Chapter 2. International Military Interoperability for information exchange in the NNEC context

Summary

61. This design rule describes how military organisations can develop and implement the ability to exchange information and services with military organizations from other nations to become interoperable. It touches on, but does not fully address the problems related to organizational structures and behaviour when multiple organisations collaborate in a federative manor in a mission.

2.1. General

2.1.1. Unique Identity

62. [An identifier that uniquely identifies the design rule. (Product ID)]

2.1.2. Target Group

63. This design rule targets any military organization that plan or foresee that it will participate in a mission where exchange of information and services with other military organizations is vital.

64. Within these organizations, the intended users are requirement analysts, architects and high-level designers of NNEC compliant systems.

65. This document defines patterns for enabling information exchange between parties in federations, and is to be used by architects designing SIOPs and SIPs according to NISP and the NATO C3 System Architecture Framework [6].

2.1.3. Definitions and abbreviations

CIA

Confidentiality, Integrity and Availability. Aspects which are to be considered when performing security analysis.

COI

Community Of Interest.

Design rule

A standardized, reusable solution to a design problem in a specific context within a problem space that provides value to the user.

ESB

Enterprise Service Bus. An ESB refers to a software architecture construct, implemented by technologies found in a category of middleware infrastructure products usually based on Web services standards that provides foundational services for more complex service-oriented architectures.

IEAT

A concept for Information Exchange Architecture and Technology developed within the frame of Multinational Experiment 5 with Sweden as lead nation.

IEG

Information Exchange Gateway. A technical system which is used to protect information assets. IEG are described in the IEG concept [10].

IEM

An Information Exchange Model (IEM) is a specification of the information which is exchanged between operational nodes. IEMs are used when deciding which information objects are to be exchanged in service interactions.

IER

Information Exchange Requirement, a specification of the required information exchanged between operational nodes which are described in an architecture.

IES

Information Exchange Service, a part of an IEG.

Information Zone

Information Zones is a concept identified and defined [11] to achieve confidentiality with high assurance, for a gathering of information within a defined perimeter, and interactions to its surrounding with a number of services and nodes inside the zone.

IPS

Information Protection Service, a part of an IEG.

NAF

NATO Architectural Framework.

NEC

Network Enabled Capabilities.

NNEC

NATO Network Enabled Capabilities.

NISP

NATO Interoperability Standards and Profiles [8].

NPS

Node Protection Service, a part of an IEG.

Operation

An operation where actors from multiple national system is tasked in a federation of system.

Service

In this context a technical mechanism which allows access to one or more capabilities in order to enable service interaction.

SIOP

Service Interoperability Point. A reference point within an architecture where one or more service interfaces are physically or logically instantiated to allow systems delivering the same service using different protocols to interoperate [6].

SIP

Service Interoperability Profile. A set of attributes that specifies the characteristics of a service interface between interoperable systems in the Networking and Information Infrastructure. A SIP is identified at a SIOP in an architecture system view [6].

SOA

Service Oriented Architecture. An architectural style which aims at a loose coupling of services with operating systems, programming languages and other technologies which underlie applications.

Bibliography

Steering documents

[1] Design Rule Framework, See NATO NISP DR guidance document

References

[2] DR Interoperability Sweden proposal, P06-0051 rev 3.0

[3] IEAT Concept, MNE-5 initiative

[4] Design Rule Flexibility, Sweden P06-0050 (NATO doc ?)

[5] Design Rule Security aspects of information, Sweden P06-0108 (NATO doc ?)

[6] NATO C3 System Architecture Framework, EAPC(AC/322)D(2006)0002-REV1

[7] Federated Governance of Information Sharing Within the Extended Enterprise, AFEI Information Sharing Working Group, Nov 17 2007

[8] NISP Volume 1, Version 3

[9] NATO Architecture Framework (NAF), Version 3. AC/322-D(2007)0048

[10] Guidance Document on the Implementation of Gateways for Information Exchange between NATO and External CIS Communities, AC/322(SC/4)N(2007)0007

[11] Swedish FMLS Security Architecture Overview, http://www.fmv.se/upload/Bilder%20och%20dokument/Vad%20gor%20FMV/Uppdrag/LedsystT/Overgripande%20FMLS-dokument/Generiska%20designdokument/LT1K%20P04-0385%20Security%20Architecture%20Overview%205.0.pdf , 33442/2006 Version 5.0, May 4 2007

[12] NISP Volume 3, Version 3

[13] TACOMS: TACOMS Post 2000 Profile, STANAG 4637