IST-118 - SOA recommendations for disadvantaged grids in the tactical domain

Service Oriented Architecture (SOA) can enable agile C2 functionality. The flexibility and loose coupling offered by the SOA paradigm means that both NATO and many of the NATO nations are basing their future information infrastructures on this paradigm. Web services, the most common and mature technology for implementing a service-oriented system, will inevitably be a part of this development, at least for use in fixed infrastructure networks. SOA, realized using Web services technology, is currently available at the higher levels of command such as (deployed) headquarters, but not necessarily at tactical levels. However, SOA is a proposed paradigm for delivering C2 at the tactical level. IST-118 is a recently started research group intended as a follow-on to IST-090. IST-090 identified several challenges related to applying SOA at the tactical level, in particular disadvantaged grids (communication grids that are disadvantaged by line-of-sight connections, low bandwidth, intermittent availability, etc.). In this paper, we summarize the important findings of IST-090, and outline the program of work for the IST-118 group where the goal is to create a recommendation for a tactical profile for using SOA in disadvantaged grids.