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This work presents a novel approach to tackling the challenges of estimating the cost impact of multiple net centric warfare architectural design alternatives, the cost of the equipment, the cost to maintain and upgrade the equipment in terms of hardware, software, and labor, and the total cost of ownership of those alternatives. This paper is the result of on-going research and discusses the strengths and weaknesses of alternate approaches to these costing challenges, including the use of knowledge-based parametric cost models.

In today's global environment, effective collaboration across United States intelligence agencies is of dire importance. Efficient knowledge sharing can enable agencies to enhance their ability to detect, classify, and identify possible terrorist threats. Conventional collaborative technologies do not provide enough flexibility to achieve this ambitious goal. Intelligence analysts need the ability to quickly adapt to complex, changing situations in a dynamic environment in which shifts in the overall mission is the norm rather than the anomaly. By applying leading-edge technologies and architectural approaches, a network-centric architecture can be realized to increase information sharing and the collaborative capabilities of the intelligence community. The resulting network will continue to grow over time and provide a mechanism to share data and applications across traditional organizational boundaries. Intelligence analysts will now have access to a vast set of resources that was previously unattainable, providing a capability to preemptively identify suspicious plans and diffuse terrorist activities before they occur.

The Expeditionary Warfare Decision Support System (EDSS) is an Office of Naval Research (ONR) sponsored system designed to improve the planning of expeditionary operations. ONR requested that the Applied Physics Laboratory, University of Washington (APL-UW) and the Naval Research Laboratory (NRL) investigate the human-computer interaction (HCI) components of EDSS. Additionally, APL-UW and NRL were tasked to provide user interface recommendations to the EDSS developers. To do this the HCI team followed a user-centered design (UCD) approach and studied EDSS users and their tasks, which resulted in an in-depth user task analysis of expeditionary planning. A medium-fidelity interface prototype was created based on the user studies and the principles of UCD. The prototype presented a more streamlined and intuitive order of tasks and improved window organization. The positive feedback from this prototype allowed for a more comprehensive list of user interface recommendations. A majority of these recommendations were incorporated into a follow-on version of EDSS. HCI and UCD have implications for future versions of EDSS and other Navy decision systems, and particularly for Net Centric Warfare.

The NRL Optical Sciences Division has initiated a multi-year effort to develop and demonstrate an airborne net-centric suite of multi-intelligence (multi-INT) sensors and exploitation systems for real-time target detection and targeting product dissemination. The goal of this Net-centric Multi-Intelligence Fusion Targeting Initiative (NCMIFTI) is to develop an airborne real-time intelligence gathering and targeting system that can be used to detect concealed, camouflaged, and mobile targets. The multi-INT sensor suite will include high-resolution visible/infrared (EO/IR) dual-band cameras, hyperspectral imaging (HSI) sensors in the visible-to-near infrared, short-wave and long-wave infrared (VNIR/SWIR/LWIR) bands, Synthetic Aperture Radar (SAR), electronics intelligence sensors (ELINT), and off-board networked sensors. Other sensors are also being considered for inclusion in the suite to address unique target detection needs. Integrating a suite of multi-INT sensors on a single platform should optimize real-time fusion of the on-board sensor streams, thereby improving the detection probability and reducing the false alarms that occur in reconnaissance systems that use single-sensor types on separate platforms, or that use independent target detection algorithms on multiple sensors. In addition to the integration and fusion of the multi-INT sensors, the effort is establishing an open-systems net-centric architecture that will provide a modular “plug and play” capability for additional sensors and system components and provide distributed connectivity to multiple sites for remote system control and exploitation.

Netcentric thinking provides the ability of outside devices and systems to insinuate themselves into the operation of an embedded device. Netcentric systems are defined as a set of connected devices, embedded devices, information appliances, desktop computers and servers. In a sensor-to-strike scenario, the chain of events that connect the initiation of a control event to its result is not within a closed space. The chain may incorporate information gathering devices and weapons a thousand miles apart, or any of a myriad of devices in a more local confederated environment. System architectural approaches now need to consider determinism not only on the control side, but the communications side as well. This affects the design and use of computer hardware and software, and supporting tools. System designers can no longer work within the confines of closed systems. Systems cannot be constructed in a context where designers have relative control over all aspects of the design. This paper investigates two critical software technologies that address the open systems aspects of network centric systems. In particular, publish/subscribe mechanisms and service discovery mechanisms are investigated. Issues relating to determinism, reliability, predictability, security, and scalability are discussed.

Have you ever found yourself searching for your keys o nly to find them in your hand? The T&E infrastructure can serve as a springboard for rapid integr ation of advancing technology. Today, we may very well find that the keys to embedded net -centric instrumentation on legacy and currently planned systems are within our reach. This paper describes the opportunities offered by new technologies afforded by the T&E infrastructure and an emerging stan dard for solid state recording, IRIG 106 Chapter 10, to help achieve the goal of real -time mission monitoring. These T&E capabilities can be leve raged through standardization to reduce time -critical targeti ng and the find, fix, track, target, engage, and a ssess (F2T2EA) cycle and help provide persistent ISR capabilities .

The Naval Meteorology and Oceanography (MetOc) Community is embarking on a new concept of on-scene data collection coupled with a networked system to better support the evolving needs of the modern Naval Warfighter. This concept will be implemented over the next ten to fifteen years by leveraging state-of-the-art high speed computer and server technology, advanced through-the-sensor inversion algorithms, and evolving Navy-wide networking initiatives. Enabling concepts and technologies as well as enhanced warfighter capabilities are outlined.

This study is an initial attempt to investigate the emerging net-centric warfare concept from the perspective of- the user interface and team performance. The report lays out a conceptual framework as the basis for establishing a scientific foundation for user interface design in the enterprise system context This framework includes a joint functional layer added to the information technology (IT) infrastructure. Design requirements for this layer of the collaborative interface are derived from principles of Cognitive Systems Engineering and characteristics of human expertise. In conjunction with the theoretical development an experimental testbed is that it includes a heterogeneous array of computer platforms and commercial off-the-shelf (COTS) products. In this study, the testbed was used to host a BMC4I scenario that required joint collaborative work across Air Force and Army units. This military scenario provided an additional means to uncover other issues important to user interface design in an enterprise IT environment. The report the user interface design framework, describes the research testbed, and discusses lessons learned from the informal experimentation of distributed teamwork using the BMC4I scenario.

Are we losing our expertise in operational art? The seeming ease with which we have dispatched our last few opponents, coupled with the near-mythical capabilities associated with the still evolving Net Centric Warfare concept should be cause for concern. In our rush to transform we must be careful not to throw the baby out with the bath water. From a purely military perspective, our challenge is to retain our dominance, not just in technology and training, but more importantly in our ability to employ those forces successfully in combat through the proper application of operational art. Future U.S. military leaders must possess both a thorough understanding of, and adequate experience in employing, operational art. This paper contends that the U.S. is losing it's practical experience in operational art. It explores the current lack of operational art in some commissioning programs. It goes on to illustrate how some Professional Military Education (PME) curriculums address operational art in classroom settings, but have all but removed the practical application phases due to the constraints of accreditation processes. The paper then asserts that shortfall could be mitigated through more war gaming and then illustrates how war games have been used historically to address operational art issues. The paper also illustrates the significant decline in the amount of war gaming in modern day. The paper concludes with a proposal on how the amount of war gaming could be increased in the future through the use of distributed, or networked games. These would allow students doing PME by correspondence to participate in war games as well and would offer the added ability to have students continue to play war games from their follow-on duty locations, thus allowing them to practice operational art every year.

The United States military is reviewing command and control (C2) as part of a larger transformation process underway in the Department of Defense. A key question for future C2 design is: who should make decisions for forces engaged in war? Net-centric theory questions the current concentration of decision-making authority in the hands of operational level leaders traditional generalship. Theorists of Information Age warfare contend that decision-making power should increasingly shift from operational to tactical level commanders to fully realize the potential of net-centric organization. Classic theory on war, modern decision sciences and case studies of recent net-centric environments suggest a different conclusion. Operational level commanders continue to provide a unique value added" to decisions in war. This value is a product of intuitive grasp Clausewitz's "genius for war" and the wisdom derived from experience and education. Drawing on this intuition and experience, operational commanders are better able to perceive and act on campaign-level opportunities or dangers missed at the tactical level. Future command and control designs that reduce the scope generalship at the operational level in favor of self-synchronization.

In the December 2001 memorandum Interoperability and Data Management, the DoD CIO requested development of an enterprise level data strategy to advance the Department toward the goal of network centric operations. A Core Data Management Working Group, with representatives from across the Department, was established to develop this strategy consistent with other net-centric initiatives, such as the Global Information Grid (GIG) Enterprise Services. The attached DoD Net-Centric Data Strategy provides a key enabler of the Department's Transformation by establishing the foundation for managing the Department's data in a net-centric environment.

Network-Centric Warfare (NCW), or Network-Centric Operations (NCO), is a term that evokes strong opinions. The proponents of NCW look to the future and see sensor grids, weapons platforms netted together, and the free flow of information relating the minute details of friendly and enemy forces. The opponents of NCW claim that the ability of net centric operations to give the commander detailed information about the battlespace will flatten the command hierarchy and tempt operational commanders to dabble in tactical decisions rather than concentrating on operational art. The use of Net-centric tools in modern warfare has not hampered warfighting. On the contrary, they have provided the synthesis of information needed to conduct operations, greatly enhancing the warfighting capability of the modern commander. For NCW to mature from the current tactical to the future operational level, it must support the operational commander and his/her staff in the functions of operational art. NCW as it exists today and in the near future can provide the Operational Commander with the tools to plan, collaborate and increase the speed with which the staff perform. It is through NCW that the Operational Commander will react quicker there-by shocking the adversary or thwarting an enemy timetable for victory. Net centric warfare will, in the future, bring these about.

The paper describes our experiences in attempting to understand the functional nature, high-level design, and implementation details of Gnut, a program that implements the Gnutella peer-to-peer Internet file system protocol. Gnutella is representative of a new breed of net-centric applications that is both qualitatively and quantitatively different than the typical legacy systems that are usually the focus of program understanding exercises. The primary motivation for this analysis is our interest in evaluating the applicability of traditional reverse engineering tools to aid in the understanding of this type of contemporary software system. A secondary motivation for the case study is an assessment of an existing framework for categorizing the capabilities of software reverse engineering environments, to further develop its capabilities. We found that the representative tool we used to examine Gnut, Source Navigator, does not adequately address the requirements of understanding net-centric applications. In particular, the emphasis on static source code analysis is no longer appropriate for this type of application. Dynamic analysis and network monitors are also needed to gain a more complete understanding of the subject system. We also found that the framework requires some alteration to be used in this new context, although the description of the tool's support for the canonical activities of reverse engineering and its quality attributes remains pertinent.

Traditional display, control and situational awareness technologies may not allow the fighting vehicle commander to take full advantage of the rich data environment made available in the net-centric battle field of the future. Indeed, the sheer complexity and volume of available data, if not properly managed, may actually reduce crew performance by overloading or confusing the commander with irrelevant information. New techniques must be explored to understand how to present battlefield information and provide the commander with continuous high quality situational awareness without significant cognitive overhead. Control of the vehicle's many complex systems must also be addressed the entire Soldier Machine Interface must be optimized if we are to realize the potential performance improvements. Defence Research and Development Canada (DRDC) and General Dynamics Canada Ltd. have embarked on a joint program called Future Armoured Fighting Vehicle Systems Technology Demonstrator, to explore these issues. The project is based on man-in-the-loop experimentation using virtual reality technology on a six degree-of-freedom motion platform that simulates the motion, sights and sounds inside a future armoured vehicle. The vehicle commander is provided with a virtual reality vision system to view a simulated 360 degree multi-spectrum representation of the battlespace, thus providing enhanced situational awareness. Graphic overlays with decision aid information will be added to reduce cognitive loading. Experiments will be conducted to evaluate the effectiveness of virtual control systems. The simulations are carried out in a virtual battlefield created by linking our simulation system with other simulation centers to provide a net-centric battlespace where enemy forces can be engaged in fire fights. Survivability and lethality will be measured in successive test sequences using real armoured fighting vehicle crews to optimize overall system effectiveness.© (2002) COPYRIGHT SPIE--The International Society for Optical Engineering. Downloading of the abstract is permitted for personal use only.

Being a new-generation C4ISR system simulation method, the construction approach of net-centric simulation (NCS) is developing toward net-centric from the traditional approach of platform-centric. NCS is mainly completed by the construction of the simulation task community (STC), the key to which being the dynamic integration of the various services spread in the network in order to form a new STC that meets the requirements of different users. In this study, a simulation task community service selection algorithm (STCSSA) is proposed. The main idea of this algorithm is to transform the construction of STC to the searching of optimal multi-objectives services with QoS global constraints. This paper first introduces the QoS model of STC and evaluates the service composition process, then presents the detailed operating process of STCSSA and design of the dynamic inertia weight strategy of the algorithm, and also proposes an optional variation method. Comparative tests were performed on STCSSA with other particle swarm optimization algorithms. It was validated from the perspective of performance that the proposed algorithm has advantages in improving the rate of convergence and avoiding local optimum, and from the perspective of practical application STCSSA also demonstrated feasibility in the construction of large-scale NCS task community.

With continuous acceptance of the World Wide Web (WWW) as a de facto standard for human-computer interaction and human-human communication, it is desirable to develop net-centric, multimedia and collaborative applications. We present a new scripting language, JACIE, designed to support rapid prototyping and implementation of such applications. The necessity to support the management of multimedia interaction and communication in collaborative applications is highlighted. JACIE facilitates such support through the concepts of channels and a collection of interaction protocols. JACIE also features a template-based programming style, a single program for both client and server, and platform-independence by using Java as the target language. All these features characterise a desirable multimedia software engineering tool.

Joint Vision 2010, the Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff's template for future military operations, identifies information superiority as the linchpin of the emerging operational concepts of Dominant Maneuver, precision Engagement, Focused Logistics and Full Dimensional protection. While the technical challenges to realizing these concepts are acknowledged, I contend the tasks required to successfully integrate the human and cultural side of Joint Vision 2010's information superiority are as daunting as any of the still unsolved technical hurdles. Currently, the human element of technology enabled warfare is not getting the attention it needs. The military must begin to examine whether current training and doctrine are sufficient to prepare operational commanders for the Chairman's vision of the future.

Web-PHIDIAS is a hypermedia-based, intelligent CAD system that delivers both CAD functionality and design information to anyone with Web access. This system is above all designed to facilitate collaborative architectural design. It provides both private (individual) and collaborative (group) drawing and text authoring spaces, with a variety of types of authoring and viewing privileges for groups. This enables a single designer to work in privacy on one piece of a design and later “publish” it to a supervisor or a group. It also enables a group to work in privacy and later publish its work to a different or larger group. This notion of “levels of privacy/publication“ is a crucial but too-often missing component of collaborative design systems. With WebPHIDIAS, all drawings are stored in a central repository accessible from the group server. This means that they are accessible from anywhere in the world to any viewer who has the required viewing and/or authoring privileges. This enables designers to access and modify stored drawings while travelling or when out on the site, even if the site is in another country. It also enables them to create new drawings and store them in the central repository from anywhere in the world. Web-PHIDIAS consists of an interactive Web-based client that serves as an interface to the PHIDIAS hypermedia server. This client, which is implemented in Java, provides basic, 2D graphical editing functionality and as well as display of 3D views. It also provides access to multimedia information useful for whatever design task is at hand. This information includes text and graphical descriptions of design precedents as well as various issues in design of a particular type of building.

As part of the STEP '97 conference, workshop W2b, Net-Centric Computing, was held on Thursday, July 17, 1997. Through focused presentations and open discussion, this workshop explored net-centric computing and its potential impact on software users, application developers, and system administrators. This report describes the STEP '97 conference, overviews the Net-Centric Computing workshop, and provides a summary of the invited presentations.

This paper discusses the concept of information brokerage as a range of intermediary services between consumers and information sources. These services are considered in the context of an increasingly commercial information trading environment, including the necessary legal requirements for online commerce. This is not a proposal for brokerage-it is a scenario for how brokerage may organically evolve; what drives its development, and its role in the developing services needed to support information services (viz the evolving Internet) on top of the traditional PSTN/ISDN. The paper considers the construction, deployment and management of future networked information services, and considers the scenario of service deployment following a net centric component ware paradigm; this assumes a trading environment where services are composed of third party provided service components which are subject to commercial procurement. The paper then develops this scenario to consider information services as online businesses which are autonomous and continually reassessing their own market environment. The fundamental conclusion is the increase in the requirement for intermediaries, and specifically information brokerage. It is argued that the commercial environment and the scale of the evolving Internet can't survive without intermediation. This also applies to the management and support of the communications networks themselves in this fertile services environment.

In network centric operations, avionics on an aircraft will be both a source and destination of information. The U.S. Department of Defense (DoD) has mandated capabilities required for transforming to network centric operations. These capabilities are called out in the Joint Technical Architecture (JTA) Version 6.0 (Ref. 2). The Weapon Systems Domain, Aviation Subdomain, identifies preferred interoperability standards for communications, data links, navigation/landing aids, and identification aids. Communications, navigation, and surveillance (CNS) avionics systems and functions impacted by the JTA include nearly all avionics hardware, software, and the human system interface. Existing avionics architectures may require major changes for integration in network centric operations. A key question is whether these changes are affordable. The controller pilot data link communication (CPDLC) retrofit into existing commercial aircraft is expensive and many airlines are in bankruptcy or have a weak financial report. Most existing military aircraft have wiring installed during production, with few upgrades since the aircraft went into service. Aircraft still in the design phase will utilize a network centric architecture that will be upgradeable as technology advances provide new “plug and play” processors, displays, and sensors and the cost of new technology such as CPDLC will be built into the aircraft cost. Architecture. Network centric operations require integrated information from many avionics systems that were originally “stand alone” and implemented a function such as navigation, or had an output to the automatic flight control system. Many current avionics systems, both military and civilian, employ a federated architecture. The federated architectures are not highly integrated since they descend from stand-alone systems employed in analog avionics and first generation digital avionics. Current aircraft architectures and avionics compatibility with the capabilities required present interesting data flow challenges. Two key requirements that an architecture must provide are high bandwidth and low data latency. Technologies. Keys to implementation of net centric capabilities are software programmable radios, Gigabit Ethernet, and “smart” displays. The Joint Tactical Radio System (JTRS) software programmable radio plans to provide up to eight channels which must connect with a multiband antenna. The Gigabit Ethernet can be fiber or

This paper illustrates use of the Universal Core messaging framework to enable request and return of large environmental data files, specifically meteorological and oceanographic (MetOc) data. The utility of the approach is described by experiments conducted during the Trident Warrior 2010 Naval exercise. We next overview development of a web services broker system for MetOc data. The implementation of this broker system incorporates both automated data discovery and retrieval capabilities. An extension of UCore, C2 (Command and Control) Core is described and an evaluation to assess its effectiveness for the MetOc domain is described.

The US Department of Defense (DoD) Chief Information Office (CIO) has embarked on an enterprise data management transformation initiative known as the DoD Net-Centric Data Strategy (NCDS). NCDS-related directives require DoD components, such as the United States Air Force (USAF), to describe mission-critical information assets using shared metadata catalogues and metadata registries. To satisfy NCDS requirements, the USAF is transitioning to a service-oriented environment (SOE). The USAF Net-Centric Metadata Framework (NCMF) extends the NCDS notion of metadata and the information assets that it describes in order to support the USAF SOE. The NCMF is implemented in the USAF Metadata Environment (MDE), which enables enterprise-level semantic consistency by linking information asset metadata, service specification metadata, and ontologies. This paper presents the USAF Net-Centric Metadata Framework and its MDE implementation as a practical and potentially reusable approach for achieving semantically interoperable information sharing capability in an enterprise-scale SOE.

This paper, documents the activity of a workshop on defining a research agenda for Systems of Systems SoS; Architecting, which was held at USC in October 2006. After two days of invited talks on critical success factors for SoS engineering, the authors of this paper convened for one day to brainstorm topics for the purpose of shaping the near-term research agenda of the newly convened USC Center for Systems and Software Engineering (CSSE). The output from the workshop is a list of ten high-impact items with corresponding research challenges in the context of SoS Architecting. Each item includes a description of the research challenges, its link to contemporary academic or industrial problems and reasons for advocacy of that area. The items were assessed in terms of value and difficulty to determine a prioritisation both for the CSSE's future research agenda and for others in the field.