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Making Army Battle Command Systems Play Together August 2005
What do you do when the Army asks you to make 11 different software systems—including a tactical Internet of satellite (and ground-based radios)—work together for a battle command and control system? "The key is horizontal integration—designing mechanisms and interfaces for sharing information," says Kevin Kelly. Kelly is the consulting engineer for the Army Systems and Technology Division within MITRE's Washington Command, Control and Communications (W3C) Center. His group is doing the enterprise systems engineering work to make the 11 different systems that make up the Army Battle Command System (ABCS) work together. "The ABCS functions include tracking friendly forces, analyzing enemy situations, battle planning, fire support coordination, and airspace coordination," says Kelly. "Previously these systems relied on point-to-point interface agreements for exchange of information. Any one of these agreements is not complex but as we tied all 11 systems together, the result was a complex and brittle architecture that is difficult to manage and maintain." In addition to making the 11 systems work together, the MITRE team is overlaying the ABCS on the Army's communication system. Some of the complexity stems from the fact that the systems are managed by separate product management offices that support different Army requirements. The Army's goal is to standardize ABCS implementation across the entire force within four years and improve the horizontal interoperability among the systems. Currently, the different Army divisions use different subsets and versions of the ABCS systems, and use them in different ways. It is a difficult exercise to work the systems across divisions or retrain personnel that move from one division to another. A MITRE systems engineering team took on the challenge by leveraging commercial XML and publish and subscribe technology to improve the horizontal interoperability. "A variety of operating systems were being used across the 11 systems," says Kelly. "Some were Linux-based, some Windows-based, others Solaris-based. And there were multiple languages, including C++, C#, Java, and others." The team developed a Publish and Subscribe Services (PASS) standard that defined the commercial standards that the Army systems would use in introducing XML interfaces. The PASS standard leverages a common server to route data among various systems using XML data definitions and simple publish and subscribe commands. In addition to developing the standard, the MITRE team worked with the contractor community to mature the standard by developing a reference implementation (a software example of a standard), conformance tools and performance evaluation software to measure the capabilities of the new standard. This system represents a new way of system development for the Department of Defense (DOD): one that is faster and more flexible. Based on its recent experiences in Iraq, the Army decided that it made sense to create a "good enough" capability rather than build a system that met every conceivable specification. "Military leaders are beginning to realize that not every possible feature of a system is necessary," says Kelly. "The 80/20 rule applies, where 20 percent of your capability gives you 80 percent of your return on investment. In fact, without all the bells and whistles, people will use a system in a multitude of ways you've never imagined." With MITRE acting as a facilitator, the contractor community took the lead in defining the data definitions for the information that is exchanged via the PASS standard. Data proponents representing the various command and control systems met weekly over a six-month period to define the data formats that would be exchanged. Fourteen major data categories were selected as common data of interest across the ABCS systems, including data such as position reports, enemy situations, targets, graphic control measures, operational orders, and air tracks. MITRE coordinated PASS risk mitigation tests where developers from the various systems met in a common lab and tested the new capability. Formal evaluation of the new software baseline began in May 2004, when the software was sent to the Army's developmental test facility in Ft. Hood, Texas. The new PASS capability was validated, as were other aspects of ABCS interoperability, such as graphics standards and legacy messaging. Overall testing results found that the new PASS data exchange capability performed better than the legacy data exchanges. In August 2004, a user panel declared the program provided significantly improved horizontal interoperability among the ABCS systems and it recommended that the Army proceed with plans to begin formal training in using ABCS. The 4th Infantry Division has been training with this version of ABCS for the last few months and is planning on deploying it in Iraq as their baseline system. MITRE is now working with the DOD to adapt PASS as a standard for the Army to interact with other services and coalition partners. Additionally, efforts are under way to mature PASS to work over tactical communications channels and wide area networks. Says Steve Huffman, vice president of WC3: "By designing PASS capabilities into ABCS 6.4, MITRE is helping the Army modernize the legacy command and control systems. ABCS 6.4 will provide a simpler, more flexible data exchange system that adapts better to the Army's new modular force structure." —by David Van Cleave Related Information Articles and News | ||||||||||||||||||||
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