remember that each person has several different identities and that some of these identities may change. Further people's attitudes change based on their contact with other individuals. When people's attitudes change, then their participation in groups changes as well. SCIPR (Simulation of Cultural Identities for Prediction of Reactions) is an agent based computer simulation that forecasts the effects of actions on peoples' opinions and cultural identities to better model the underlying forces driving attitude based conflicts. In this paper, we will describe the development of the SCIPR model and its application for current C2 operations.

BIO

Rebecca Grier, Ph.D. is the Lead Scientist for the Human Automation Interaction and Interface Design Team at Aptima. She has experience in every stage of user centered design from requirements definition to workflow designation through information architecture, UI design and usability evaluation. Dr. Grier is primarily interested in developing tools to aid the US Military in understanding different cultures and including this understanding in their analyses. Dr. Grier has lived in Brazil and Italy. She has a M.A. & Ph.D in Human Factors Psychology from the University of Cincinnati and a B.S. Honors in Cross-Cultural Psychology with a minor in Anthropology from Loyola University of Chicago.

Bruce Skarin is a Simulation Scientist at Aptima, Inc. and is the Area Lead for Socio-Cultural Systems. His interests include modeling complex dynamic systems with a focus on socio-cultural behavior, networks, knowledge management, and organizational dynamics. At Aptima, Mr. Skarin works on models of cultural influence and social identity to forecast changes in local populations for the purpose of assisting strategic military planning. He is also working on the development of systems for automatically assigning metadata and for improving group collaboration. Mr. Skarin received a B.S. in System Dynamics from Worcester Polytechnic Institute, where he received the Provost's Award for his Major Qualifying Project, entitled "Understanding the Driving Factors of Terrorism." He is a member of the System Dynamics Society.

Alexander Lubyansky is an enterprise information management professional with over five years experience in the design of decision support systems, management flight simulators, and learning laboratories using both computer simulation and traditional modeling and decision analysis methods. His research interests include: The study of decision making from the perspectives of cognitive and social psychology; adaptive planning, management, and design methods for rapid prototyping; group facilitation, requirements gathering, and data elicitation from subject matter experts; and integration of system dynamics, agent-based, social network, and geographical modeling.

Dr. Lawrence Wolpert has over 23 years of experience leading human systems integration (HSI) research and development in applied, academic, and military environments. He has managed all aspects of HSI (manpower, personnel, training, ergonomics, human factors engineering, safety, habitability and survivability) on multiple federal programs and conducted research in visual perception and simulation. Dr. Wolpert provides cognitive systems engineering support as well as usability evaluation and assessment. Dr. Wolpert holds a M.A. and a Ph.D. in Psychology from Ohio State University, and a B.A. in Psychology from Tel Aviv University (Israel).

Human Terrain Knowledge Advancing C4I Systems

Katya Drozdova and Robert Popp,
National Security Innovations

May 20, 2008 at 15:30

ABSTRACT

Warfighters have long recognized the importance of understanding and shaping the human elements of their operating environment. Now termed the 'human terrain', these elements include the psycho-social, ethnographic, cultural, economic, and political aspects of the people among whom a force operates. Modern war and peace-time operations require such actionable knowledge to inform commander's situational awareness and decision-making processes. This makes integrating actionable human-terrain knowledge into C4I systems increasingly critical. Developing such integrated capabilities, however, presents a formidable challenge. Useful human-terrain data is difficult to not only collect - often requiring physical presence in hostile areas - but also to effectively quantify and digitize for C4I use. We highlight some approaches - including potential scientific, technological, and operational challenges as well as solutions - towards enhancing C4I systems with actionable human-terrain knowledge. Specifically, we discuss some of the quantitative social science and computational modeling approaches for generating quantifiable insights into notoriously difficult-to-quantify social phenomena. This includes conceptual and analytical tools for systematically representing diverse sets of social phenomena - e.g., using a multi-scaled human-networks paradigm - as well as the development of operational metrics and indicators for establishing and maintaining high-fidelity links between real-world conditions and their computational representations within C4I systems. Potential R&D topics are also identified - all towards ultimately generating accurate and useful insights to support complex US operations in unfamiliar and hostile settings.

BIO

Dr. Katya Drozdova is NSI Senior Research Scientist. In this capacity, Dr. Drozdova focuses on the role of technology in US National Security issues, with emphasis on asymmetric threats in the post-9/11 environment. This includes problems of counter-terrorism, insurgency and WMD as well as strategic deterrence, cyber-security, intelligence, and critical infrastructure protection. Dr. Drozdova is also a Research Associate at the Hoover Institution, Stanford University. Katya has published articles on issues ranging from balancing national security with individual liberty to identifying, estimating and disrupting adversary networks. Katya is a member of the Command and Control Research Program (CCRP) at the Department of Defense's OASD for Networks & Information Integration and previously served as a member of the NSA-sponsored Consortium for Research on Information Security and Policy at Stanford University. Dr. Drozdova has also served as a Science Fellow as well as a MacArthur Affiliate at Stanford's Center for International Security and Cooperation (CISAC) and a Research Scholar at the Alexander Hamilton Center, New York University (NYU). She earned her Ph.D. in Information Systems from NYU's Stern School of Business, Department of Information, Operations and Management Sciences. The main focus of her dissertation is the impact of technology choices on organizational fault-tolerance in hostile and competitive environments, with emphasis on the questions of how and why organizations use technology to counter or cloak their human network vulnerabilities. She received a Bachelor's degree in International Relations and Master's degree in International Policy Studies from Stanford University.

Dr. Robert Popp is NSI Cofounder, Chair and CEO. Dr. Popp has over 25 years of experience developing leading edge technology solutions for DoD, intelligence community and other national security organizations. Prior to NSI, Dr. Popp served for five years as a senior government executive within the DoD: one year at OSD as Assistant Deputy Undersecretary of Defense for Advanced Systems and Concepts where he oversaw a portfolio of Advanced Concept Technology Demonstration (ACTD) programs focused on information assurance, multi-level security, C4ISR and homeland security; and four years at DARPA as Deputy of the Information Exploitation Office (IXO) and Information Awareness Office (IAO). At DARPA/IAO, Dr. Popp oversaw a portfolio of R&D programs focused on information technology solutions for counter-terrorism and foreign intelligence, including serving as the Program Manager for the Total Information Awareness (TIA) program. At DARPA/IXO, Dr. Popp established a novel R&D thrust focused on quantitative and computational social science modeling for socio-cultural awareness and nation state instability analysis. Dr. Popp serves on the Defense Science Board, Army Science Board, and is a Senior Associate for the Center for Strategic and International Studies (CSIS). Dr. Popp has held senior positions with several defense primes, including Aptima, BBN and ALPHATECH - now BAE. Dr. Popp holds two patents, has published many scholarly papers, and is Editor of Emergent Information Technologies and Enabling Policies for Counter-Terrorism published in 2006 by Wiley-IEEE Press. Dr. Popp holds a PhD in Electrical Engineering from the University of Connecticut, and a BA/MA in Computer Science from Boston University (summa cum laude, Phi Beta Kappa). Dr. Popp served on active duty in the U.S. Air Force in the 1980s as an Aircraft Maintenance Technician of F106 fighters and B52 bombers.

Role of Human Terrain Teams
in Carrying Out the Commander's Intent

Dr. Tracy St. Benoit,
UCF/IST

May 20, 2008 at 15:30

ABSTRACT

BIO

How to Implement National Information Sharing Strategy

Dr. Rick Hayes-Roth,
Naval Postgraduate School
Curt Blais,
Naval Postgraduate School
Dr. Mark Pullen,
George Mason University
Dr. Don Brutzman,
Naval Postgraduate School

May 21, 2008 at 10:30

ABSTRACT

Data sharing is today's principal Information Technology challenge. All sectors--commercial, government, academic, and military--seek improved information exchange to achieve operational benefits, whether in the form of greater profits, improved situational awareness, intellectual advancement, or ability to respond to threats endangering respective interests. Nations and organizations within and across nations have set forth policies to promote greater data sharing, but often without empowering or enabling change agents to introduce measurably better capabilities. While progress is being made in some quarters, in others there is almost a counter-reaction where organizations are closing in on themselves, perpetuating traditional closed pockets of valuable information, even if sometimes having the appearance of adhering to the new policies. The advances are coming in fits and starts, resembling chaotic selforganizing systems, but with no overriding pressure to bring about incremental adaptive improvements. This paper describes an evolutionary management approach that addresses this fundamental failure in many current programs to achieve greater efficiency in data sharing. We advocate adoption of corresponding policy guidelines by the DoD.

BIO

Dr. Frederick (Rick) A. Hayes-Roth is Professor of Information Sciences, Monterey Naval Postgraduate School, and Former Chief Technology Officer/Software, Hewlett-Packard Company. Professor Hayes-Roth's research interests focus on increasing the efficiency of organizational thinking, especially on the creation and use of community models that enable collaborators to understand, predict and control distributed operations in dynamic environments. Specifically, he's working on tools and methods that can be used to create machine interpretable world models and to optimize how information flows among collaborators to enable them to quickly and effectively revise plans in light of changing situations. The detailed technologies involved include ontologies, knowledge bases, plans, justifications, vulnerability analyses, condition monitors, and smart push. In his current research collaboration with multiple agencies and organizations throughout the DoD, he's helping develop a generic service that provides Valued Information at the Right Time (VIRT). VIRT services will increase individual and group information processing productivity by assuring that each person spends a higher proportion of time considering the consequences of high-value information, namely information that materially alters planned actions.

Rick is a co-founder and currently Chief Architect of Machine to Machine Intelligence Corp. (www.m2mi.com), located at NASA Ames Research Park. m2mi aims to provide software solutions that provide global system awareness and adaptive control of networks of tens of thousands of computers and communication devices.

Hayes-Roth's recent books: Hyper-Beings: How Intelligent Organizations Attain Supremacy through Information Superiority announces the arrival of a new era shaped by new dominant players. It provides a guidebook for readers who would like to anticipate and adapt. Radical Simplicity: Transforming Computers into Me-Centric Appliances This book shows how products can enable users to delegate tasks without learning technology, and this provides the only plausible future path to expanding consumption of advanced technology. A specific technical architecture guides product developers on this new path.

Curtis Blais is a Research Associate in the Modeling, Virtual Environments, and Simulation (MOVES) Institute at the Naval Postgraduate School. His research interests include investigation of Semantic Web technologies for achieving VIRT objectives in netcentric environments, application of web-based technologies for improving interoperability across C2 systems and modeling and simulation systems, and agent-based modeling of non-traditional warfare. Mr. Blais has 34 years of experience in design and development of models and simulation systems for analysis and training. He holds BS and MS degrees in Mathematics from the University of Notre Dame and is a Ph.D. candidate in MOVES at the Naval Postgraduate School.

Dr. J. Mark Pullen is Professor of Computer Science at George Mason University (GMU), where he serves as Director of the C4I Center and also of its Networking and Simulation Laboratory. He holds BSEE and MSEE degrees from West Virginia University, and the Doctor of Science in Computer Science from the George Washington University. A highlight of Dr. Pullen's career was the seven year period he served at the US Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA). During this period he was responsible for transition of the Internet to commercial operation and also for an early, major project in distributed simulation for education and training that earned him the IEEE Harry Diamond Memorial award. Dr. Pullen is a licensed Professional Engineer, Fellow of the IEEE, and Fellow of the ACM. He teaches courses in computer networking and has active research in networking for distributed virtual simulation and networked multimedia tools for distance education. He also leads the Battle Management Language project which is providing a generic, SOA-enabled interoperation capability among command and control systems and simulation systems.

Dr. Don Brutzman is an Associate Professor of Applied Science at the Naval Postgraduate School. He is Technical Director of the 3D Visual Simulation and Networked Virtual Environments research group in the NPS Modeling, Simulation, and Virtual Environments (MOVES) Institute. He has served as the Undersea Warfare Academic Committee Chair. He is a retired submarine officer who has conducted testing of advanced capability underwater equipment. Dr. Brutzman is a founding member of the non-profit Web3D Consortium and serves on the Board of Directors. He represents Web3D as the Advisory Committee Representative to the W3C. Together with Leonard Daly, he authored X3D: Extensible 3D Graphics for Web Authors. Teaching and research interests include interactive 3D graphics, highperformance networking, artificial intelligence and underwater robotics. He earned a BSEE in Electrical Engineering from the US Naval Academy, MS in Computer Science from the Naval Postgraduate School, and Ph.D. in Computer Science from the Naval Postgraduate School.

Enabling Adaptive C2 via Semantic Communication
and Smart Push

LtCol Carl Oros, USMC
Naval Postgraduate School

May 21, 2008 at 10:30

ABSTRACT

Fundamental to the concept of Network Centric Warfare lies the precept that shared awareness, collaboration, and self-synchronization can be attained through the networking of knowledgeable, geographically and hierarchically dispersed entities. The DoD GIG Architecture Vision is the prime policy directive chosen to realize this goal. Consistent with the tenets of NCW, the GIG architecture framework envisions highly responsive, agile, adaptable, and information-centric operations. These desirable netcentric attributes are prescribed to be implemented via a Pull methodology. However, a pull architecture not only must contend with the demands of disseminating diverse, timely information to numerous entities, but more importantly it must address the cognitive bandwidth limitations inherent to users searching for, discovering, and pulling contextually relevant, mission critical information. This paper provides an alternative operationalized Model-based C2 network approach where entities share a dynamic model of the environment and information is smartly Pushed via VIRT services to relevant entities when user defined Conditions of Interest occur. Mission thread semantics are used to generate an ontology that supports a contextually rich data structure capable of supporting the information requirements of diverse actors and entities united in the endeavor.

BIO

LtCol Carl Oros is a Marine Corps CH-53E helicopter pilot currently serving on the faculty of the Information Sciences Department of the Graduate School of Operational and Informational Sciences at the Naval Postgraduate School, Monterey, CA. LtCol Oros teaches graduate courses in wireless networking and information operations and is also assigned as the NPS Marine Corps Representative. Additionally, he is a member of the NPS Center for Network Innovation and Experimentation (CENNETIX) and has been involved in extensive field experimentation of emergent tactical wireless technologies. Appointed as director for Marine Corps Research, under the Dean of Research, LtCol Oros has been actively involved in the USSOCOM-NPS Tactical Network Topology (TNT) field experiments and has served as Principal Investigator for HQMC C4 and the Marine Corps Warfighting Laboratory sponsored tactical C2 research. In addition to the networking aspects of C2, LtCol Oros' research has focused on developing a push C2 architecture in support of Marine Air-Ground Task Force (MAGTF) operations at the company level and below.

LtCol Oros has a wealth of operational experience spanning several contingency, Marine Expeditionary Unit, and Unity Deployment Program deployments. In addition to his our rotary wing squadron assignments, he has served on the Group, Wing, and Division staffs.

LtCol Oros holds a MS in Information Technology Management from the Naval Postgraduate School, an MMS from the USMC Command and Staff College, and a BA in Geophysics from the University of Chicago. In addition to his graduate degrees, he is currently pursuing PhD studies in Information Sciences. His professional certifications include the NSA Committee of National Security Systems (CNSS) information assurance certificates 4011-4015 and he is a Certified Wireless Network Administrator (CWNA).

The Cross-domain Information Exchange Framework (CIEF)

Paul Shaw,
SPAWARSYSCOM
and
Dr. David J. Roberts,
iBASEt, Inc.

May 21, 2008 at 10:30

ABSTRACT

The Cross-domain Information Exchange Framework (CIEF) is an architectural framework designed to support critical information exchange to assist or automate DoD (Department of Defense) mission oriented tasks. It is also an operational design for the publication, location, and subscription to information in the correct mission context and monitor the operational use of information in that context.

BIO

Paul Shaw is currently the Navy Functional Data Manager (FDM) for Command and Control (C2) and is based in San Diego at the Space and Naval Warfare Systems Command. Mr. Shaw has spoken widely at conferences and seminars on semantic technologies and innovative approaches to data management within the DoD.

Dr. David J. Roberts is the Chief Scientist on the Cross-domain Information Exchange Framework (CIEF) project and also supports the SPAWARSYSCOM, San Diego. Dr. Roberts has presented CIEF and other semantic based Information Management systems at numerous conferences and technical workshops

Paving the Bare Spots
Towards an Enterprise-wide Defense Service Bus

Brad J. Cox, Ph.D.
Gestalt LLC, Now part of Accenture

May 21, 2008 at 13:30

ABSTRACT

This paper describes how Department of Defense (DOD) policy groups responsible for net-centricity, interoperability, and transformation can facilitate the creation of a service bus that works for the whole enterprise instead of just within project stovepipes. Modeled after standards bodies like OASIS and open source development groups like The Apache Foundation, the approach defines an enterprise space in which cross-project, enterprise-wide infrastructure can be owned, managed, designed, developed and deployed separately from the project that use the infrastructure. Enterprise space is owned and managed by a foundation whose technical staff is contributed by projects instead of building infrastructures within projects.

BIO

Dr. Cox is Chief Architect for Accenture's Mission Services Group. His recent work focuses on using Agile Development practices and Component Based Engineering for building secure/interoperable SOA services for the U.S. Department of Defense.

Essence of Net-Centricity and
Implications for C4I Services Interoperability

Hans W. Polzer
Lockheed Martin

May 21, 2008 at 13:30

ABSTRACT

Many people have the somewhat mistaken idea that net-centricity is about using network technology, and that service oriented architectures are semi-magical enablers of interoperability and information sharing among systems, most notably C4I systems. This paper explores the concepts of net-centricity and service orientation from a system implementer's perspective, and relates them to each other. It articulates some principles that make a service oriented architecture more or less net-centric. It also examines the issue of information representation in data and service interfaces, and discusses the impact of operational and organizational context and scope on data representation and system interoperability. These issues are illustrated with a "thought experiment" related to C4I situational awareness in a joint or multi-national operational context.

BIO

Hans W. Polzer is a Lockheed Martin Fellow, working for the Advanced Concepts organization within Lockheed Martin's Corporate Engineering and Technology. In that capacity, Hans is responsible for developing, implementing, and evolving a net centric assessment framework to apply to major Lockheed Martin programs. Hans is also the lead Lockheed Martin technical representative to the Network Centric Operations Industry Consortium (NCOIC), acting as vice-chair for the NCOIC SCOPE Working Group.

Hans previously was manager of the Horizontal Integration Technology Team at Lockheed Martin Mission Systems, responsible for a number of joint ACTD programs and joint interoperability initiatives. Hans was director of engineering on the Global Transportation Network (GTN) program, responsible for all engineering staff and processes and managing the development of the initial delivered system. Prior to GTN, Hans was the Program Director for the Lockheed Martin team on DARPA's Software Technology for Adaptable Reusable Systems (STARS) Program, focused on enabling software reuse, process automation, and interoperable software engineering tools across DoD. He joined Lockheed Martin in 1985 as Chief Engineer on the Integrated Automated Intelligence Processing System (IAIPS), a large scale operational intelligence system for the US Navy.

A 1969 graduate of Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Hans has a BS degree in physics. He received an MS degree in physics from Rutgers University in 1971. He joined the US Army that year, and reached the rank of captain before leaving the Service in 1976.

Service Oriented Acquisition: Harmonizing Horizontal Requirements with a Traditionally Vertical Process

Chris Gunderson,
Joint Interoperability Test Command

May 21, 2008 at 13:30

ABSTRACT

The Department of Defense has adopted the concept of Netcentric Operations and Warfare, i.e. .effective, distributed, collaboration over a network to gain asymmetric advantage, especially with respect to information superiority. To enable NCO/W, the DoD has issued transformational policy mandating change from a vertical (stovepiped), serial, system-centric requirement model to a horizontal, capability-based, adaptive, requirement model. This policy specifically calls for using the service oriented architecture (SOA) paradigm as a change agent, and a means to accelerate delivery of information processing capability. However, the intent of this SOA-enabled netcentric requirements policy is at odds with the implementation detail mandated by Acquisition policy. That is, Acquisition policy does not offer tools to enable, let alone encourage, cross program development of enterprise capability or to de-couple software development from the rigid, serial, time-lines associated with developing sensors, weapons, and platforms. This paper suggests a way to subtly nudge two aspects of the existing policy regime to provide those tools. In particular, the Net-Ready Key Performance Parameter (NR-KPP) should be based on a minimal matrix of measurable and testable criteria that can be observed on the ground, written into enforceable contract language, and rolled up into executive dashboards. The Tailored Information Support Plan (T-ISP) concept should be expanded to include the notion of a network service stack (NSS) to address enterprise-level information processing capability.. The intent of a NSS T-ISP would be to provide a plan, enforceable through contract language, that will maintain NR-KPP service level objectives throughout a capability lifecycle.

BIO

Chris Gunderson is Naval Postgraduate School Associate Research Professor of Information Science. His research interest is effective information exchange across a network of experts. He is detailed to the National Capital Region to support Joint Interoperability Command efforts to create a government/ industry partnership for adaptive collaborative development and validation and verification of netcentric capability modules.

Gunderson retired from the US Navy as a Captain in October 2004 following 27 years' service as a Navy Oceanographer. His last assignment in the Navy was Commanding Officer of Fleet Numerical Oceanographic & Meteorological Center, a high-performance computing center in Monterey, Calif.

Towards a Formal Standard for Interoperability
in M&S/SOS Integration

Bernard Zeigler and Saurabh Mittal
Arizona Center for Integrative Modeling and Simulation
University of Arizona

May 21, 2008 at 13:30

ABSTRACT

Modeling and Simulation (M&S) is finding increasing application in development and testing of command and control systems comprised of information-intensive component systems. In this paper, we apply a System of Systems (SoS) perspective on the integration of M&S with such systems. We employ recently developed interoperability concepts based on linguistic categories along with the Discrete Event System Specification formalism to propose a standard for interoperability. We will show how the developed standard is implemented in DEVS/SOA net-centric modeling and simulation framework.

BIO

Bernard P. Zeigler is Professor of Electrical and Computer Engineering at the University of Arizona, Tucson and Director of the Arizona Center for Integrative Modeling and Simulation. He is internationally known for his 1976 foundational text Theory of Modeling and Simulation, recently revised for a second edition (Academic Press, 2000), He has published numerous books and research publications on the Discrete Event System Specification (DEVS) formalism. In 1995, he was named Fellow of the IEEE in recognition of his contributions to the theory of discrete event simulation. In 2000 he received the McLeod Founder's Award by the Society for Computer Simulation, its highest recognition, for his contributions to discrete event simulation. He was appointed Fellow of the Society for Modeling and Simulation, International (SCS), 2006.

Saurabh Mittal is an Assistant Research Professor at the ECE Department, University of Arizona. He received both MS and PhD in ECE from the University of Arizona in 2004 and 2007 respectively. His research interests include modeling and simulation, net-centric systems engineering, DoDAF-based executable architectures, interoperability and data engineering. He is a recipient of Joint Interoperability Test Command's highest civilian contractor 'Golden Eagle' award for the project GENETSCOPE and NTSA award for Best Cross-platform development in M&S area for the project ATC-Gen. He is currently working on projects at JITC and NGIT. He can be reached at saumitt@gmail.com

Xiaolin Hu is an Assistant Professor in the Computer Science Department at Georgia State University, Atlanta, Georgia. He received his Ph.D. degree from the University of Arizona, M.S. degree from Chinese Academy of Sciences, and B.S. degree from Beijing Institute of Technology in 2004, 1999, and 1996 respectively. His research interests include modeling and simulation, and their applications to complex system design, multi-agent/multi-robot systems, and ecological and biological problems. He has served as program chairs for four international conferences/ symposiums in the field of modeling and simulation, and guest editor for Simulation: Transaction of The Society for Modeling and Simulation International.

Building Composable Bridges Between
the Conceptual Space and the Implementation Space

Paul Gustavson, Tram Chase, and Matt Wilson
SimVentions, Inc

May 21, 2008 at 13:30

ABSTRACT

Often the process and effort in building interoperable Command and Control (C2) systems and simulations can be arduous. Invariably the difficulty is in understanding what is intended. This paper introduces the notion of composable bridges as a means to help transition abstract ideas or concepts into concrete implementations. We examine the key elements to achieve composability, which include the direction provided by a process, the importance of a conceptual model, the use of patterns to help characterize reusable aspects of a design, the importance of having good discovery metadata and well-defined interfaces that can be implemented, the use of components, and the practical use of libraries and tools. We suggest that, of all these elements, a properly documented conceptual model provides the basis for formulating a composable bridge, and that things like patterns, discovery metadata, and interfaces play a key role. We take a look at a specific standard known as the Base Object Model (BOM) and examine how it provides a means to define a composable bridge. We explore how BOMs, in this capacity, can be aggregated and used (and reused) to support the creation of concrete implementations. We also explore how such composability helps to achieve various levels of interoperability for C2 systems and Simulation applications.

BIO

Paul Gustavson is a co-founder and Chief Technology Officer of SimVentions, Inc. (http://www.simventions.com) and is focused on the development and integration of technology for creating innovative and engaging experiences and solutions. Paul is a graduate of Old Dominion University, with a B.S. in Computer Engineering (1989), and has supported a wide variety of modeling and simulation, system engineering, web technology, and mobile computing efforts within the DoD and software development communities. He is a principal author of "C++ Builder 6 Developer's Guide"; and contributor to other books and articles; and, has presented at numerous conferences. He is also a long-time advocate and pioneer of the Base Object Model (BOM) concept for enabling simulation composability, interoperability, and reuse. Paul lives in Virginia with his wife and two boys.

Tram Chase is a senior software engineer at SimVentions,Inc. (http://www.simventions.com) and is focused on the development and integration of technology for creating innovative and engaging experiences and solutions. In support of BOMs, Tram has been the lead developer of BOMworks^TM, a tool used to build, edit and compose BOMs. Tram is a graduate of Virginia Tech, with a B.S. in Mathematics (1994), and has supported a wide variety of modeling and simulation and system engineering efforts within the DoD. Tram lives in Virginia with his wife and two children.

Matt Wilson is a senior software developer and architect at SimVentions. He has over 16 years experience as a project manager and as a software and systems engineer. He has participated on a variety of projects and standards committees including the Object Management Group (OMG) C4I Domain Task Force since 2004. He designs and implements software system architecture for high performance, user interface intensive, distributed, web-based, n-tier, and desktop software applications. Mr. Wilson currently supports various DoD customers in the area of software development, systems engineering, and analysis. His current efforts involve Human Systems Integration (HSI), technical leadership, SBIR project development for advanced visualization, and processes for implementing Open Architecture (OA) combat systems into the US Navy fleet.

Applying a Formal Language of Command and Control for Interoperability with Simulations

Dr. Michael R. Hieb
Center of Excellence in C4I
George Mason University
and
Dr. Ulrich Schade
FGAN-FKIE

May 21, 2008 at 13:30

ABSTRACT

Battle Management Language (BML) is being developed as an open standard that unambiguously specifies Command and Control information, including orders and reports built upon precise representations of tasks. BML is both a methodology and a language specification, based on doctrine and consistent with Coalition standards. Recent work has concentrated on leveraging standard data model semantics (particularly the Joint Consultation, Command and Control Information Exchange Data Model - JC3IDM) for a Simulation Interoperability Standards Organization (SISO) Coalition BML (C-BML) specification. While current BML work has organized task representations around the Command and Control Information Exchange Data Model and the 5 Ws (WHO, WHAT, WHERE, WHEN and WHY), the grammar is implicit rather than explicit.

Development of a formal grammar is necessary for the specification of a complete language. Formalizing BML by defining its grammar follows the conventions determined by the theory of Linguistics. Initially, it must be determined which type of grammar is to be used. The Chomsky hierarchy specifies that grammars can be Type 0 (unrestricted grammars), Type 1 (context-sensitive grammars), Type 2 (context-free grammars) or Type 3 (regular grammars). While humans sometimes use constructions that may best be described by a context-sensitive grammar (type 1), automated processing is best supported by a more constrained one (Type 2 or Type 3). Our analysis indicates that a Type 2 grammar best fits the requirements for a BML.

To specify a BML grammar (our implementation is the C2 Lexical Functional Grammar - C2LG), rules are developed to determine how to create valid BML sentences that describe military tasks, requests and reports. An analysis of US and German Army 5-paragraph orders shows that a pure 5W based grammar can neither cope with all of the expressions needed, nor exclude all sentences that violate our intuition of "correctness". Therefore, rules for C2LG sentences require additional and more detailed semantics such that a verb (the 5W's WHAT) determines a structure (expressed as a "frame") for the sentence. This verb frame then references the other Ws and additional terms. Rules for the concatenation of C2LG sentences in our grammar are guided by NATO STANAG 2014 - "Formats for Orders and Designations of Timings, Locations and Boundaries".

In this paper we describe the grammar that formalizes the construction of valid C2LG sentences as well as their concatenation to form military orders and reports. This is illustrated by an example from an Army Order from a Multinational Interoperability Program (MIP) Exercise. We also address the use of this BML grammar in automated systems and describe how the grammar aids C2 to Simulation Interoperability.

BIO

Michael Hieb is a Research Associate Professor with the Center of Excellence in C4I at George Mason University. Dr. Hieb was the Co-Chair of the SISO CBML Study Group and also was on the team that developed the initial BML concept for the US Army. He received his PhD in Information Technology at George Mason University in 1996, developing an instructable Modular Semi-Automated Forces agent. He has published over 90 papers in the areas of Formal Languages for Command and Control, Simulation Interoperability, and Multistrategy Learning.

Ulrich Schade is a Senior Scientist at the Research Institute for Communication, Information Processing and Ergonomics that is part of FGAN financed by the German MoD and is a Lecturer at the Institute for Communication Research and Phonetics, Bonn University. Dr. Schade received his MA in Mathematics in 1986 and his PhD in Linguistics in 1990 at Bielefeld University (Germany), developing a connectionist model for language production processes. He has written many papers and book articles in the areas of Language Production, Ontology Development, and Cognitive Models.

Toward an Interopability Reference Model

Rex Buddenberg,
Naval Postgraduate School

May 21, 2008 at 13:30

ABSTRACT

Abstract. Every discussion of interoperability tends to require an enormous preamble having to do with finding the right layer of a nonexistent reference model. Are we talking about cognitive, doctrinal, data element standardization, networking ...? Or are we talking about elements of information technology that, at best, handle interoperability as a side effect(software portability is an example)? And when we get to prescriptive issues (architecture) are we talking about interoperability between systems or requirements analysis within a single system? The ISO Reference Model is universally used within the Internet community as a means of organizing the discourse. The Reference Model is properly described as a taxonomy. A means for organizing the discussion. This paper proposes an Interoperability Reference Model that is intended to perform the same function for interoperable information systems as the ISO Reference Model does for interoperable networks -- organize the discussion.

BIO

Orchestrating BMD Control in Extended BPEL

Thomas S. Cook
Computer Science Department
Naval Postgraduate School

Duminda Wijesekera
Computer Science Department
George Mason University

Bret Michael
Computer Science Department
Naval Postgraduate School

Man-Tak Shing
Computer Science Department
Naval Postgraduate School

May 21, 2008 at 15:30

ABSTRACT

We specify duty cycles of a Ballistic Missile Defense (BMD) command and control application by decorating the Business Process Execution Language (BPEL) with Quality of Service (QoS), Measures of Performance (MoP), Measures of Effectiveness (MoE) and Measures of Merit (MoM) metrics.

BIO

Thomas S. Cook is a Lieutenant Colonel in the US Army and a PhD candidate at the Naval Postgraduate School in Monterey California.

Duminda Wijesekera is an associate professor in the Department of Information and Software Engineering at George Mason University, Fairfax, Virginia. During various times, he has contributed to research in security, multimedia, networks, systems, avionics and theoretical computer science. These span topics such as applying logical methods to access and dissemination control, securing circuit switched (SS7) and IP based telecommunication (VoIP) systems, multimedia, security requirements processing during the early phases of the software life cycle, WWW security, railroad signaling security, SCADA security, communicating honeynet farms, and engineering Ballistic Missiles. His pre-GMU work has been in quality of service issues in multimedia, avionics control and specifying and verifying concurrent systems using logical methods.

James Bret Michael is a professor of computer science and electrical & computer engineering at the Naval Postgraduate School. His primary areas of research areas are engineering distributed and trustworthy systems. Prior to joining NPS, he conducted research at the University of California at Berkeley. He is the chair of the IEEE Technical Committee on Safety of Systems, a member of the Advisory Board for IEEE Software, an associate editor-in-chief of IEEE Security & Privacy, and an associate editor of the IEEE Systems Journal. He received his PhD in information technology from George Mason University. He is a senior member of the IEEE.

Man-Tak Shing is an associate professor of computer science at the Naval Postgraduate School. His research interests include software engineering, modeling and design of real-time and distributed systems, and the specification, validation, and runtime monitoring of temporal assertions. He is on the program committees of several conferences dedicated to software engineering and is a member of the Steering Committee of the IEEE International Rapid System Symposium. He was the program co-chair for the IEEE Rapid System Prototyping Workshop in 2004 prior to being the general co-chair for the symposium in 2008. He received his PhD in computer science from the University of California, San Diego. He is a senior member of the IEEE.

New Application: What is the Network Impact

Robert L. Godfrey, Jr
NDIC Fellow

May 21, 2008 at 15:30

ABSTRACT

Do you know what the impact of your Service Oriented Architecture (SOA) deployment is to the operational network? During deployment, the network requirements for the application are discovered. Deploying functions directly to the operational network forces the network technicians to quickly adapt the network to these requirements. Since this is not optimal, we need an improved process. A way of improving this process is to use a test network that simulates the operational network although a better solution would be to extract network requirements and verify the requirements using the test network. The test network reduces operational impact by removing the development of the requirement from the operational network. To enhance this process farther would require that the network requirements be extracted during development. This process would use a common language between the developers and network technicians that capture the network requirement. The test network would then be used to verify the requirement of the new function before it is deployed to the operational network and reduce the impact to operations.

BIO

MAJ Robert Godfrey, Jr. earned his commission at Miami University in Oxford, Ohio in 1994. He was assigned to AFPC, Randolph AFB as a field system computer engineer developing advance oracle application for AF and Civilian personnel systems. In 1998, Major Godfrey went to the Air Force Pentagon Communications Agency to support the Office of the Assistant Secretary Defense/Reserve Affairs. In 2000, Major Godfrey was assigned to the 831st Munitions Support Squadron, Ghedi Air Base, Italy as a flight commander and Emergency Action Officer. He received the USAFE C2 Distinguished Graduate and 831st MUNSS 2002 CP Officer of the Year. In 2002, Major Godfrey was assigned to the 29th Intelligence Squadron, Ft Meade as a Signal Intelligence Directorate project manager. He directly led the GALE-Lite and Information Management and Storage Programs while earning his PM Level 1. In 2005, Major Godfrey was assigned to the 55th Communication Squadron, Offutt AFB as the deputy commander. He deployed in December 2005 to Baghdad, Iraq as the NATO Training Mission - Iraq. During his deployment, he upgraded all in-theatre communications from rapid deployment kits to a robust fixed system between training facilities. Major Godfrey came to the National Defense Intelligence College in July 2007.

Realizing Organizational Collaboration Through Semantic Mediation

Sri Gopalan, Sandeep Maripuri, Brad Medairy
Booz Allen Hamilton

May 21, 2008 at 15:30

ABSTRACT

Realizing organizational collaboration requires a greater level of information sharing between knowledge agents - both the people within an organization and the information systems that support them. Achieving this level of information transparency relies on fundamental improvements in today's systems and data mediation architectures. This paper describes how Semantic Web technologies can be leveraged within the context of Service Oriented Architectures to support dynamic, meaningful exchange of information both within and across organization boundaries.

BIO

Sri Gopalan is an Associate with Booz Allen Hamilton's Global IT Team, leading SOA design, governance, and interoperability efforts for Defense and Intelligence Community clients. He has over 7 years of professional experience developing and architecting enterprise-class applications and services for both the commercial and government sectors. He is currently serving as a development lead, researching and implementing various Semantic Web and SOA-based prototypes focused on promoting collaboration and information sharing for a classified project within the government. He holds a MS and BS in Electrical and Computer Engineering from Carnegie Mellon University.

Sandeep Maripuri is a Senior Associate with Booz Allen Hamilton's Global IT Team, leading Applied Research & Development efforts for Defense and Intelligence Community clients. His focus areas include applying advanced concepts (e.g. Semantic Web, Grid Computing) to operational needs and Net-Centric architectures. These efforts target methods for improving the efficiency and dynamic composability of large, distributed systems. He is currently overseeing the implementation of several Semantic Web and SOA-based prototypes focused on promoting collaboration, data interoperabiltiy, and information sharing for research-oriented clients. Prior to joining Booz Allen, Sandeep had provided consulting services in addition to working in the COTS marketplace, where he helped architect and build a semantics-based, dynamic data integration product. Sandeep holds a B.S. in Mechanical Engineering, minor Computer Science, from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign.

Brad Medairy is a Principal with Booz Allen Hamilton's Global IT Team, headquartered in Mclean, VA. As a leader in the firm's Service Oriented Architecture (SOA) Solutions area, he leads a team focused on the strategy, design, and implementation of SOA and integration solutions. He has a proven track record in the application of emerging technologies (e.g. Semantic Web, Social Computing, Grid Computing, and Web Services) to address the business and missions needs of customers across all areas of Government. He holds an MS in Information Systems and Technology from Johns Hopkins University and a BS in Information Systems from University of Maryland, Baltimore County.

Probabilistic Ontologies for Multi-INT Fusion

Dr. Kathryn Blackmond Laskey,
George Mason University

Dr. Paulo Costa,
Brazilian Air Force

Dr. Terry Janssen,
Lockheed Martin

May 21, 2008 at 15:30

ABSTRACT

Systems are increasingly required to fuse data from geographically dispersed, heterogeneous information sources to produce up-to-date, mission-relevant results. These products focus not only on traditional military forces and systems, but to an increasing degree also on non-traditional combatants and their social networks. Successful multi-INT fusion requires that the constituent systems interoperate not just at the level of syntax and formats, but also at the level of semantics. Ontologies are vital enablers for semantic interoperability. Because uncertainty is a fundamental aspect of multi-INT fusion, lack of support for uncertainty is a major limitation of current-generation ontology formalisms. Probabilistic OWL (PR-OWL) extends the OWL Web Ontology Language to enable the construction of probabilistic ontologies. Ontologies constructed in PR-OWL can represent complex patterns of evidential relationships among uncertain hypotheses. Recently, a system for specifying and reasoning with PR-OWL ontologies has been released in alpha version. This paper describes the PR-OWL ontology language, the probabilistic logic on which it is based, and the reasoning system implementation. A case study in the counterterrorism domain is illustrates the capabilities of PR-OWL.

BIO

Kathryn B. Laskey, Ph.D. is Associate Professor of Systems Engineering and Operations Research and Associate Director of the C4I Center at George Mason University, where she teaches and performs research on computational decision theory and evidential reasoning. Professor Laskey's research involves working with human experts to put their knowledge into a form that can be processed by computers, and applying probability theory to draw conclusions from evidence that comes from many different sources. She has applied her research to problems such as modeling the emplacement of improvised explosive devices, predicting aircraft delays, managing terrorist risk at public facilities, judicial reasoning, and planning military engagements. Dr. Laskey developed multi-entity Bayesian networks (MEBN), a language and logic that extends classical first-order logic to support Bayesian probability. She was a key contributor to the development of PR-OWL, an upper ontology that allows MEBN theories to be represented in OWL ontologies. Dr. Laskey served on a National Academy of Sciences committee to assess the statistical validity of the polygraph and is a member of the Committee on Applied and Theoretical Statistics of the National Academy of Sciences. Dr. Laskey received the BS degree in mathematics from the University of Pittsburgh, the MS degree in mathematics from the University of Michigan, and the PhD degree in statistics and public policy from Carnegie Mellon University.

Dr. Paulo C. G. da Costa received his PhD in Information Technology from GMU in 2005. He is an affiliate faculty with the GMU C4I Center and a LT COL in the Brazilian Air Force, planning to retire in Summer 2008. Dr. Costa is a world-class expert in integrating semantic technology and uncertainty management. He developed PR-OWL, a probabilistic extension of the OWL ontology language. He supervised the development of an open-source reasoning engine for PR-OWL ontologies, developed by the UnBBayes group at the University of Brasilia.

Dr. Terry Janssen has over 30 years of experience in information technologies including system architecture, database, data mining, text mining, natural language processing, evidential reasoning, decision analysis/theory, operations research, expert systems/AI, semantic technology and ontology, collaboration, and systems engineering. Currently he is a Principle System Engineer and a Chief Technologist at Lockheed Martin.

Prior to Lockheed he owned his own consulting company, EXDS, Inc., that provided research and development, and consulting focused on advanced information technology. During this period his clients included MITRE, NASA, North Carolina State University, Purdue University, Raytheon, Sonex, RMF, TRW, Unisys, University of Chicago, University of Florida, USDA, George Mason University, DoD and intelligence community. He provided over $200K in grants to GMU faculty and students.

From 1992 until June of 1998 he was a Decision and Information Scientist and Program Manager for the Decision and Information Sciences Division of Argonne National Laboratory. Argonne is a national laboratory managed by the University of Chicago for the U.S. Department of Energy. During this period, he was responsible for the application of advanced technologies including artificial intelligence, decision theory, linear and non-linear programming, modeling, simulation, relational and object-oriented database, graphic user interface, and collaborative work environments. He managed problem definition, technology assessment, and system engineering for the application of these advanced technologies to difficult problems faced by Government and Industry. He was granted a U.S. Patent that is held by Argonne and the U.S. Department of Energy.

Prior to Argonne he was a Program Manager and Senior Computer Scientist at Computer Sciences Corporation (1/85 through 12/91), where he was responsible for research, development and application of advanced information technologies. CSC awarded him the CSC Honorarium award.

He has a Ph.D in Information Technology from GMU, and he has taught classes as an Adjunct Professor at George Mason University's School of Information Technology and Engineering. He has given many technical talks and authored over 30 publications.

The Many Faces of Collaboration Interoperability

Diane Boettcher
Director of Knowledge Management
SRA International

May 21, 2008 at 15:30

ABSTRACT

Collaboration interoperab