Architectural Design for Information Interoperability: Database and Messaging Using XML
The Department of Defense (DoD) is facing significant interoperability issues within the Services as they seek to architect solutions for distributed systems composed of clients and servers of heterogeneous hosts to enable joint service operations. The eXtensible Markup Language (XML) and related technologies offer promise for applying data management technology to documents and, also, for providing a neutral syntax for interoperability among disparate systems. This paper provides the description of the work performed for the Army Systems Engineering Office (ASEO) and the results of applying XML and other leading edge software technologies to enable interoperability among dissimilar databases and message formats.
The solution approach taken investigated the utility of the XML to write translator(s) between message formats and databases to reduce operator burden and to increase interoperability. Further, we investigated other leading-edge software technologies to address the "information portability" issues associated with distributed systems; i.e., JAVA. The demonstration implemented a United States Marine Corps (USMC) message scenario of battlefield engagement to interoperate with the United States Army (USA) via automated message translation and database interoperability.
The experimental distributed architecture is provided, as well as the findings of the proof of concept demonstration.
