Taxonomy for Command and Control and Modeling and Simulation Information Exchanges 06SSIW013 Johnny

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Taxonomy for Command and Control and Modeling and
Simulation Information Exchanges
06S-SIW-013Johnny Garciajohn.garcia_at_gd-ais.com
757-673-2411
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Background

• Network Centric Warfare and Effects based
  operation
• The most ideally located decision maker may
  engage any target within range of the networked
  sensors, and may employ the best-suited effectors
  for the engagement mission (self-synchronization)
  utilizing simulations
• Multi-role objects allow interchange of
  information and flexible usage of all resources
  (multi-functionality).
• All levels of the command organization may
  receive and utilize the available information, at
  no incremental cost (information overlaying).

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Background Definition of TRM

• A Technical Reference Model (TRM) is defined in
  the SISO C4ISR Systems-to-Simulations Data and
  Interface Lexicon as a conceptual framework that
  provides the following
• A consistent set of service and interface
  categories and relationships used to address
  interoperability and open-system issues
• conceptual entities that establish a common
  vocabulary to better describe, compare, and
  contrast systems and components
• a basis (an aid) for the identification,
  comparison, and selection of existing and
  emerging standards and their relationships.

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The C4ISR/Sim TRM (1998)
C
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Non-Persistent Data
I
Orders / Reports
Behavior Models Module
Imagery
S y s t e m
Tracks
Physical Models Module
Communications Effects
Communication Model
Environmental Models Module
Persistent Data
Unit Data (OB, TOE, Symbology, etc) Mission
Plan Information Comms Plan (Radio/Network Setup,
etc) Weather Data Terrain Specification
Run-time Framework
Scenario DB
F. Carr, M. Hieb, 07CGF052, 1998 CGF Conference
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The C4ISR/Sim TRM (2003)
Simulation Service Interactions
Simulation Metadata
Simulation System
Execution Control
Simulation Control Module
C 4 I S R S y s t e m
Visualization
Data Collection
Visualization Module
Simulation Effects
Non-Persistent Data
Orders
Simulation Models Module
Reports
Behavior Models
Simulation Engine
Imagery
Tracks
Physical Models
Unit Data (OB, TOE, Symbology, etc)
Communication Models
Persistent Data
Environmental Models
Mission Plan Information Comms Plan
(Radio/Network Setup, etc) Weather Data Terrain
Specification
C4I System Service Interactions
System Health/Heartbeat/Status Component Service
Protocols
Scenario DB
Simulation DB
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Taxonomy for C2 and MS Information Exchanges
Framework
SOA Client
WebApp
Presentation Layer
Collaboration
Visualization
Authentication
Business Logic/Workflow
Applications Layer
Strat
Targeting
Plans
Unit
Ops
Assess
Alerts
Prefs
Security
Comms
Information Services
Data Gateway
Data Access Layer
Data Storage Layer
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Interoperability of legacy and future Systems
MS
C4I
Shared Solutions
Processes For Alignment
Reusable Component Interfaces
Common Standards
Common Data/Object Models
Alignment of Architectures
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Taxonomy Overview

• Organizational scheme based on the relationships
  that exist between different pieces of
  information, related to a specific context.
• To build a taxonomy is to structure information
  so that it can be reliably accessed by anyone who
  needs access to that information within this
  context
• It can also be a dictionary of data definitions

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Advantages of Building a Taxonomy

• Search Efficiency
• less time searching, more time finding and acting
  on information
• Information Re-use
• stop re-inventing the wheel
• Knowledge Retention
• save best practices currently lost through staff
  turnover
• Skills Expertise Transfer
• shorten training time encourage peer to peer
  knowledge exchange
• Risk Management
• better informed decision making

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Roles of Taxonomy

• Provide an information exchange mechanism
• Create a common business language
• Map experts to content
• Facilitate information auditing
• Support document management
• Support records management
• Support content management

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Developing a Taxonomy

• Capture an essence of the knowledge that resides
  in your organization
• What's important and how things you are
  interested in relate to each other.
• Requires hardwork, and is time consuming
• Require Domain expertise
• Controlling access to sensitive information

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Holistic Taxonomy Approach
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Pros and Cons of different types of Categorizers
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Holistic Taxonomy Approach

• The taxonomy is developed through this
  methodology, and it in turn drives the
  development of a next, more accurate version of
  the knowledge representation.

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C4ISR/SIM Interoperability Overview

• C4ISR system depicts the current status of
  War-fighting situation
• MS system uses different simulation models to
  extrapolate the outcomes of a particular scenario
• Interoperability between these two aids in
  determining the possible outcomes of different
  war-fighting scenarios
• The aim of the current effort is to build a
  standards based TRM for all the above

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Taxonomy Approach

• Research about the information exchanges of the
  C4ISR and MS systems was gathered for building
  taxonomies
• The following documents were used as a reference
  for this effort
• Department of Defense Joint Technical
  Architecture Volume II
• C4ISR/Sim Technical Reference Model Source Book

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Tools Overview

• UBMatrix established a standard XML format for
  describing Business oriented Taxonomies XBRL
• XBRL aids in validating different instances of
  any business model for compliance towards the
  established standard
• A subset of XBRL is currently being used for the
  taxonomical representation of the TRMs of interest

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Implementation Overview

• The following courses of action were taken in
  development of the taxonomy
• Adding relevant documentation for various
  key-terms with in the realms of Technical
  Reference Models
• Identifying the relationships among the terms
  within the taxonomy
• Publishing the Taxonomy schema within UBMATRIX
  and XML
• Taxonomy is open and free to anyone interested in
  its use

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UBMatrix Taxonomy Screenshots
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Generated Taxonomy XSD
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Ongoing Work

• Documentation
• C4ISR
• Added all the terms and documentation from the
  Glossary
• Performed thorough research on finding out
  additional terms
• MS
• Performed research on finding out some key-terms
• Interoperability
• Performed research on finding out some key-terms

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Ongoing Work

• Relationships
• C4ISR
• Identified various Parent Child relationships
  (sub components) from the reference documents
• Performed additional research on categorizing the
  terms identified

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Conclusion

• Building a taxonomy is a tedious and a difficult
  process, but most done to enable interoperability
  
• Building taxonomy streamlines the process of
  establishing a set of guidelines and standards
  for any given knowledge domain
• This Taxonomy should serve as an initial starting
  point (enabling the interfacing of legacy systems
  based on a common understanding of information
  exchanged) as well as a management facility for
  the heterogeneous functionality support within
  this domain
• SISO TRM needs this taxonomy for enhanced
  collaboration among the two groups of
  architectures and as a reference for the
  developers involved in implementing and
  maintaining products based on the respective
  architectures.
• Building a portal establishes a standard view for
  all the parties involved in the operations
  related to the building of taxonomy, in itself

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Thoughts on uses of Taxonomy

• This taxonomy has a potential to become a
  one-stop checklist towards building a C4ISR
  system it includes extensive details about the
  following major sections
• Layered Operational Architecture - Contains
  information about various components that need to
  be a part of any Layered Architecture that deals
  with C4I and Simulation data
• Levels of Interoperability - Contains information
  about 4 Conceptual levels of interoperability and
  guides the users with some examples
• Standards and Specifications to Comply With -
  Contains information about various established
  standards that need to be taken into
  consideration when building a C4ISR system
• Design Considerations - Guides the users as to
  what are the primary factors that need to be
  considered when building a C4ISR System
• Mutually (Sim/C4ISR) Common Terms - List some of
  the terms which have different meanings under
  different contexts
• C4I System - Lists some of the domain-specific
  terms and discusses standards relevant only to
  C4I Systems
• Interoperable Technical Reference Model - Lists
  the Information Exchange Requirements and Various
  perspectives and proposed C4I to MS Interface
  Standards
• Simulation System - Lists various modules of a
  simulation system, Simulation architectures and
  Various classes (types) of simulation systems

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References

• 1Department of Defense Joint Technical
  Architecture Volume II
• 2DavisPK.2001.Effects-Based operations (EBO) A
  Grand Challenge for the Analytical Community.
  RAND.
• 3 Carr, Frank Caylor, Frank Lacetera, Frank
  Tolk, Andreas. C4ISR/Sim Technical Reference
  Model Sourcebook, Paper 03F-SIW-124, 2003 Fall
  Simulation Interoperability Workshop.
• 4. Griffin, A. Lacetera, J., Tolk, A.,
  C4ISR/Sim Technical Reference Model Study Group
  Final Report, Paper 02F-SIW-022, 2002 Fall
  Simulation Interoperability Workshop.
• 5 Numerich, Tolk, Hieb MS in the GIG
  Environment An Expanded View of Distributing
  Simulation Orlando, Fl. IITSEC, December 2004
• 6Layman, G., Daly, J., Furness, Z. Womble,
  J.C4I-Simulation Interoperability Using the DII
  COE and HLA. Paper 01S-SIW-044, Simulation
  Interoperability Workshop, Spring 2001 Orlando,
  Florida.
• 7 http//www.xbrl.org for more information
  about XBRL
• 8 http//www.ubmatrix.com for more information
  about UBMatrix
• 9 http//www.dataharmony.com for more
  information about Data Harmony
• 10 Developing a Business-Focused Taxonomy,
  Andrew Young, Asia-Pacific Practice Manager,
  Factiva Consulting Services