Application of the system engineering process in developing joint system architectures

The Department of Defense has defined C4I architectures in terms of operational, system, and technical architectures. The definition, implementation, and successful fielding of systems which are compliant with the architectural framework depends on the successful determination and refinement of first, the operational architecture and second the articulation of the system architecture. System architecture is an amalgamation of both the technical requirements as determined by the technical architecture and the operational requirements as defined in the operational architecture. The US Army CECOM RDEC under the auspices of the Combined Arms Command and Control (CAC2) Advanced Technology Demonstration (ATD) has developed and refined a process by which the operational users can articulate their operational architecture in terms which are useful to the material development community and then ultimately provide feedback to the technical solutions provided by a disciplined system engineering process. The CECOM RDEC has pioneered efforts relating to the use of various modeling tools and laboratory assets to provide analysis of current and emerging tactical communications infrastructures. The paper explains the CECOM system architecture process and how it can be adapted to the joint arena. A key to understanding this process is an explanation of the process by which designers of communications architectures can identify and define the joint operational C4I requirements for military operations.