Abstract:
Summary form only given. This paper proposes an alternative architecture for systems of systems design. Systems integration has become a costly national problem. Witness ...Show MoreMetadata
Abstract:
Summary form only given. This paper proposes an alternative architecture for systems of systems design. Systems integration has become a costly national problem. Witness the Joint Strike Fighter whose code base has driven massive cost over-runs. Consider the magnitude of revamping the National Airspace, to say nothing of inclusion of all manner of unmanned air vehicles into the mix. Recall the Army's failed Future Combat System, which was brought down by network complexity issues. Clearly, a new architectural paradigm must arise to manage the ever-morphing design of systems of systems. The current breed of static architecture simply cannot accommodate the effects of the hypernetworks that underlie modern system of system technologies. Hypernetworks, or networks of networks, are increasingly pervasive. In such environments, the link between cause and effect is at best stochastic, dependent upon a prolifera of quasi-related state-changing variables all interacting dynamically in real-time. Catastrophic failure always lurks at the edges between relative stability - chaos on one extreme and rigidity at the other. Nonetheless, modern system design still tends to favor the more comfortable side of rigidity where cause and effect are better correlated. The Department of Defense Architectural Framework (DODAF) is one such instance. Dependent upon relational database technology, DODAF cannot effectively manage the multitude of many-to-many relationships necessary to define the hypernetworked world of system of systems. Consider a modern aircraft where digital flight controls interact over a bus with digital engine controls, navigation system controls, environmental control systems and external control networks, all fed by continuous streams of data from myriads of sensors. This is merely a weak forerunner to the growing Internet of Anything (IoA). These phenomena defy the type of static cause and effect relationships predominant in existing reductionist design paradigms. The...
Published in: 2014 IT Professional Conference
Date of Conference: 22-22 May 2014
Date Added to IEEE Xplore: 05 February 2015
Electronic ISBN:978-1-4799-4141-4