ONTOMAP - Semantic Interoperability among C2 systems

During combined operations, forces have to exchange information, ideally, automaticly, i.e., from one C2 system to the other. Thus, the systems have to be part of a network and they must be able to exchange data (syntactic interoperability). The latter can be enforced by the use of standardized XML schemes. However, both systems also have to interpret the exchanged data identically (semantic interoperability). Project ONTOMAP uses ontological components to grant semantic interoperability. The data sent first are transformed to a format common to all participating C2 systems. Then, the data is augmented to meet the needs of the receiving system. Both transformations are ontological processes, i.e., the knowledge represented in the ontology pilots the tranformations.

The figure included illustrates this principle by the example of an information exchange between an army and an air force C2 system. Data about the positions of army forces is aggregated into data about the aera the forces cover. This common aera information is used by the air force C2 system as "position of own troops". Data about identified hostile anti-aircraft forces, however, is augmented by hazard aeras.

 

 

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