Information-Related Issues of Interoperability in Command & Control Systems
Franz J. Polster

Source: Lecture at 5th School on Communications and Information Systems, Campus Thomson, Jouy en Josas, France, June 23-25, 1997.

Abstract:

Following NATO terminology there are five basic "interoperability services" supporting exchange of information among command and control systems. The focus of this paper is on the so-called "Data Exchange" service, i.e. mechanisms of passing information from one database to another in a form, which ensures the consistency of the databases envolved.

Due to differences at conceptual as well as technical levels data exchange in this sense between control and command systems is in general not feasible: usually command and control systems have been designed and developed independently, as autonomous systems. Consequently, even within the same nation, command and control systems tend to be heterogeneous systems not supporting data exchange at the level of databases. Types of heterogeneity with respect to databases are discussed. The notion of "multidatabase systems" and the related techniques for integrating heterogeneous information systems are presented. Application to military information systems, in particular command and control systems, is addressed.

Another aspect of interoperability is the task of synchronizing replicated databases of distributed command and control systems. The limited bandwidth of communication links as well as the need to be able to cope with communication break-downs (e.g. caused by enemy actions) call for adequate concepts and techniques for database synchronization: (1) the notion of "Complex Transaction" is introduced as a means of reducing the communication load required for synchronizing databases; (2) "Coherency" as a less stringent form of consistency of distributed databases is discussed; (3) architectural issues of how to enhance existing command and control systems, so that they support complex transactions and coherency control, are dealt with.

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