Interoperability as a Key Concept for the Control and Evolution of the System of Systems (SoS)

Abstract

Abstract. A coalition of enterprises wanting to collaborate, and more generally a Collaborative Network of Organizations (CNO), can conceptually be assimilated as a System of Systems (SoS) presenting a number of characteristics to respect all over its life cycle. Interoperability is one of these characteristics (both functional and non-functional), which is from our point of view, essential in order to guarantee the control of the SoS, its behavior and the fulfillment of its mission(s). Moreover, it ensures the reaction of the SoS to deal with some risky situations and with potential local or global deficits during its functioning. In this paper, we propose to determine the relation between the current level of interoperability of the SoS and its functioning whatever may be its situation. A matrix shows how this relation evolves taking into account several characteristics of the SoS, particularly its capacity to respect interoperability requirements (Compatibility, Interoperation, Autonomy and Reversibility) and the so-called analysis perspectives of the SoS: Performance, Integrity and Stability. This relation is requested in order to permit and to guide SoS behavioral simulation currently in development. Thus, a set of indicators is derived and formalized.

Towards collaborative technical debt management in systems of systems

“…The autonomy of the CS includes the possibility that each CS continues to act and make decisions on its own [6], leading to a co-evolution of the systems [9]. As a consequence, in order to ensure its own mission, the SoS requires the capability to maintain its stability, integrity and performance independently of its CS [6]. However, as a SoS has no capabilities on its own, its purpose is to provide a persistent technical framework or architecture.…”

A study of an adaptive approach for systems-of-systems integration

“…In literature, we can find diverse definitions of interoperability. In Billaud et al (2015), authors define it as "the ability of connected, autonomous, heterogeneous systems to coexist, interoperate and exchange flows while continuing their own logic of operation and preserving their autonomy". It may also be defined as "the ability of distinct systems to share semantically compatible information and then process and manage the information in semantically compatible ways, enabling users to perform desired tasks" as in Madni and Sievers (2014) and Zeigler et al (2008).…”

“…It also may have the potential to make the resulting system-of-systems reliable, consistent, maintainable and scalable (Madni and Sievers, 2014). Besides, maintaining a sufficient level of interoperability of each system contributes to the endorsement of systems-of-systems characteristics (Billaud et al, 2015).…”

Complex System Tacit Knowledge Extraction Through a Formal Method

“…A complex system, integrates multiple sub-systems. (Carney, Fisher, & Place, 2005) Each sub-system contains some form of domain knowledge but the main difference that can be seen between a complex system and a set of simple system is that the knowledge the complex system presents is larger than the sum of the knowledge that each sub-system contains (Billaud, Daclin, & Chapurlat, 2015). In both cases, each sub-system is made of elements that are exploitable together, but two different sub-systems have information that can't be used in concert.…”