Architecture for the Norwegian defence information infrastructure (INI) - remarks on the C3 Classification Taxonomy

The Norwegian Defence Research Establishment (FFI) has during the past decade conducted research on architectural topics related to the Norwegian Defence Information Infrastructure (INI). Recently, these activities have focused on service orientation; in line with strategic decisions in NATO. At the same time, the impact on the INI from these activities has been modest. Therefore, the Norwegian Armed Forces Architecture Advisory Board and the Norwegian Armed Forces Logistics Organization is now initiating a collaboration with FFI on central aspects of architecture development. The Information Management Division at FFI has identified a need for active use of architectural descriptions as a common reference for many ongoing activities. In particular, there is a need for a common understanding and description of the INI architecture. FFI’s strategic decision to continue focusing on Network Based Defence (NbF) puts renewed emphasis on this issue. The department has decided to put together a working group, consisting of members from a number of relevant projects, to investigate this issue. The group will initially consist of resources from the service-oriented architecture (SOA), modeling and simulation, land domain, communications and information security research communities. This working group, “Architecture for INI”, has been given the following tasks: • The long term goal is to create an architectural description of INI • The short term goal is to test an approach to architectural descriptions based on the NATO C3 Classification Taxonomy and existing INI reference models. Using this approach, the group will try to describe elements relevant to the group’s expertise • The results of the work done by the group will be documented in a report • The architectural descriptions generated by the group can be used as a template when considering what to implement in the upcoming INI laboratory at FFI • Relevant research communities at FFI will be involved when the need arises • The group is encouraged to clarify the relationship between the C3 Taxonomy and the NATO Architecture Framework The working group has, through its work on the C3 Classification Taxonomy, identified the strengths and weaknesses of the C3 Taxonomy. The process of developing and refining the taxonomy is still on-going. This means that there are variations in the maturity and level of detail provided by the taxonomy based on which part of it one studies. The high level structure and descriptions are fairly stable and mature. In addition, the overall structure of the taxonomy is compatible with a service-oriented approach. Two significant challenges to using the C3 Taxonomy arises when considering the C3 Taxonomy’s description of the communication layer and its handling of cross-layer issues such as information assurance and service management and control.