Semantics for Net-Centric Operations

Todd Schneider

Principal EngineerRaytheon

Approved for Public ReleaseNCOIC-SemTech08-2008-05-20

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"Net Centricity A full contact Social Sport"

Hans Polzer

Lockheed Martin

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Agenda

NCO – What is it?– What are the problems?– Where do semantics come in?

NCOIC – Interoperability– Semantic Interoperability

Presentation Contributors– Hans Polzer, Lockheed Martin– John Yanosy, Rockwell Collins– Steve Russell, L-3 Communications

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Network Centric Operations

Operations enabled by

– Information Networks • Technology-enabled infrastructure

and

– Social Networks• People working in collaboration

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NCO Drivers

Operational Effectiveness

Collaboration across domains

Change – increasing rate

Speed of Decisions/Command

Ad Hoc Missions or Tasks - Agility

Reduced Resources

Acquisition Costs

Rapid Response to Changing Conditions Drives Need for Rapid Response to Changing Conditions Drives Need for Flexible, Agile, Composable Organizations and SystemsFlexible, Agile, Composable Organizations and Systems

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NCO Requirements

Net-Centric Operations requires People, Processes, and Technology that work together enabling timely and trusted: – Access to information, – Sharing of information, and – Collaboration among those involved.

NCO is more about crossing organizational, asset and domain boundaries– Enabled by the Net– Expected by the emerging global culture

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Plan, Organize, Deploy, Employ and Sustain

Cycle

Conveyed Mission Intent

Physical Domain Physical Advantage Spatial Advantage

Temporal Advantage

Information Domain

Information Advantage

Cognitive DomainCognitive AdvantageProcess Advantage

Precision Effect

Compressed Operations

Shared Awareness

Speed and Access

NetworkCentric

Operations

Social DomainCultural Awareness

Net Enabling Social & Cognitive Domains via Information Domain

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NCO & Interoperability

Hypothesis– Crossing Organizational Boundaries– Crossing Cultural Boundaries– Sharing Information– Collaboration

Entailment– Interoperability

NCO Necessarily Requires InteroperabilityNCO Necessarily Requires Interoperability

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NCO Layers of Interoperability

Data/Object Model InteroperabilityData/Object Model Interoperability

Connectivity & Network Interop.Connectivity & Network Interop.

Physical InteroperabilityPhysical Interoperability

Semantic/Information InteroperabilitySemantic/Information Interoperability

Knowledge/Awareness of Actions

Aligned ProceduresAligned Procedures

Aligned OperationsAligned Operations

Harmonized Strategy/DoctrinesHarmonized Strategy/Doctrines

Political or Business ObjectivesPolitical or Business Objectives Organizational Interoperability

Organizational Interoperability

Technical Interoperability

La

yers

of

Inte

rop

era

bili

ty

NetworkTransport

Information& Services

People &Process

NEEDS

CONSTRAINTS

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NCO Interoperability

NCO Interoperability Collaboration Collaboration Common Understanding Common Understanding

Common/Shared Semantics Conclusion

NCO Interoperability

Common/Shared Semantics

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Network Centric Operations Industry Consortium

(NCOIC)

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NCOIC Mission

Facilitate the global realization of Network Centric Operations. 

Enable interoperability across the spectrum of joint, interagency, intergovernmental, and multinational industrial and commercial operations. 

NCOIC is global, with membership open to those who wish to develop the potential of network centric technology to the operational challenges faced by nations and their citizens.

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NCOIC Membership ComesFrom These Countries

Australia Canada

Denmark

Finland

France

Germany

ItalyIreland

Israel

Netherlands

Poland

Romania

Spain

South Korea

Sweden

Switzerland

Turkey

United Kingdom

United States

NCOIC welcomes global membership

Belgium

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NCOIC & Interoperability

Building Blocks Functional Team: Identifies elements that help enable interoperability for interested stakeholders.

Net-Centric Assessment Functional Team: Develops tools for use by systems engineers to determine the level of Net-Centricity that has been achieved in systems.

NIF Architecture Concepts Functional Team: Develops enabling guidance consisting of architectural principles, and NCO patterns

Specialized Frameworks Functional Team: Identifies specialized frameworks and patterns consistent with NCO tenants and other technical principles, focusing on specific technical domains affecting network centric interoperable architectural solutions.

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“To build net-centric, one must first become net-centric”

Steve Russell

L3-Communications

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Systems, Capabilities, Operations, Programs,

and Enterprises(SCOPE)

Model

Hans Polzer, Chair

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SCOPE

Systems, Capabilities, Operations, Programs, and Enterprises (SCOPE) Model for Interoperability

Purpose - Describe the degree to which a set of Systems supports a Capability, Operation, Program or Enterprise (SCOPE) over a network

Provides a means to characterize interoperability requirements for network centric systems

Designed to characterize interoperability-relevant aspects of a system or capability in terms of a set of dimensions.

– Each dimension represents a specific aspect of a system/capability or its surrounding environment/context, and enables assessment of that aspect within a range of possible values (discrete or continuous) that is unique to that dimension

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SCOPE Dimensions

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Systems Metrics

Measures of Effectiveness

Measures of Satisfaction

Size, Weight, Power, and Cooling

EnvironmentCost & Schedule

Miscellaneous (the “ilities”)

Maturity and Risk (TRL)

Measures of Performance

Measures of Net-Centricity

SCOPE Model

O

T

Green is area is the range between the Threshold (T) and Objective (O) value for a Key Performance Parameter (KPP)

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Semantic Interoperability Framework

Working Group

John Yanosy, Chair

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SIF WG Objectives

Develop a comprehensive understanding of the problems of semantic interoperability in a NCO environment

Define a semantic interoperability framework (SIF) where the scope and role of each problem can be illustrated and where problem specific architectural pattern solutions can be integrated (Services, Situational, and Knowledge Sharing domains)

Investigate, describe, and provide guidance in the use of semantic technologies and standards that supports mutually consistent understanding of shared information

Develop NCO Capability Specific Semantic Interoperability Patterns

Semantic Interoperability Concept Map

Develop Semantic Interaction Model

– Based on speech acts

– Characterizing intention (sufficient for NCO)

Lexicon

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SIF Concept Map

Context

Knowledge

Interoperability

SemanticInteroperability

Semantics

Context RepresentationSemanticWeb

Assertive

CommunicativeSpeech Act

KnowledgeRepresentation

SemanticWeb

Services

Ontology

Standards

RepresentationLanguage

Logic

DescriptionLogicOWL Modal Logic

First Order Logic

Reasoning Abductive

Inductive

Analogic

Deductive

InformationModelTheory

Interpretation

Metadata

OntologyMapping

Domain Knowledge

Common Knowledge

DistributedKnowledge

Situation

Common Logic

typeof

Networked Entity

typeoftypeof

typeof

hashashas

Intention

typeof

Collaborative Network has

has

Capability Role

modeledBy

describes

Directive

Commisive

Declarative

Expressive

Semantic Interactions

typeof

has

uses

hastypeof

requires

Web

extends

uses

requiresuses/provides

uses

Grammar

ExplicitSemantics

ImplicitSemantics

typeofhas

typeof

Vocabulary

ConceptsLexicon

Social/Cultural

has

typeof

typeof

has

has

representsIn

provides

formalizes

Inference

typeof

actsOn

Referents

classifies

has

has

typeof

typeof

has

correspondsWith

has

enables

supports

entails

relates

hashas

has

Namespaces

hasextends

modeledBy

Query

Perspective

Granularity

TemporalSpatial

has

Semantic QueryLanguage

IntensionalLogic

typeof

Epistemic Logic

deontic Logic

typeof

Type Theory

typeof

typeof

typeof

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Philosophy

Computer Science

Lo

gic

Ope

ratio

ns

Cognitive Science

Knowledge

Representation

Ling

uist

ics

Net CentricOps

SystemsEngineering

NCOIC Semantic Interoperability Space

SI

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NCOICSemantic Interoperability Principles

Interoperability between systems and agents is – Purposeful – Informed by goals, – Operating in contexts – Sharing domain knowledge (whether explicit or implied).

Goals guide selection of intentions and execution of actions Communications occur within a few universal intentional

categories (Speech Acts – request knowledge, commit to action, request action, … )

Context constrains relevant domain knowledge for a situation

Useful Knowledge is organized in semantic domain models

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Problems – Just a Few

Context– What is it– How to represent it– How to implement it– How to interpret it

Intent Mediation

– How to handle it

Ontology Development

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NCOIC – http://www.ncoic.org

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Additional

Material

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NCOIC Vision & Mission

Vision

Mission

Our mission is to facilitate the global realization of Network Centric Operations.  We seek to enable interoperability across the spectrum of joint, interagency, intergovernmental, and multinational industrial and commercial operations.  NCOIC is global, with membership open to those who wish to apply the vast potential of network centric technology to the operational challenges faced by our nations and their citizens.

InformationArchitectureComm & NetworkingArchitecture

System A

System B

System C

NCO

Industry working together with our customers to provide a network centric environment where all classes of information systems interoperate by integrating existing and emerging open standards into a common evolving global framework that employs a common set of principles and processes.

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Broad Membership– Currently 100 Member Organizations from 19 countries, including

• Leading IT, Aerospace & Defense companies• Government organizations • Non-Governmental Organizations• Academic Institutions

Experienced Advisory Council– 24 key global government and civilian customers– Representatives from Australia, France, Germany, Italy, NATO,

Sweden, UK, & the US

Growing Government Relationships– ASD(NII), Australia DoD, DHS, DISA, European Defence Agency,

FAA, JFCOM, NATO, SPAWAR, Swedish FMV (The Swedish Defence Materiel Administration), EUROCONTROL/SESAR and FLV, the Swedish Aviation Authority

NCOIC - At A Glance

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100 Member Companies& Organizations in NCOIC

Just a few of the names that you might Just a few of the names that you might recognize…recognize…

Just a few of the names that you might Just a few of the names that you might recognize…recognize…

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Members

Executive OperationsCommittee

Technical Council

Functional Teams&

Working Groups

Strategy Committee

MarcomCommittee

Membership Committee

Executive Council Advisory Council

Staff

Executive Director

NCOIC Organization

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NCOIC Terms

Network-Centric:– Related to systems and patterns of behavior that are influenced

significantly or enabled by current and emergent networks and network technologies. Often these center around IP-based internetworking, but the term is sometimes used to include any type of enabling network.

Network-Centric Operations (NCO):– An information superiority-enabled concept of operations that

generates increased combat power by networking sensors, decision makers, and shooters to achieve shared awareness, increased speed of command, higher tempo of operations, greater lethality, increased survivability and a greater degree of self-synchronization.

Net-Centricity Necessarily Requires Interoperability