Linking Interoperability Characters and Measures of Effectiveness: A Methodology for Evaluating Architectures

Abstract

The Air Force Research Laboratory's Sensors Directorate has crafted a long-term layered sensing project and seeks a method to compare different architectural representations. This research provides an executable methodology for quantitative architecture comparisons based on interoperability characters and measurements. The methodology has two components and is demonstrated on an urban operations mission thread scenario. The layered sensing scenario requires electrooptical (EO), infrared (IR), and synthetic aperture radar (SAR) sensor-equipped platforms to shift orbits while supporting a mission (e.g., supply convoy) reacting to an unplanned event (e.g. improvised explosive device planted along the convoy route of travel). The first component is a discrete event simulation capturing relevant sensor, platform, and mission operations and providing measures of effectiveness (MOE) and measures of performance (MOP). The second component is an application of a general purpose interoperability measurement technique applied to a scenario demonstrating collaborative interoperability. The results from experimental component comparisons show that changes in interoperability measurements do not always reflect the magnitude of changes in mission effectiveness or system performance. For net-centric applications, changes in the number of process paths may be a better indicator for the degree of interoperability present in a given architecture.

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Document Details

Document Type
Technical Report
Publication Date
Jun 18, 2009
Accession Number
ADA501748

Entities

People

  • Brian D. Mckellar
  • Darryl L. Insley
  • Jan Von Der Felsen

Organizations

  • Air Force Institute of Technology

Tags

Communities of Interest

  • C4I
  • Ground and Sea Platforms
  • Human Systems
  • Sensors
  • Weapons Technologies

DTIC Thesaurus Topics

  • Air Force
  • Air Force Research Laboratories
  • Aircrafts
  • Command And Control
  • Contingency Operations (Military)
  • Data Analysis
  • Detectors
  • Infrared Detectors
  • Layered Sensing
  • Measures Of Effectiveness
  • Military Science
  • Simulations
  • Situational Awareness
  • Synthetic Aperture Radar
  • Systems Engineering
  • Urban Areas
  • Warfare

Readers

  • Atmospheric Remote Sensing.
  • Distributed Systems and Data Platform Development
  • Instructional Design and Training Evaluation.

Technology Areas

  • Space