04/18/23 © 2000 Raytheon Systems Company. An unpublished work. All rights reserved.
WESAS 2000Re-Integrating the Operational Architecture
Michael P. Minette
System Architect
Raytheon Command, Control, Communications, and Intelligence Systems
Fullerton, CA
May 8, 2000
2 © 2000 Raytheon Systems Company. An unpublished work. All rights reserved.
04/18/23
Briefing Objectives
Share Raytheon C3I organization experiences in use (and reuse) of architecture-based solutions
Indicate some of Raytheon’s present and projected future architecture objectives
Focus on a particularly challenging technical area in the use of COTS architecture based solutions
Suggest ideas and research opportunities that may lead to new or revised methods and tools
3 © 2000 Raytheon Systems Company. An unpublished work. All rights reserved.
04/18/23
Command & Control in a Joint Ops Center and Air Ops Center
AEW
Radars
Civil ATC Center
AAA
SAM
Control Reporting Center
• Tracking• Identification• Threat evaluation• Weapon assignment• Weapons control
• Tracking• Identification• Threat evaluation• Weapon assignment• Weapons control
Air Operations Center Land Operations Center
Tactical Fighter
Air DefenseGround
Environment
Command and Control• Preparation• Planning• Direction• Coordination• Monitoring & Assessment
Brigade HQ
Battalion HQ
Brigade HQ
Naval Operations Center
Joint Operations Center
4 © 2000 Raytheon Systems Company. An unpublished work. All rights reserved.
04/18/23
System Architecture Views
System View• The realization of a particular, actual system • Implements functionality and concepts of
the operational architecture,• Employs elements of the technical architecture • standard views
- block diagrams, - data flows, process flows, - allocation plans, - etc
Operational View• The form, structure, and interrelationships of the
- narrow application domain, - users, - functions, - data, - system mission
• Describes the conceptual solution in terms of the operational concept
Technical View• Describes the logical
structure, content and relationships
- standards, - processes, - guidelines, - common operating
infrastructure, - approved parts lists, - schema, - reference models
• The Product Architecture Establishes- Common Processes and Standards- Common Components and Artifacts- Common Environment
» Infrastructure» Foundation Components » Information Model
• Provides the Common Elements & Processes from which ManyCustomized C3I SystemsAre Possible.
Operational
Architecture
Technical
Architecture
System
Architecture
...
System
Architecture
PGM D
System
Architecture
PGM C
System
Architecture
PGM B
System
Architecture
PGM A
5 © 2000 Raytheon Systems Company. An unpublished work. All rights reserved.
04/18/23
Raytheon’s Pre-COTS Process
System View• The results were highly capable systems,
uniquely optimized; some are still around
Operational View• Significant engineering effort expended in
operations analysis, acquiring domain expertise by hiring, training, and practice.
• Analysis and modeling tools used extensively
Technical View• Components and
subsystems are designed and implemented specifically for unique sets of requirements.
• Significant reuse of software and architecture within narrow domain
• But software is always modified to fit operational needs
• Prior to the widespread availability of reliable COTS components and architecture frameworks, the operations view and concepts drove Raytheon’s architecture strategy.
- Operational needs defined requirements
- Requirements determined architecture and design
- Design got implemented from scratch or modification of similar domain specific component
Operational
Architecture
ProprietaryTechnical
Architecture
System
Architecture
...
System
Architecture
PGM D
System
Architecture
PGM C
System
Architecture
PGM B
System
Architecture
PGM A
6 © 2000 Raytheon Systems Company. An unpublished work. All rights reserved.
04/18/23
Transitioning to a COTS Architecture Process
System View• Many systems have successfully
incorporated some COTS by:- significant work behind the
scenes to make things fit- forcing the operations to fit the
general model.• Neither method makes the best use of
the architecture-based approach
Operational View• However, the advent of COTS disintegrated the
linear, closely coupled relationship between the operations view and the technical
• Generalized capabilities often do not fit domain specific operational needs well
Technical View • Increasing effort
devoted to working-around “features” of COTS.
• The ball peen hammer approach to integration
• Drive towards COTS, common, open architectures pushed by:
- Increasing complexity, sizes, numbers;
- The ongoing information technology revolution places extraordinary demands on systems.
- Desire for more advanced features
- Economics
- Healthy competition
Operational
Architecture
Common/COTSTechnical
Architecture
System
Architecture
...
System
Architecture
PGM D
System
Architecture
PGM C
System
Architecture
PGM B
System
Architecture
PGM A
7 © 2000 Raytheon Systems Company. An unpublished work. All rights reserved.
04/18/23
Examples of Operational Mismatch
Using COTS HMI and information management software
— General purpose DBMS and GIF systems often cannot meet domain specific performance and operational needs
> track display
— Commercially available domain specific DBMS or GIFs are often too narrowly focused
> ODS ToolBox
Using COTS system control software
— Conflict between COTS software’s user model and situational imperatives: user need to force an action
> Network management, security, workflow
Commercial maintenance practices and rapidly shifting marketplace
— 60 second emergency restart for ATC system nearly defeated by Network Router vendor firmware maintenance process
8 © 2000 Raytheon Systems Company. An unpublished work. All rights reserved.
04/18/23
Research Opportunities
Raytheon is committed to the architecture based development strategy and to the use of COTS architectures and components
We see continuing challenges in matching general-purpose COTS to the operational imperatives of our domain specific products
Refinement of techniques for mapping operational requirements to architecture solutions will be highly beneficial, for example
— Refinement of existing Software Quality Engineering Methods
— Development of new, situational, operational-context-based modeling techniques
9 © 2000 Raytheon Systems Company. An unpublished work. All rights reserved.
04/18/23
Refine Software Quality Engineering Methods
Software Quality Engineering concepts from mid 80’s may offer an assessment approach
Methodology Summary
— Establish list of desired quality factors
— Associate factors with testable criteria for each factor
— Then, for a particular system use the selected criteria to define specific testable requirements
Suggested Research Approach
— Identify and collect key operational factors
> Operationally significant features of COTS architectures and components
> The new operational criteria are likely to be refinements of the older quality criteria: interoperability, timeliness, accessibility, etc.
— Investigate techniques for measuring and comparing
— Experiment and test the process for technology selection and evaluation based on operational need
10 © 2000 Raytheon Systems Company. An unpublished work. All rights reserved.
04/18/23
Situational Logic and Modeling
Situational logic is a fairly recent extension to logic that provides means to model and operate processes in context
The research objective is to develop means to employ situational knowledge and context information in reasoning about architecture alternatives
Situational, i.e., contextual models may provide:
— Means to incorporate operational view into effective system models earlier in the development lifecycle
— Such operational models could draw attention to the environmental or processing features that impact COTS selection
— This would provide the means to measure qualitative distances between operational and technical solution spaces
Note “Situation” has high relevance in Raytheon C3I systems:
— Situation Display, Situational Awareness are key operational concepts
— Changes in situation, rather than mode or state, tend to be the performance drivers and suitability
11 © 2000 Raytheon Systems Company. An unpublished work. All rights reserved.
04/18/23
Summary
New advanced automation techniques and architecture-based engineering and products have great potential
New COTS architecture-based solutions are incorporated in Raytheon’s systems
— But, mismatch between the domain operational concept for the system and the operational concept inherent in the technology is a continuing challenge
Raytheon’s experience suggests the need for new techniques to improve use of the Operational Architecture
— To guide Technical Architecture definition and use
— For assessing and evaluating alternate implementations
12 © 2000 Raytheon Systems Company. An unpublished work. All rights reserved.
04/18/23
References
Architecture
— C4ISR Architecture Framework, US Department of Defense, http://www.c3i.osd.mil/org/cio/i3/AWG_Digital_Library/index.htm
> The DoD top-down architecture strategy for C4I domain
— Defense Information Infrastructure Common Operating Environment (DII COE) Homepage, http://diicoe.disa.mil/coe/
> The DoD initiative for the Technical Architecture for the C4I domain
Software Quality Engineering
— “Specification of Software Quality Attributes”, Rome Air Development Center, RADC-TR-85-37
> RADC is now Rome Air Force Research Laboratory
— Software Quality Engineering, Michael Deutsch, Ronald Willis, Prentice Hall, 1988
Situational Logic
— Stanford Center for Studies in Language and Information, http://www-csli.stanford.edu
— The Situation in Logic, CSLI Lecture Notes, Jon Barwise, Stanford University Press