A.5. Structure of Interoperability Profile Documentation

71. This section identifies typical elements of Interoperability Profile Documentation.

A.5.1. Identification

72. Each NATO or candidate NATO Interoperability Profile shall have a unique identifier assigned to it when accepted for inclusion in the NISP. This shall be an alpha-numeric string appended to the root mnemonic from the NISP profile taxonomy.

A.5.2. Profile Elements

73. Profile elements provide a coherent set of descriptive inter-related information to NATO, national, Non-Governmental Organization (NGO), commercial and other entities ('actors') desiring to establish interoperability.

74. Profiles are not concepts, policies, requirements, architectures, patterns, design rules, or standards. Profiles provide context for a specific set of conditions related to the aforementioned documents in order to provide guidance on development of systems, services, or even applications that must consider all of these capability related products. Interoperability Profiles provide the contextual relationship for the correlation of these products in order to ensure interoperability is 'built-in' rather than considered as an 'after-thought'.

A.5.2.1. Applicable Standards

75. Each profile should document the standards required to support this or other associated profiles and any implementation specific options. The intention of this section is to provide an archive that shows the linkage between evolving sets of standards and specific profile revisions.

Table A.1. Applicable Standards
ID Purpose/Service Standards Guidance
A unique profile identifier A description of the purpose or service A set of relevant Standard Identifier from the NISP Implementation specific guidance associated with this profile (may be a reference to a separate annex or document)


A.5.2.2. Related Profiles

76. Each profile should document other key related system or service profiles in a cross reference table. The intention of this section is to promote smart configuration management by including elements from other profiles rather than duplicating them in part or in whole within this profile. Related profiles would likely be referenced in another section of the profile.

Table A.2. Related Profiles
Profile ID Profile Description Community of Interest Associated SIOPs
A unique profile identifier A short description of the profile Air, Land, Maritime, Special Ops, etc. Unique SIOP identifiers