A CASE STUDY FOR THE OPEN GROUP - COMMUNICATION AND INFORMATION SYSTEM INTEROPERABILITY IN THE MINISTRY OF DEFENCE
A CASE STUDY FOR THE OPEN GROUP - COMMUNICATION AND INFORMATION SYSTEM INTEROPERABILITY IN THE MINISTRY OF DEFENCE |
CONTENTS
The UK MOD recognises the value of a standards-based approach to achieving
interoperability between defence communications and information systems (CIS). It has
established a CIS standards organisation comprising the Defence CIS Standards Executive
Group (DCISSEG) , the Defence CIS Standards Committee (DCISSC) and the Defence CIS Systems
Board (DCISB). The DCISSEG includes members from all the MOD Sectors and formulates
standards recommendations and guidelines based on achieving business goals of
interoperability and reducing costs.
The DCISSEG has defined a Defence CIS Technical Reference Model (TRM) which is based on
the NATO Open Systems Environment Technical Reference Model (NATO OSE TRM). The DCIS TRM
meets the MOD's CIS requirements, and at the same time is open, aligned with the
market-place and in a position to incorporate future developments in technology.
Population of the DCIS TRM with appropriate open system standards has generated the
Defence CIS - Framework for Standards, Profiles and Products (DCISF) which provides the
basis for the design of all future MOD CIS.
The DCISF has been applied in the procurement of an operational system for the RAF. A
standards-based architecture was derived from the DCISF and written into the project
procurement specification. This proved to be effective in ensuring that the future system
would be compliant with the DCISF. The approach was rather ad hoc, however, and
highlighted the need to define architectures that could be used for communities of CIS.
Such architectures are called Common Operating Environments (COEs) and the MOD is in the
process of defining an initial COE that will be applicable to all operational CIS.
The first step along the road to achieving communication and information system (CIS)
interoperability in the MOD involved 2 key activities:
a. Providing motivation for the work. The MOD recognised the need for a common
reference model and standards framework for guiding CIS projects, with the aim of
improving interoperability, portability, scalability and
cost-effectiveness of procurements. In order to exploit its emerging common user
infrastructure, the MOD had to make use of COTS products based on open system standards.
b. Creating a CIS architecture and standards organisation within MOD. The
Defence CIS Standards Executive Group (DCISSEG) and its parent bodies, the Defence CIS
Standards Committee (DCISSC) and the Defence CIS Systems Board (DCISB), were charged with
delivering the required reference model and standards framework. The core personnel were
drawn from all MOD Sectors, including the Procurement Executive, Navy, Army and Air Force
Sectors. They provided the necessary seniority, experience, technical authority and
ability to communicate with a wide range of interested parties including potential users,
project managers, policy makers and technical experts outside the group.
The next step was to define a DCIS Technical Reference Model (TRM). A TRM is a model
representing an abstraction of an IT system. It assists in understanding and identifying
the basic building blocks of an IT system but is not populated with standards and does not
contain guidance on application. The benefits arising from the use of a TRM include the
following:
a. It enables the technical strategy for future purchases and migration to be set out.
b. It simplifies system procurement since it provides a ready-made structure for
specifying CIS requirements.
c. It exposes the interfaces between the building blocks of a system, leading to
improved interoperability, application portability and software development, re-use and
maintenance.
d. It provides a coherent view of the whole system, leading to a better understanding
of issues such as security and management which are pervasive throughout the system.
e. It permits existing systems to be described clearly and in a standard way.
There were several existing TRMs on which the DCIS TRM could have been based. The
choice of TRM was guided by the following considerations:
a. The TRM should be open, widely supported and aligned with the market-place.
b. It should be capable of meeting the majority of military requirements.
c. There should be a commitment by the 'owners' of the TRM to maintain it and allow
future developments in technology to be incorporated.
The above considerations led to the adoption of the NATO Open Systems Environment (OSE)
TRM as the basis for the DCIS TRM. The NATO OSE TRM aligns well with The Open Group TRM,
thus ensuring that the first of the above criteria is met. At the same time, the NATO OSE
TRM has been developed within an international military context. Finally, NATO is
committed to maintaining the TRM and keeping it in step with changing technology.
The following amendments were made to the NATO OSE TRM in order to meet with UK MOD's
requirements:
a. A 'Physical Environment' component was added, mainly to meet the needs of the Army
Sector.
b. A re-grouping of elements within the Application Software Entity, in order to
reflect MOD's view of support applications.
The DCIS TRM is represented in Figure 1:
Figure 1- DCIS TRM
Further information about the definition of the DCIS TRM can be found in Volume 2 of
the DCIS Standards Guides.
This step involved the population of the DCIS TRM with relevant open system standards
wherever possible. The resulting framework is the Defence CIS - Framework for Standards,
Profiles and Products (DCISF) as detailed in Volume 3 of the DCIS Standards Guides.
Population of the DCIS TRM required suitable standards to be identified and placed
within each of the IT Service components of the TRM. The standards selected were intended
to be neither exhaustive nor unique. A relevant standard would be included in the DCISF if
it was judged to meet the following selection criteria (as applicable):
a. Promotes interoperability.
b. Enables people portability.
c. Enables application portability.
d. Has market support.
e. Is technically consistent with the DCIS TRM and other DCIS standards.
f. Is consistent with other relevant MOD initiatives.
The standards were categorised according to their status. For example, 'Recommended'
standards were assessed to meet the relevant selection criteria in full, 'Emerging'
standards met most of the selection criteria, but represent a higher risk, owing to their
lack of maturity and stability.
The population of the TRM with open system standards was based on a consensus within
the MOD CIS community. This consensus was achieved through a series of technical workshops
held by DCISSEG, attended by representatives from each of the MOD Sectors.
This step involved the application of the DCISF to a MOD project. The purpose of this
was 2-fold:
a. To offer the relevant project the benefits of using the DCIS TRM and DCISF.
b. To validate the DCISF through its application to a real project.
The general benefits that are brought to a CIS procurement from the use of the DCIS TRM
and DCISF include the following:
a. Greater clarity and quality of the architecture and standards sections of the
Invitation to Tender and the tenders.
b. Ease of tender assessment since a standard structure is adopted.
c. Improved technical communication with industry and since a standard vocabulary is
adopted.
The project concerns an operational CIS being procured for the RAF. The project team
sought advice from the RAF Sector Interoperability Authority (SIA) on the specification of
technical standards for the system. The RAF SIA is the focus for IT architectures,
standards and interoperability within the RAF Sector and provides RAF representation
within the DCISSEG. The RAF SIA were ideally placed, therefore, to apply the RAF Sector
Technical Architecture Framework (RAF STAF), which is based closely on the emerging
DCISF, to the project.
Key features of the system technical architecture are its graphical and geographical
services, its interfaces with external systems and its security requirements. The system
standards specification was prepared by the RAF SIA in close consultation with the project
team. The structure of the standards specification is aligned with the structure of the
DCIS TRM, and the technical standards constitute a profile of standards from the DCISF,
tailored to meet the system's requirements. The standards define an implementable and
system-specific architecture, derived from the overarching DCIS standards
framework. Thus, the system will be able to interoperate with future systems that are also
compliant with the DCISF.
In conclusion, the application of the DCISF in defining a system-specific architecture
for a real CIS project proved to be effective. The approach used was rather 'ad hoc',
however, and this points to a requirement for a more systematic way of defining
standards-based architectures for CIS. The answer is to define Common Operating
Environments (COEs). A COE is an agreed specification derived from a framework of open
standards which is applicable to CIS within a particular community. A COE is defined once,
and applied many times, as CIS within a particular community are procured. The MOD is in
the process of defining COEs, starting with an operational COE.
The following future MOD CIS interoperability activities are identified:
a. Maintain the DCIS TRM.
b. Maintain the DCISF in line with MOD business requirements and market developments in
CIS standards and products .
c. Continue to apply the DCISF to CIS projects in the near-term, using the initial
application to an operational CIS as a model.
d. Complete the definition of the operational COE and begin to define other COEs as
required. In particular, there is a requirement for an overall Defence COE, the Defence
Interoperability Environment (DIE), which will provide an Intranet-type services such as
wide-area networking and messaging to the vast majority of MOD CIS.
e. Apply the MOD COEs to future projects.
The detailed project documentation from this case study is available here.