NATO Core Data Framework – The Overarching Concept

1References

[1]C-M(2014)0016, Alliance C3 Strategy, dated 17 Mar 2014

[2]AC/259-D(2013)0025-REV2-AS1, MULTIREF, Roadmap for Implementation of theTechnological Aspects of the Connected Forces Initiative (CFI), dated 9 May 2014

[3]AC/322-D(2005)0053-REV2, NNEC Data Strategy, dated 14 Sep 2009

[4]AC/322-D(2009)0046-REV1-FINAL – NATO Information Management Authority, NATO IM Strategic Plan, 18 April 2011.

[5]IMSM-0429-2011, Capability Package 9C0150 “Core Information Services for Command and Control”, 24 August 2011.

[6]APP-15, NATO Information Exchange Requirement Specification Process, 14 June 2013

[7]MCM-0106-2014, NATO Federated Mission Networking Implementation Plan,

Volume 1, Version 3.0, dated 14 Aug 2014

2Overview

2.1Scope

Data sharing and integration across the Alliance and coalition environments is multi-faceted. The aspects within scope of the NCDF are standardisation and coherency in shared data requirements as well as interoperability and understanding of data being shared across the Alliance and Federated Mission Networking (FMN)[7] environments.

While theDM CaT recognizes the importance of other aspects, such as Information Assurance (IA) and Service Management and Control (SM&C), these are out of scope of the NCDF. The NCDF will however comply with appropriate solutions developed in these areas.

This framework provides the structure needed for organizing data requirements and standardized specifications to enable exploitation of data from heterogeneous systems and services across multiple domains and communities. It foresees that computer information systems (CIS) capabilities will, in time, adopt the NCDF as the primary framework for creating information exchange specifications (IESs), creating a system of homogenous CIS capabilities.

2.2Military Problem

Operational decision makers rely on data from multiple sources that are provided in different formats, using different technologies, and that are produced and may reside in different domains[1], from military to security as well as national. To access and effectively use available data, the operational systems and services need to be enabled to seamlessly share and understand the data. Currently, data stovepipes present limitations to this seamless sharing and understanding of COI[2] data and information amongst NATO and mission partners. This has impacted mission execution, decreasing near real-time situational awareness of different NATO and national entities on a network, thereby negatively impacting mission effectiveness and force protection. Interoperability challenges can range from technical (can System A reach and find data available from System B?) to semantic (can System A process and understand data from System B?) to policy shortfalls (is System A allowed to connect to and see data from System B?).

These challenges often stem from the traditional, independent stove-piped processes for the development of operational data requirements and operational solutions by differentCOIs, typically necessitated by different operational use cases. Due to their independent development cycles and different operational user requirements, COIs may often choose different representations for the same information or use similar terms to mean different things. This not only limits sharing data between COI applications or systems, but also limits the understanding of the data and information being shared.

Another major challenge is the proliferation of COI-specific, system-centric, ad-hoc solutions developed to access only a limited set of data from pre-selected external COI sources and sharing via pre-defined and a limited set of data formats. This approach provides initial capabilities to share data, point-to-point, but has the following drawbacks:

  • These approaches are usually non-scalable, which limits available data sharing opportunities based on what interfaces are implemented
  • Costly and time consuming to implement—new formats require new procurement/development cycles
  • Cannot accommodate unanticipated consumers/unplanned data sources
  • Non-standardized, implementation-specific translation mappings are not reusable or interoperable with other COI solutions
  • A system-centric approach leads to strong dependency’s on system availability in theatre – Systems unavailable to a particular command equates to no data sharing

All of the above often results in the required systems/data/information not being readily available to the operators and decision makers in a timely or reliable way in order to achieve the desired Information, Decision and Execution Superiority [3]. A NNEC approach that leverages a standardized data mediation and integration service, with clearly defined, standardized interfaces would facilitate less costly, more scalable, agile and interoperable cross-COI data sharing solutions.

2.3Stakeholders

The NCDF is intended for all involved in the sharing of data between COIs through NATO and FMN informationsystems. This includes NATO, NATO nations, and partners as well as implementation authorities and system implementers, standardisation bodies, operational decision makers, data managers and the NATO resource community (including the Infrastructure Committee). Stakeholders’ roles and responsibilities will be elaborated upon in one or more subsequent papers to describe the components of the NCDF.

2.4Requirements

The need is to link together heterogeneous C3 systems with minimal impact on development resources, budgets and timelines. The approach must avoid the use of proprietary, unique (non-reusable), and / or platform specific solutions.

The approach must provide a framework that is comprehensive, scalable, repeatable, and cost effective. The framework will initially capitalize onthe eXtensible Markup Language (XML), which is a widely accepted standard internationally across business, military and government communities.

The aim of the NCDF is to improve interpretation of data to advance interoperability in the NATO Enterprise, the Alliance, coalitions and with Partners, in particular Cross-COI interoperability. Traditionally, cross-COI interoperability has been addressed via unique mappings between specific information exchange specifications, leading to n2 mappings between standards, all of which need to be maintained.

3Components of the NCDF

3.1Capabilities and Products

The NATO Core Data Framework will provide enabling services, standards, specifications, tools, policies and procedures to assist COIs in implementing interoperable cross-domain data sharing solutions. These solutions will enhance the discovery, search, retrieval, exchange, processing, understanding and mediation of data assets, including raw and processed data in multiple formats, in an automated way.

3.2Areas of harmonization

Realisation and usage of the NCDF will be in line with several principles and goals outlined in the Alliance C3 Strategy [1]. In particular, it will support the principles of a) emphasising a clear separation between requirements setting and implementation; b) addressing interoperability between capabilities and services provided by nations, multinational or common funded programmes; and c) supporting information security levels and multiple communities of interest. Importantly, it will support the Alliance C3 Strategy goals of a) coherent streamlining of C3 Capabilities and Information and Communication Technology (ICT) Services to eliminate redundancies and duplication; b) enforcing standardisation and ensuring coherent delivery of key C3 Capabilities and ICT Services; and c) sharing information and services in a connected, protected environment as to achieve the most appropriate balance between the responsibility-to-share and the need-to-know. Finally, the NCDF will contribute to enhancing the Conference of National Armaments Directors (CNAD) and Consultation, Command and Control Board(C3B) input to the overall efforts on improving implementation of standards, as recommended within the CNAD Roadmap for implementation of the technological aspects of the Connected Forces Initiative (CFI)[2]. See Figure One

Figure One

The following are intended as guidance for the activities of all NCDF stakeholders in line with the aforementioned Alliance C3 Strategy principles and goals as well as the CNAD roadmap recommendation.

3.3NCDF will standardize how COIs share data

The NCDF defines how to capture COI-specific and cross-COI user requirements related to data sharing (what data needs to be exchanged) and associated technical specifications (how to fulfil the what) in a normalized, precise, complete machine-processable way. Data specifications may include, but are not limited to, the following concepts: used terminology, data elements, permissible values (e.g., data ranges), serialization, unit of measurement, business objects, message structures and business rules.

Some benefits include:

  • Being able to share, understand, and revise COI data requirements and technical specifications in a common way and “language”
  • COIs could adopt data elements or structures from other communities in their design processes (standards or systems) if they have similar data requirements
  • COIs could reuse existing specifications, avoiding duplication of effort, waste of resources “re-inventing the wheel”, and potential pitfalls that could cause them to “re-invent a square wheel”
  • COIs could manage and relate their data elements with other COI data elements, as needed, in a standardized, machine-processable way.
  • Some types of relationships that could be useful may include synonym-like relationships, translation rules, common-use rating, etc.
  • This would enable and standardize the COI data mediation and integration services to process and understand data received from other domains.

3.4NCDF normalizes outputs of “COI stove-piped” processes

As there are different COIs within NATO, there are different authorities, workflows and processes in place for regulating various aspects of each of the COI stovepipes, ranging from user requirements definition to data standards specifications. Aligned with Strategic Goal 3.5, NCDF does not attempt to change the way business is conducted internally within the COIs; it will inform and align the outputs of those processes across NATO.

The NCDF will break the “conceptual” stovepipes by prescribing a standardized way to share requirements and specifications across the COIs to ensure consistency, completeness, precision and machine-processability.

3.5NCDF is a Non-Disruptive Enabler

The NCDF will allow COIs to maintain their autonomy and will not dictate the way COIs specify their requirements, design their data models and structures, and specify their data formats and data exchanges to meet their unique operational information requirements within their communities.

This approach will allow COIs to focus on and continue to use the technology and approaches they have invested so much time and resources on, and in which they have expertise in, thereby increasing the likelihood for buy-in and acceptance from COIs to support and use the NCDF, which will inherently support other COIs.

3.6NCDF focuses on operational data payload

There are many aspects that need to be considered to enable interoperable data sharing across different COIs and different domains. The NNEC Data Strategy [3] identifies these aspects as the visibility, accessibility, coherence, assurance, interoperability and management goals, or more simply, how to find out what data is available, how to access that data in an assured way, how to process it and how to understand it.

NCDF focuses on the NNEC interoperability (understanding) and coherence (processing) aspects with respect to the data payload shared between COIs. NCDF will leverage off of and align with other enablers for cross-COI data sharing, such as NATO Discovery Metadata Specification (NDMS) and Metadata Catalogue Services (visibility), and XML Labelling and Metadata Binding Specifications and Identity and Access Management (IdAM) services (assurance) to achieve discoverability and assured accessibility of the data.

3.7NCDF increases end-to-end understanding of data made available to decision makers

The NCDF will enable the COIs services and systems to share, process, translate and understand the operational data payload being shared across domains and COIs to increase end-to-end understanding of the data being made available to decision makers. By doing so, the NCDF will unify the Combined Joint Task Force by improving effectiveness of C3 of operations. Where appropriate, NCDF will remove the “man in the loop” where machine – to – machine exchanges can better meet the requirement. NCDF will support sensor and data fusion, battlefield management and sensor-to-shooter connectivity.

This will enable the services and systems used by operational decision makers to process and present the data, in an automated way, to the decision makers so that the data can be correctly read and understood as intended. This would address potential “misinterpretation” issues, such as where system A in the Land domain (COI 1) requests information and availability on a tank from Logistics (COI 2), expecting an armoured mechanized vehicle, but instead receives a “fuel” tank.

3.8NCDF supports sharing of heterogeneous data formats

The NNEC Data Strategy [3] “requires that NATO migrate the data management paradigm from “process, exploit, and disseminate” to “post before processing”. NATO’s data management practices must therefore “support the sharing of raw and processed data as well as data in multiple formats.”

Therefore, NCDF has to support COIs in sharing raw data in native format, such as GMTI binary plots or TDL binary tracks, as well as processed data and information, such as various system files, databases, documents, official electronic records, images, audio files, web sites, etc., in various standardized common formats. Also, NCDF has to consider not only sharing data and information via text-based message-exchanges, but also via other means.

4Technical Goals

Implementing the R7-CNAD [1] recommendation to “enhance the CNAD and C3B input to the overall efforts on improving implementation of standards“, with the rationale that the “implementation of NATO Standards is key to interoperability”, requires enhanced standardisation, clearer definition and use of COI-enabling services, (such as COI data mediation and integration services), and better alignment between COI stovepipe processes and (technical) solutions are required.

Standardisation is needed to ensure COI data requirements and information exchange specifications [6] will be managed and shared in a coherent manner. This is in terms both of managing the data artefacts, as well as the alignment of the relevant processes to share those artefacts in a normalized, machine-processable manner. The creation of ad-hoc, non-standard, proprietary solutions should be eliminated at every opportunity. Standardisation will enable reuse of data artefacts, repeatability and interoperability of solutions, and resource sharing to achieve cost savings within NATO and Nations in line with the Connected Forces Initiative [2].

The overarching goal of the NCDF is to facilitate the seamless sharing and understanding of operationally relevant COI data and information amongst NATO and coalition partner systems or services to improve the overall quality, timeliness, effectiveness and efficiency of the decision makers. This will be accomplished by:

  • Removing the need for manual processing of information between systems in different domains that are not interoperable
  • Minimizing misinterpretation of received data between operational domains( e.g. the distinction of "tank" as an armoured vehicle or fuel container)
  • Making data available to all possible systems that may need it without prior knowledge by COIs—Land C2 systems need Logistics tank availability information

5The NCDF Conceptual Process

The NCDF will be a cyclical process that perpetually updates and improves information exchanges amongst a heterogeneous group of standards and CIS capabilities. The cycle begins with the creation of an APP-15 defined information exchange requirement (IER), which can then lead to the creation of an NCDF compliant information exchange specification (IES).

The Information Exchange Requirement Harmonisation Working Group (IERHWG), under the supervision of the NATO Standardisation Organisation (NSO), creates a harmonized IER, places it into the repository. Currently, a standardization body for a community of interest (COI) such as land, air, maritime, logistics, intel, etc., then takes up that IER, and using a standard (e.g., Message Text Format (MTF), Joint C3 Information Exchange Data Model (JC3IEDM), Variable Message Format (VMF), etc.) creates an IES for use in their COI specific CIS system. The IES is stored in the COI specific repository, and in the future, a NATO maintained registry.

In the future, if that COI desires an XML representation of this new IES in order to exchange information with a NCDF XML based system or with another CIS system using NCDF for mediation, they would then move into the NCDF process to create that IES, which would then go into the NCDF repository. Using the specified operational concepts, terms of the NCDF semantic reference model, and naming and design rules, a COI creates a NCDF IES that fits into their operational needs. The NCDF process is graphically shown below in Figure Two.

Figure Two

6Component Chapters

6.1NCDF Components

The following will be expounded on in separate conceptual papers in order to provide the necessary detail for NATO information technologists to create the necessary technical descriptions, programs, capabilities and operating procedures to make the NCDF a reality. There will not necessarily be a one-for-one correlation between the topics below and the number of papers to be developed.

6.1.1Governance

A function composed of a governing body and a set of rules to optimise the value an enterprise can derive from its data assets; it is not a technology, tool or architecture and can therefore be seen as a methodology for the exercise of rules and control.

6.1.2Naming and Design Rules

When using IERs to define (and implement) an IES, several aspects should be defined by the IER. In addition to the information elements, which describe the operational content, other explanatory information is helpful to create an IES that matches the operational use of the IER. The focus of the framework approach is to unambiguously describe well-defined operational concepts and their relations. COIs should be able to extend and modify the references within their own domain and provide feedback to the NATO framework custodians that may trigger change of the NATO core approach.

6.1.3Semantic Reference Model (SRM)