A relational oriented approach to system of systems assessment of alternatives for data link interoperability

Relational Oriented Systems Engineering (ROSE) is applied to a large scale system of systems tactical data link interoperability problem. A model driven framework structure developed using the ROSE methodology is employed to prescribe a repeatable approach for determining viable candidate solutions that completes and makes rigorous a previous capability based exploratory analysis performed by the Office of the Chief Engineer of the U.S. Navy. This novel and efficient approach to a long standing problem concentrates on the relationships between models to provide a framework and factorization of a system of systems architecture for portfolio selection and evaluation. The approach is demonstrated in a simplified but end-to-end case study derived from the original data link interoperability analysis. The abstract approach employed can be applied to a much wider class of problems than data link interoperability.