Net-Centric Operations (NCO) Overview

Net-Centric Operations (NCO)Overview Mark Bowler Ken Cureton Kenneth.L.Cureton@boeing.com Mark.K.Bowler@boeing.com What-Is-NCO.PPT

Agenda • NCO: WHAT • What is Net-Centric Operations? • What are basic NCO concepts? • NCO: WHY • What are the benefits? • What are the challenges of achieving NCO? • Network Centric Operations Industry Consortium • Who, what, where, and why What-Is-NCO.PPT

… an Information Age Transformation What is Net-Centric Operations? What-Is-NCO.PPT

What is Net-Centric Operations? • Typical Tactical Expectation of NCO • Communications Network: Always Connected • Sensors: See First • Situational Awareness: Understand First • Integrated Command & Control: Act First • Force Projection: Finish Decisively • Is NCO Just for Tactical Operations? • Useful for Command & Control • Useful for Logistics • Useful for Training • Useful for Administrative Activities • Useful in our Personal Lives What-Is-NCO.PPT

How is NCO different than today's Ops? • Today’s Challenges Include: • Point-to-point (non-networked) communications • “Stovepiped” systems • Joint & Coalition operations • Control of data • Security concerns • Analysis/Processing requirements • “Turf” concerns • Limited Budgets: Having to “Do More with Less” • Schedules: Too short to implement; Too long to obtain • Cultural Resistance: “That’s Not How We Do Things” • Fear • Challenge to NCO: • Can we REALLY overcome these obstacles? What-Is-NCO.PPT

What are Basic NCO Concepts? Net-Ready Systems • Systems can be connected to a common Communications Network to form a System-of-Systems • Individual Systems may be able to operate on their own • Systems may have their own internal networks • Overall Communications Network is oftena Network-of-Networks • System elements are referred to as “Nodes” • Nodes are “Plug-and-Play” (not –Pay or –Pray) • Common mode of communications(for data, may also be for voice, video, etc.) • Common mode of information exchange • Note: common modes not necessarily the primary modes used in the node’s mission! What-Is-NCO.PPT

What are Basic NCO Concepts? Power To The Edge • End Users rapidly and efficiently obtain data and use capabilities to better perform their jobs • Hierarchical structure “flattened” as much as feasible • Eliminate intermediate “choke-points” • Goal: empower people to better operate within their RAA(Role – Accountability – Authority) • Not intended to violate hierarchy of command!!! • Not just the warfighter in the field at “the pointy end of the spear”– includes: • Maintenance personnel • Supply personnel • Administrative personnel What-Is-NCO.PPT

What are Basic NCO Concepts? Communities of Interest (COI) • Users rapidly and efficiently collaborate to achieve a common goal • Many kinds of common goals, ranging from: • Perform a Mission, to • “Birds of a Feather” flocking together • Collaboration: • Typically enabled via the network • Participants may be mostly independent, may be interdependent, may be hierarchical • May be tightly-coupled (highly dependent on each other) or loosely-coupled (mostly autonomous) • May be pre-planned or may be ad hoc with whatever/whoever is available What-Is-NCO.PPT

What are Basic NCO Concepts? Information Superiority • “Better” information than the opposing force • Better access to critical data • More timely access to critical data • Faster ability to understand full meaning of that data • Ability to seamlessly share that data and its importance Common Operating Picture (COP) • All users drawing from common data, information, and knowledge to do their job • Shared understanding, usually near real-time • Synchronized to minimize ambiguity • Defined Ontology to minimize differing interpretation • Not necessarily meaning that all users can access everything! • Not necessarily just tactical users What-Is-NCO.PPT

What are Basic NCO Concepts? Interoperability • NCO-Enabled Systems must be: • Able to Find and Join the Network • Requires compatible communications capability • Able to Register Identity on the Network • Able to use network to Discover who can provide compatible data and services • Able to Exchange Data with other compatible systems • Usually via a packet-switching network • Usually via XML-formatted messages • May need Semantic translation or bridging • NCO-Enabled Systems don’t have to have: • Identical communications capability • Direct compatibility with all other systems • May use Gateways What-Is-NCO.PPT

What are the Benefits of NCO? • TIME and AGILITY • Rapid access to crucial information • Rapid ability to understand that information and make appropriate decisions • Rapid ability to act on those decisions • Rapid ability to iterate the above as necessary • Imagine outcome of the following events,had all data at hand been comprehended in time: • Pearl Harbor • D-Day • 9-11-2001 What-Is-NCO.PPT

What are Other Benefits of NCO? • LOCATION INDEPENDENCE • Nodes able to communicate to other nodes by name(or logical identity) • And not know the physical location (or address)of the other node(s) • COLLABORATION • Allows multiple participants: may be • Independent, Interdependent, or Hierarchical • Tightly-coupled or Loosely-coupled • Planned or Ad hoc • People/Systems working together such that their combined power is greater than the sum of their individual capabilities What-Is-NCO.PPT

What Are Risks of NOT achieving NCO? • Asymmetric Warfare: “Threats outside the range of conventional warfare & difficult to respond to in kind” • Opponents already have common communications(e.g. cell phones) • Opponents already have common information infrastructure that enables collaboration(e.g. the Internet) • Opponent infrastructure is not robust in the Military sense… but they’re NCO-enabled NOW(and you probably aren’t fully NCO for many years) • But note experience in Afghanistan and Iraq • “He Who Fails To Set The Standards First Is Doomed To Eventually Follow Standards Set By Others” • Standards that may not be your optimal choice What-Is-NCO.PPT

The Goal? The Global Information Grid (GIG) What-Is-NCO.PPT

Additional Materials What-Is-NCO.PPT

What is Net-Centric Operations? • “Net-Centric” rather than “Network-Centric” • Not just Network Technology (although understanding of network infrastructure is very important) • Key importance: enhanced ability to operate and use a system that has been enabled by network technology • It’s All About Being More Effective • Networked users improves information sharing and collaborative services • Shared information enhances situational awareness • Enhanced situational awareness and collaborative services via the network enables agility of response • Increased mission effectiveness What-Is-NCO.PPT

What is Net-Centric Operations? • Is NCO Just Another Buzzword? • Net-Centric Operations (NCO) is the ability to: • Rapidly collect and share appropriate data in a collaborative environment • Recognize which data is significant to you • Understand the meaning of such data • Efficiently make better-informed decisions by yourself or in a collaborative environment • Rapidly act (or not act) on decisions– made by you or made by others • Rapidly get feedback and repeat the above • Understand what services are available to you • Efficiently use those services (or capabilities) • Efficiently provide services for others in a manner that is consistent with your mission • Trust and depend on availability and security of data & services What-Is-NCO.PPT

What are Basic NCO Concepts? • Fundamental Approach in the Design and Use of Systems: • To operate as Net-Ready Systems • Ability to provide Power to the Edge • Ability to support applicable Communities Of Interest • Leverage Information Superiority • Draw from a Common Operating Picture • Typical Characteristic • Primary focus is on usability rather than just on performance • Users may be people and/or other systems • Services are typically flexible enough to be used in ways not anticipated by the original architects and designers What-Is-NCO.PPT

How is NCO different than today's Ops? • Today: • May not be able to communicate with others • May have incompatible systems– unable to work with others • May not have timely access to all data that you need • May be overwhelmed by sheer volume of data • May not have access to people/resources to interpret that data • May not have a common operating picture of situation • May not know what capabilities are (or are not!) available • May not be able to effectively make or receive decisions • May not be able to quickly see effect of action/inaction • Goal of NCO is to Solve These Kinds of Problems What-Is-NCO.PPT

What are Challenges of Achieving NCO? • Risks of achieving NCO • Cultural resistance to change • “Star Trek Phasers Make For Terrible Hammers” • NIH: “Not Invented Here” • “That’s Not How We Do Things” • “We Can’t Tolerate The Disruption of Transition” • “We Can’t Allow Ourselves To Look Bad” • Waiting for someone else to find all the pitfalls:“It’s The Second Mouse That Gets The Cheese” • Personal resistance to change • WIIFM: “What’s In It For Me” • “You’re Doing Away With My Job” • Resistance to perceived revolutionary change • Often costs much more than you can afford in terms of budget, schedule, and disruption in performance What-Is-NCO.PPT

What are Challenges of Achieving NCO? • Risks of achieving NCO (continued) • Information Assurance: Assured Availability • Critical capabilities and data must be available when needed • Will the networked environment be reliable enough? • Information Assurance: Integrity • How to know that the data is timely and accurate? • How to know that nothing’s missing…or is something missing that may mislead? • Information Assurance: Security • How to keep unauthorized people from accessing or modifying data and services? • How to prevent denial of service? Virus/Worms? • How to keep proper audit trails for non-repudiation? • How to certify a networked system-of-systems? What-Is-NCO.PPT

What are Challenges of Achieving NCO? • Risks of achieving NCO (continued) • Can’t Just Start Over with NCO Systems • Too many existing systems are not NCO-enabled • Not enough budget to replace everything at once • Even IF enough budget— takes a long time!(Training, Documentation, Spares, etc.) • Fundamental conclusion: for the foreseeable future, NCO-enabled systems will have to coexist with Legacy Systems Enduring Platforms! What-Is-NCO.PPT

What are Challenges of Achieving NCO? • Risks of achieving NCO (continued) • NCO System-of-Systems Typically Have “Brittle” Modes • Highest Performance modes may not be best! • Often not robust: small change in something like timing may lead to total mission failure • “Best” Performance modes may be hard to determine • Need to explore performance envelope to find operating regimes that are relatively insensitive to parameter variations (e.g. timing) • But NCO System-of-Systems performance typically not deterministic— too complex • Usually requires extensive System-of-Systems Modeling, Simulation, and Analysis(and maybe experience & luck) What-Is-NCO.PPT

What are Challenges of Achieving NCO? • Risks of achieving NCO (continued) • What is a Pound of NCO Worth? • Usually no single, large benefit that is easily quantifiable • Large benefits usually result from an aggregation of little factors, any one of which doesn’t seem all that beneficial • Some of those factors may be intangible or difficult to quantify (e.g. “morale”) • Net result: difficult to determine Measures of Effectiveness (MOE’s) that measure effectivity of NCO • May have to evaluate System MOE’s with NCO vs. System MOE’s without NCO (apples to oranges?) • Net result: hard to sell NCO to budget-setters What-Is-NCO.PPT

Net-Centric Operations (NCO) Overview