Setting the Standard for Net-Centric Operations
INDUSTRY GROUP INTEGRATES EXISTING AND EMERGING OPEN STANDARDS INTO AN EVOLVING GLOBAL FRAMEWORK.
With a key military agency as a new qmember, several standards-based tools already delivered and growing international links, a three-year-old group is making progress toward its vision of industry and customers working together to provide a network-centric environment where all classes of information systems interoperate.
The Network Centric Operations Industry Consortium (NCOIC) hopes to achieve that goal by integrating existing and emerging open standards into a common evolving global framework that employs a common set of principles and processes.
Founded by 28 member organizations in 2004, the NCOIC now has 90 members divided into three levels of involvement, with many of the leading defense contractors participating at the highest level.
The group received major confirmation last fall, when the Defense Information Systems Agency (DISA) became the first government agency to join the notfor- profit multinational corporation as a full, working member.
“We never planned on the government joining,” said Sheryl Sizelove, chair of NCOIC’s technical council and NCO Architecture Engineering Advanced Systems, Boeing Integrated Defense Systems. “We had to change our bylaws to create a membership level for them.”
The Department of Defense is a major customer to many of the companies making up NCOIC’s membership. But beyond that, analysts say, DISA’s decision to join NCOIC stresses the importance of industry and government working in concert to develop a common global framework for network-centric operations.
By being a full-fledged NCOIC member, DISA can now provide input, communicate DoD needs and help influence outcomes.
“The membership works as a winwin,” Sizelove said. “It helps the DoD and also gives industry a first-hand chance to learn specifically what a customer like DoD needs.”
Another significant step in the multifaceted relationship came in February, with the announcement of a cooperative research and development agreement (CRADA) between DISA and NCOIC to develop and refine NCO principles and practices. (See MIT, Volume 11, Issue 2, page 4.)
“NCOIC and DISA are pursuing similar and complementary paths in developing network-centric capabilities and addressing information assurance challenges. We are looking forward to working side-by-side as an NCOIC member with the many world-class technology organizations actively involved in NCOIC’s groundbreaking work,” said Air ForceLieutenant General Charles E. Croom Jr., director of DISA and also a member of the NCOIC Advisory Council.
DISA is especially interested in the NCOIC’s work to establish technical approaches that will support interoperability across all levels of government departments, from first responders and local authorities to regionaland national-level military services. DISA develops, tests and deploys net-centric enterprise wide capabilities on behalf of DoD, and the goal of the CRADA is to accelerate netcentricity throughout DISA and other DoD mission areas.
“The lessons learned by DISA in developing extensive net-centric capabilities for DoD will enrich the work of NCOIC,” said Kevin J. Reardon, executive director of NCOIC. “Among many examples, Net-Centric Enterprise Services and DISA’s work in information assurance are important elements in achieving interoperability in DoD. Our collaborative efforts with DISA will accelerate NCOIC’s progress in achieving our vision of global interoperability for governments and other organizations.”
COMMON DNA
The work NCOIC is doing with DISA could well be the first of several cooperative agreements with government agencies. More will be forthcoming in the next few months from other agencies within DoD and the departments of Homeland Security and Transportation, Reardon suggested.
The benefits are many. But most specifically, it’s about “working together and having a common DNA,” remarked Sizelove. “This is an industry involved with commercial practices and the latest technology. It’s up to the industry to work from a basic baseline, establish the ground work and infrastructure, and agree on standards to ensure our systems can operate on global basis.
NCOIC’s goal is to identify, recommend and integrate existing and emerging open standards into a common evolving global framework by employing a common set of principles and processes, and assisting with rapid global deployment of network-centric applications.
“We are not a policy-setting or advocacy organization, other than to promote technology,” stated Reardon. “The consortium also does not make or produce a product.”
NCOIC seeks to leverage proven tools, technologies and best practices by increasing interoperability within and among systems involved in interagency and multinational operations, lowering development costs and increasing commonality of design in future systems, improving application readiness through more rapid fielding of network-centric systems, reducing systems costs and sustainability through re-use and commonality, reducing development risk by identifying the common components needed for the network- centric environment, and improving application effectiveness through new, more focused development on domain-specific capabilities.
“The NCOIC is the organization within which governments and industry are working together to accelerate global interoperability in network-centric operations,” said Edgar Buckley of Thales, who currently serves as NCOIC European executive coordinator and previously was NATO’s assistant secretary general defense planning and operations. “We are all committed to facilitating this work through technical cooperation and information sharing.”
NCOIC’s members are global leaders from leading defense suppliers, academic institutions, information technology providers, service providers, standards groups, systems integrators, air traffic management providers, human service agencies, and now government agencies.
The American Red Cross, a newer member, joined NCOIC to support the work the consortium is doing to enable emergency communications interoperability across the defense environment and now with the public safety and emergency responder sectors.
“NCOIC efforts will improve the ability of emergency response teams around the world to more quickly and effectively respond to natural and man-made disasters,” said Steve Cooper, chief information officer for the American Red Cross. “The result will be lives saved that would otherwise be lost, and a greater sense of global partnership to enable public preparedness and response.”
The consortium works with a multinational/ multi-agency advisory council, whose members provide executive expertise and an operational world view.
With more than 600 technical experts from member organizations participating, the technical work of NCOIC falls under the Technical Council, which is divided into functional teams and working teams. NCOIC utilizes the output of these teams in domainfocused integrated project teams to accomplish the technical work of the consortium.
NCOIC’s Technical Council has developed and implemented a roadmap that guides the work of the organization. The council holds weekly and biweekly teleconferences and often meets in between planning sessions. Governance and strategic counsel is provided by the Executive Council. Global participants within NCOIC also contribute to the planning and implementation activities, ensuring that the consortium’s technical approach remains global in perspective and open.
NATO INTEROPERABILITY
NATO interoperability is another project in which NCOIC is involved. This regards evaluating the architectural foundation for the NATO Capability Maturity Model.
The project is the result of a letter of intent (LOI) signed early this year between NCOIC and the NATO Consultation, Command and Control Headquarters Staff (NHQC3S) to jointly advance network-centric operations, NATO Network Enabled Capability (NNEC) and information superiority.
Acting on behalf of the NATO C3 Board, composed of member state representatives, and the directors of member nations, NC3 headquarters staff will serve as a portal for NCOIC into NATO.
“This LOI is the first step of a formal relationship between these organizations to further our common understanding of civil and military transformation matters as they affect multi-national alliance operations,” said Marshall S. Billingslea, NATO assistant secretary general for defense investment.
The NC3 Board is the leading body of the NATO Consultation, Command and Control Organization (NC3O) that ensures the provision of a NATO-wide cost-effective interoperable and secure C3 capability, ensures the provision of services and support in the field of C3 to NATO users, and acts as the NATO overarching authority in the area of C3 architectures to enable the effective integration of C3 capabilities into a NATO-wide network, thereby supporting the NNEC concept and NATO’s Transformational Goals.
“NCOIC and NATO share the common goals of cost-effective, interoperable and secure network-enabled capability,” said Air Force Lieutenant General Harry Raduege Jr. (Ret.). “Our strong commitment to information sharing and assurance of compatibility among the standards recommended by our two organizations is the key to achieving alliance and coalition network-centric operations.”
Raduege is the executive chair of NCOIC. A former DISA director, Raduege is currently with Deloitte & Touche.
Major General Georges d’Hollander, vice chairman of the NC3 Headquarters Board, concurred. “NATO can only be successful in the NNEC enterprise if NATO and its allies work together with industry from the beginning.”
NCOIC DELIVERABLES
Over three years, NCOIC has been able to develop deliverables that the industry can use to create network-centric systems and solutions that interoperate.
“The NCOIC is working collaboratively with stakeholders from governments, industry and academia globally to deliver products that are enabling government departments to operate on a ubiquitous and reliable network,” explained Raduege. “The consortium continues to make substantial progress through industry and government working together to resolve the most pressing challenges in achieving system interoperability. Such interoperability is essential for ensuring our operational decision makers have access to critical information.”
One such deliverable is a lexicon document that makes it possible for companies to speak the same language and engage in meaningful discussions. It is available at www.NCOIC.org.
Two interrelated deliverables are also already in service and trademarked: Network Centric Analysis Tool (NCAT) and NCOIC Interoperability Framework (NIF).
NCAT is a tool that evaluates the ability of a system, subsystem or component to operate in a network-centric environment. Designed to leverage complementary tools developed by other stakeholders, it is flexible, adaptable and can be tailored by users for specific requirements.
“NCAT has high interest among our customers because it is a net-centric analysis tool,” Sizelove remarked.
Essentially, NCAT measures the degree of net-readiness of missions and systems. The original NCAT “measured” the net-centricity of a concept or system relative to the Office of the Assistant Secretary of Defense for Networks and Information Integration’s Net-Centric Checklist. The next-generation NCAT is in development as a Web-based tool that allows users to select from a wide range of tailored interoperability criteria, including systems, capabilities, operations, programs and enterprises (SCOPE) dimensions and NIF recommendations.
NIF provides the framework for building interoperable network-centric systems and services. It helps system designers, engineers and integrators to build, organize and relate the applications, data and communications elements in a multi-vendor procurement environment by evaluating open standards and patterns of use. The framework recommends elements of specific domains for widespread use, such as mobile networks, services and information interoperability, and information assurance.
“Essentially, we look at customer requirements and resolve disconnects, and find ways to set new standards, protocols and interfaces between elements,” explained Sizelove. “We always start with the customer needs. We look at what we have today, where the standards and the emerging standards are going and select the right one. Customers can be DoD, Homeland Security, any civilian or private organization, and even our own company.”
The metrics derived from use of the NCAT provide insight into the level of interoperability resulting from a design process, whether or not that design was guided by the NIF. Consequently the NCAT may be valuable in the generation or understanding of customer mission models and domain general architectures.
The NCAT may also be useful in evaluating the net-centricity or net-enablement of alternative options in trade study analyses. Although the original tool was based on the Net-Centric Checklist, elements of NATO and some European countries have tailored the criteria to analyze their own standards.
SENSE AND RESPOND
The NCOIC tools are currently being used together to achieve interoperable nodes in systems or systems of systems, and to develop recommendations for various mission teams, such as mobile ad hoc networks, mobile emergency communications interoperability (MECI), and sense and respond logistics. The logistics project identifies requirements for global, network-centric just-in-time logistics, including rapid voice, data and video networked integration.
“We just put out a position paper on MECI,” stated Sizelove. “MECI just completed Phase I, where it was successfully demonstrated at the 2007 conference.”
MECI provides a standard that NCOIC had identified that solve emergency communications interoperability problems for response to complex humanitarian disasters like a tsunami or a Katrina.
“Here first responders come together and need to communicate,” Sizelove remarked. “We put together a demonstration at the conference that consisted of about 12 companies that brought in various products to form this network.”
While NCOIC is well established in North American and Europe, the consortium seeks to expand its involvement elsewhere in the world as well.
“We are beginning to expand into Southeast Asia and the Asia Pacific,” said Reardon. “Governments there, as well as industry, are interested.”
As NCOIC grows, so does its effectiveness at accelerating the development and deployment of network-centric solutions that fit government and industry needs. In fact, some civilian and government agencies have made public their intentions to incorporate NCOIC criteria in their acquisition processes and decisions. ♦
