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 in a SOA

May 20, 2008 at 10:30

ABSTRACT

BIO

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.

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 Master’s 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

Interoperability Problems Caused by Transitioning to SOA

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.

Lessons Learned with GIS for C2 and Analysis

May 20, 2008 at 13:30

ABSTRACT

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

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

May 20, 2008 at 15:30

ABSTRACT

BIO

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

May 20, 2008 at 15:30

ABSTRACT

BIO

Human Terrain and Anthropology

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

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

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

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

May 21, 2008 at 13:30

ABSTRACT

BIO

Using 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

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

May 21, 2008 at 15:30

ABSTRACT

BIO

The Many Faces of COllaboration Interoperability

May 21, 2008 at 15:30

ABSTRACT

Collaboration interoperability has many technical challenges, but these are only one aspect of true interoperability. If we are to reach the goals of Network Centric Warfare, we must address all of the various faces of interoperability. The people, processes and technology offer a diverse, interdependent set of challenges, all of which impact our ability to successfully collaborate in a robust online environment. The challenges range from a diverse user group, to major cultural barriers and from security procedures to simple data interoperability. The technical challenges should not be minimized, with areas of standards compliance and cross-domain solutions having the greatest potential. Many of these problems are not new, but simply look new. These challenges will require training in the new processes. Other challenges will require a change in attitude and culture to properly address.

BIO

Diane Boettcher attended Marquette University in Milwaukee, Wisconsin. Graduating from NROTC, she was winged a Naval Flight Officer the following year. She flew in the EP-3 Aries reconnaissance aircraft. She was then assigned to Pacific Command. While in Hawaii, she became a SCUBA diving instructor, creating a web site for her business in 1993.

Next, in Rota, Spain, Ms. Boettcher established the base's presence on the Internet. Following this assignment, she was the Security Officer for a telecommunications station in Washington DC, where she took additional webmaster duties.

In 2000, Ms. Boettcher became the Web/Marketing Manager at a healthcare IT consulting firm in Maryland. In 2001, she supported Commander, Task Force Navy Marine Corps Intranet as a Knowledge Management Engineer. Later, Ms. Boettcher became the Internet Technologies Advisor with Naval Network Warfare Command. In 2004, she joined SRA and supported the Defense Information Systems Agency (DISA) Chief Technical Officer and Collaboration Management Office. She was mobilized into the Navy in December of 2006 and served at U.S. Joint Forces Command in Virginia and Afghanistan. Upon her return from mobilization, she became the Director of Knowledge Management at SRA's Advanced Programs and Business Technology Operations group

Normative Interaction Specifications for C2

Francisco Loaiza, Ph.D., J.D. and Steve Wartik, Ph.D.
Institute for Defense Analyses

May 21, 2008 at 15:30

ABSTRACT

Modeling languages such as UML and IDEF1-X provide only partial coverage for the relations and constraints that apply to information within a given domain of interest. In most cases additional textual narratives are required to capture the full set of pertinent business rules. The "Semantics of Business Vocabulary and Business Rules Specification" (SBVR), an OMG adopted specification, offers an alternative to traditional information modeling with vastly more powerful capabilities and the potential for use within the context of the Model Driven Architecture (MDA) framework. This paper presents our recent work done within the Multilateral Interoperability Programme (MIP) where an initial formalization of the model usage and data integrity rules for the Joint Consultation Command and Control Information Exchange Model (JC3IEDM) using the Object Constraint Language (OCL) has been completed. We discuss next the possibility of extending the OCL formalization to FOL-type of rules following the SBVR specifications, and hypothesize how this in turn could be the basis for an all-inclusive NIS, a normative specification of all the relevant rules that control how information interacts within an enterprise. We conclude the paper with a brief discussion on the potential uses of NIS in the context of MDA, as well as the possibility of applying automated theorem proving methods to enhance the quality of the rule models.

BIO

Francisco Loaiza joined the Institute for Defense Analyses (IDA) in 1987 as a research analyst where he has worked and published extensively on a variety of issues related to information modeling and data interoperability for both Command and Control and DoD Enterprise Architectures. He is also interested in the use of open source software for DoD solutions development. He completed his law studies with a J.D. from George Mason School of Law in 1995. Prior to that, he received his M.S. and Ph.D. in Chemistry from Princeton University in 1988 and 1984 respectively. He obtained a B.S. in Chemistry from the University of Hamburg, Germany, in 1981, and a B.S. in Chemical Engineering from the Fachhochschule Kiel, Germany, in 1977.

Steven Wartik is a research analyst at the Institute for Defense Analyses (IDA). His primary area of focus is modeling C2 information to promote interoperability, especially with respect to its use in network-centric environments. He is also interested in the interoperability of C4I and M&S systems. He received his M.S. and Ph.D. in Computer Science from the University of California at Santa Barbara in 1980 and 1984, and his B.S. in Computer Science from Pennsylvania State University in 1977. He has published over 20 papers in software reuse, software configuration management, software engineering education, information retrieval, interoperability, and net-centricity.

An Ontology Based Information Exchange Management System Enabling Secure Collaboration Interoperability

Russell Leighton, Joshua Undesser
CDM Technologies, Inc., San Luis Obispo, California

May 21, 2008 at 15:30

ABSTRACT

Military and humanitarian missions increasingly involve not only the participation of one nation but of forces allied in a coalition. Real-time information exchange is indisputably a critical aspect required for the success of these missions. The requirement for interoperability between deployed information management systems is not restricted to overcoming the low level obstacles in data exchange resulting from diverse information systems. The rising challenge is the selection and control of the content shared with coalition partners. Which coalition partner needs to be included in operational information? How is it assured that in a changing situation all affected partners are alerted? Currently, this management of information exchange is accomplished by Information Management Officers (IMO), who manually sift through all incoming operational data and piece by piece discern what information needs to be shared and with whom. The information base, however, has increased over time to the point that the IMO is being overloaded.

The Coalition Secure Management and Operations System (COSMOS) Advanced Concept Technology Demonstration (ACTD) was designed to help assist in the process of managing coalition information exchange and interoperability. Through the use of an ontology driven architecture, COSMOS is able to represent operational data with meaningful relationships and thus allows intelligent, autonomous software agents to reason about the needs of information exchange and assist the IMO in the decision making process. This information sharing is accomplished through the use of role-based Information Exchange Requirements (IER) which are individually assigned by the IMO and are specific to the roles played by each coalition member within the context of the overall mission. Agents, intelligent expert system software modules, are utilized to assist in the process of managing IER assignment and the assessment of information against the criteria which formalize the IER definition. It is through this process that information exchange is targeted to the coalition force components that have a specific requirement for information pertaining to their assigned roles.

BIO

Russell Leighton Educational Background: M.S., Engineering Mechanics, The University of Texas at Austin, 1993 B.S., Aeronautical Engineering, 1984
Professional Background: CDM Technologies, Inc., San Luis Obispo, CA
May 1997 - Present: Mr. Leighton is the lead for a technical development team focused on providing support for a number of projects targeting development of knowledge management and decision support capabilities in the area of military command and control. Mr. Leighton is currently serving in the capacity of lead software engineer responsible for development of the Coalition Secure Operations and Management System (COSMOS) Information Management Tool (IMT). Air Force Rocket Propulsion Laboratory / Phillips Laboratory, Edwards AFB, CA
June 1981 - May 1997: Mr. Leighton's work responsibilities included structural analysis of the propellant, case and bond systems for various solid propellant rocket motors. Additionally, Mr. Leighton was responsible for in-house and management of contractor development of software supporting solid rocket structural analysis.

Joshua Undesser Educational Background: B.S., Electrical Engineering, Iowa State University , Ames, 2000
Professional Background: CDM Technologies Inc, San Luis Obispo, CA
July 2000 - Present: Mr. Undesser is a Software Engineer whose main focus has been in the design and development of autonomous agent-based decision-support systems. Two more notable projects that he has been involved in are IMMACCS (Integrated Marine Multi-Agent Command and Control System), which helps Marine commanders make time-critical decisions, and COSMOS (Coalition Secure Management and Operations System) which helps facilitate intelligent information sharing between coalition partners.

Cognitive Collapse: Recognizing and Addressing the Hidden Threat in Collaborative Technologies

H.V. Parunak, T.C. Belding, R. Hilscher, S. Brueckner
NewVectors division of TTGSI

May 21, 2008 at 15:30

ABSTRACT

The growing application of collaborative technologies to C4ISR greatly increases communication and coordination, but poses a hidden threat. When the same set of people interact frequently with one another, they grow to think more and more along the same lines, a phenomenon we call "collective cognitive convergence" (C3). The higher the collaborative bandwidth, the faster this convergence, and the greater the danger that the group will collapse prematurely to a single perspective, becoming blind to strategic alternatives. We review previous work in sociology, computational social science, and evolutionary biology that sheds light on C3; define a computational model for the convergence process and quantitative metrics that can be used to study it; report on experiments with this model and metric; and suggest how the insights from this model can inspire techniques for managing C3 in C4ISR.

BIO

Dr. H. Van Dyke Parunak holds a BA in Physics from Princeton University, Princeton, NJ (1969), an MS in Computer and Communications Sciences from the University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, MI (1982), and a PhD in Near Eastern Languages and Civilizations from Harvard University, Cambridge, MA (1978).

He is Chief Scientist at the NewVectors division of TTGSI in Ann Arbor, MI, and a Corporate Analyst in the Emerging Markets Group. Previously, he was employed at Comshare, the University of Michigan, and Harvard University. He is the author or co-author of more than 75 technical articles and reports, and holds nine patents and four patents pending in the area of agent technology. His research focuses in applications of agent-based and complex systems to distributed decentralized information processing. Dr. Parunak is a member of the American Association for Artificial Intelligence and the Association for Computing Machinery, and serves on numerous editorial and conference boards.

Theodore C. Belding is a Senior Systems Engineer in NewVectors’ Emerging Markets Group. Prior to joining NewVectors in 2005, he had ten years of academic research experience in complex adaptive systems, agent-based modeling, and evolutionary computation under Prof. John Holland at the University of Michigan. He has authored or coauthored technical papers in the areas of genetic algorithms, swarm intelligence, distributed hierarchical clustering, cognitive architectures, and the simulation of social systems.

Mr. Belding is a member of the Program Committee for the Genetic and Evolutionary Computation Conference (GECCO), the flagship conference in evolutionary computation, and has served as a reviewer for the journals Evolutionary Computation and IEEE Transactions on Evolutionary Computation.

Dr. Rainer Hilscher received a BA in English Literature from Miami University, Ohio (1996), an MA in Cultural Sciences from the European University Viadrina, Germany (2000), and a PhD in Computer Science from the University of Sussex, UK (2005). Dr. Hilscher is a Systems Engineer in the Emerging Markets Group (EMG) where he is currently involved in projects ranging from applying distributed decision making AI research to the EMG Polyagent swarming technology to developing a multi-agent collaborative knowledge generation system for the Intelligence community. Prior to New Vectors, Dr. Hilscher worked as a senior software engineer for Whitestein Technologies. At Whitestein Technologies he was lead developer for a market-based manufacturing multiagent scheduling system. During his PhD Dr. Hilscher developed and implemented the business logic of a web-based bacterial nomenclature database. His research interests include engineering cutting-edge multi-agent systems and simulations of evolutionary systems, in particular biological and cultural speciation.