Addressing interoperability in military systems-of-systems architectures

The increasing complexity of net-centric warfare requires systems to be interoperable to achieve mission success. Established methods do exist to measure various forms of interoperability; however, these methods tend to be specific towards a certain application, and often are qualitative rather than quantitative assessments. This research surveys existing interoperability measurement methods and assesses them from the perspective of using interoperability as a metric to evaluate system-of-systems architectures. The goal is to identify metrics useful to quantify interoperability during the early phases of the joint acquisition process and provide decision-makers with information about a potential architecture's interoperability during the selection of a new military system-of-systems.