- About the volumes
- Download PDF of V1
- V1 - Introduction and Management
- V2 - Near Term
- V3 - Mid to Far term
- V4 - Interoperability Profile Guidance
- V5 - NISP Design Rules
- V6 - NISP - Annexes
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Chapter 3. NISP Structure
11. The structure of the NISP is determined by several factors:
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Ease of use for the users of the NISP;
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Implementation strategy of the NNEC vision;
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Nature of standards, profiles and design rules.
12. Partitioning the NISP into timeframes of near, mid and far-term was greatly influenced by the NNEC FS, national NEC development and industry best practices. One common thread through all these efforts is the need to partition NATO CIS implementations and transition to NNEC into well defined time periods which are:
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Near-term: 0 to 2 years;
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Mid-term: 2 to 6 years;
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Far-term: more than 6 years out.
13. The NISP reflects these timeframes in individual volumes. To provide consistency between these volumes and ease of tracking technology trends and influences, each of these three volumes has similar structures containing major sections dealing with:
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Technology
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Standards
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Profiles
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Transition
14. These similar structures enable one to focus in on an area of interest (i.e. NRF profile) and to track this area of interest from today's legacy systems transforming towards the NNEC paradigm.
15. Standards and profiles are the centrepiece of each volume. The standards part of each volume provides an overview of those standards that must be taken into account when developing architectures that cover systems having their life-cycle within the period of time applicable for this volume.
16. The profiles are derived based on operational requirements which influence required services and interoperability points.
17. The NISP contains the four following main volumes:
18. Volume 1 - Overview and Management : This volume provides the management framework for the development and configuration control of the NISP and includes the general management procedures for the application of the NISP in NATO C3 systems development and the process for handling Request for Change Proposals (RFCP).
19. Volume 2 - Near-term : This volume provides the interoperability standards and profiles in the near-term period with the emphasis on platform centric environment. This is the short-term step describing the state of-the-art of NATO and National systems today and the framework for new systems actually under procurement or specification. For new systems, it contains near-term standards, profiles, and technologies to support the initial steps towards Networking and Information Infrastructure (NII).
20. Volume 3 - Mid-term : This volume will describe the evolution from the platform based NCOE to the loosely coupled Network Enabled Capabilities environment where the functionality of the interconnected systems is made generally available as "services on the net". Ultimately the goal is that all systems shall be connected. By means of real time configuration of interacting systems, it is possible to combine the functionality of the most useful systems in each situation.
21. Volume 4 - Far-term : This volume of the document focus is on the long-term perspective. The long-term perspective has a time frame of 7 to 10 years into the future from the publication of this version of the NISP. This is the concluding step to the realization of a fully network enabled NATO coalition environment.
22. In addition to these four volumes, the NISP is supported by a Rationale volume that describes the rationale for the selection of the standards and profiles contained in Volumes 2 through 4; and an Annex volume containing the following appendicies:
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Services and Interoperability Points in Platform Oriented and SOA Environments;
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NATO, National and Industry NEC Implementation Approaches;
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Reference Models used in volumes 2 through 4 to structure and organise the standards and technologies;
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Enterprise Service Bus (ESB) Profile in the Service Oriented Architecture (SOA) context;
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Guidelines using design rules in NATO NEC federated environment;
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International Military Interoperability for information exchange in the NNEC context.
23. Technology standards will transition through a life-cycle. This life-cycle is used to refine the categorisation of standards within the volumes 2 through 4 and is also a key to providing guidance on the use of standards in the development and transition of NATO CIS. The NISP has adopted the five categories of in the life-cycle of standards shown below in Figure 3.1.
Figure 3.1. Standards Categories
24. Proposed standards can be accepted as emerging standards in order to follow their developments and decide if they can be promoted to mandatory standards. In some cases proposed standards can be readily accepted as mandatory standards. Emerging standards have been partitioned into specific categories of emerging near-term, emerging mid-term and emerging far-term to better support the transition to NNEC. Similarly, containment standards have been classified as either fading or retired.
25. A short description of each category is described below:
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Mandatory : A standard is considered mandatory if it is mature enough to be used immediately. This means that it may both be applied within existing systems and in within mid-term future planned systems.
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Emerging near-term : A standard is considered emerging near-term if it is mature enough to be used within the 0 - 2 year time frame of Volume 2.
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Emerging mid-term : A standard is considered emerging mid-term if it is sufficiently mature to be used within the current or next planned systems. This means that it may be applied within future mid-term planned systems.
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Emerging far-term : A standard is considered emerging far-term if it deals with technology that is expected to be useful in the long term to NATO. Use of this standard in systems is not allowed, for example because there is insufficient lack of support from commercial companies or because the underlying technology is considered not mature enough.
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Fading : A standard is considered fading if the standard is still applicable for existing systems. The standard however is becoming obsolete or will be replaced by a newer version or another standard. Except for legacy systems or interoperability with legacy systems, the standard may not be used.
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Retired : A standard is considered retired if the standard, that has been used in the past, is not applicable for existing systems.
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Rejected : A standard is considered rejected if, while it was still emerging, it is considered unsuitable for use within NATO.
26. Each standard in the NISP has a set of categories allocated to it that are applicable to the timeframe covered:
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Volume 2 - Near-term: Category can be "Mandatory", "Emerging near-term", "Fading" or "Retired";
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Volume 3 - Mid-term: Category can be "Emerging mid-term"; and "rejected";
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Volume 4 - Far-term: Category can be "Emerging far-term" and "rejected".
3.1. NISP Structure Drivers
27. In general, systems development approaches suggest a clean line of reasoning from requirements capturing to architecture, to design and build via testing to implementation and utilisation and finally to retirement. In practice there is not always an opportunity (time or money) for such a "clean" approach and compromises must be made: from requirements immediately to build and implementation. In recognition of this fact NATO has developed a parallel track approach, which allows some degree of freedom in the systems development approach. Although variations in sequence and speed of the different steps in the approach are possible, some elements need to be present in one form or another. Architecture, including the selection of appropriate standards and technologies, is such a mandatory step.
28. In a top-down execution of the systems development approach, architecture will provide guidance and overview to the required functionality and the solution patterns, based on long-standing and visionary operational requirements. In a bottom-up execution of the approach, usually responding to urgent requirements and operational imperatives, architecture will be used to assess and validate chosen solution in order to align with the longer term vision.
29. The NISP is a major tool for the architecture work and must be suitable for use in the different variations of the systems development approach.