1. IOA
USA 2013
Interoperable Open Architecture
Primer
RTI, Real-Time Innovations, RTI Data Distribution Service, and Connext are registered trademarks or trademarks of Real-Time Innovations, Inc. All other trademarks
used in this document are the property of their respective owners. All rights reserved.© 2013 RTI

2. Agenda
• Introductions
• What Changes in the Defense Market
does IOA focus on?
• What is IOA – Objectives
• How it Differs from OA
• History of IOA Event to Date
• IOA USA 2013

3. Key Changes in the Defense
Market that IOA focuses on
• USA – Sequestration
– Threat of 10%+ cut in DOD Budgets
• European Economic Woes
– UK MOD $1B cut 2013-15
Global Defense support requirements are not
reducing – in fact they are increasing – Arab
Spring – Pakistan instability – China
Superpower growth

4. Signs of Change in Procurement
Strategy
The only way to address the budget issue
is to rethink procurement strategy

5. The Big Cost in Defense
Spending?
• Clue – the supply chain is referred to as
System Integrators for a reason
– Big metal is relatively cheap
• Putting it together is very expensive
– High integration costs, mostly software
• Systems are effectively closed
– Not technically -> commercially
• Maintenance and logistics lock-in
– Proprietary Integration technology guarantees all
this business has to flow to the original supplier

6. Integration = $B’s

7. The Integration Cost Multipliers
for Defense Procurement
• Multiple suppliers
– Build similar systems (planes, ships, vehicles etc)
differently
• Different countries build systems
differently
– A significant integration issue in coalition
operations
• The legacy system problem
– Old systems use old integration technology
– New systems seek to reduce cost through more
advanced integration technologies

8. Government’s Needs
• Increased affordability
– Especially through life
• Faster deployment
– From requirement to operational theater
• Increase innovation and technology
adoption capability

9. The Warfighter Need
Interoperability
as if everything made by one supplier

10. Interoperability
• If all defense systems were architected
to be INHERENTLY INTEROPABLE
– Massive $B savings in development costs
– Massive $B savings in integration costs
– Massive $B savings in logistics costs
• AND
– The warfighter would get faster access to
lower cost technology, products and war
fighting capability

11. Defense Procurement Shifting
$$ $$

12. To This
$$

13. Proof Points of Change
• IOA programs
– Open Group - FACE
– US DoD UCS
– MOD GVA
– EDA FICAPS
– US Army COE
– NATO IST-090
– Spanish Army Soldier support
– Others…..

14. What is Interoperability?
• Strangers meet, can converse if same
language
– Can exchange complex ideas
– But imagine you are at a sw convention of geeks,
its still another language to some people
• They have a supplemental dictionary of terms they
understand
• So successful interoperability is about
having a common dictionary
– But that’s not enough either

15. What is Interoperability?
• We use voice to talk
– Systems need to be architected upon a
common methodology in order to understand
one another
• But humans convey additional meaning
– Shout, whisper, body language
– Can Computers do the same?

16. Interoperability
At the end of the day it’s:
“Do I understand you?”
Interoperability has to Include
Semantic Context in Communication

17. Where is Interoperability Built in?
• In the non-functional system architecture
– The glue software that enables two independently
developed ‘functional’ applications to talk and
exchange information successfully
– Defined through a common dictionary of data
definitions that all the systems use
• One ‘data’ language for all DOD systems
• Includes semantic context
• Defined and owned by the DOD not the supply chain

18. Achieving Interoperability
Interoperability
BusinessModels

19. IOA
• The focus on Interoperability is the
cornerstone of IOA
• IOA is where SI’s can align with Defense
Procurement to address the economic
issue
• IOA is where the warfighter can see a
solution to his deployment integration
needs
• IOA is enabled by advances in non-
functional system architecture technology

20. Differences to OA
• OA has been hijacked by Industry
– It always had interoperability as a goal but
industry undermined it
• OA now equates to use of COTS
hardware and Open Standards software
– COTS reduces metal costs but that’s not
where the big $$’s are
– Open Standards does not necessarily deliver
systems interoperability

21. IOA 2011 positive’s
• Brought key IOA protagonists together
for the 1st time
– 1st time MOD and DOD exchanged ideas and
views on how to achieve IOA
• Program managers realized they
sought the same benefits
• The system architects realized their
technology enablement approach was
effectively the same

22. IOA 2011 open issues
• System Integrators were highly
skeptical
– They were only peripherally ‘in the loop’
– for some it was an unpleasant wake up call
• There was no clear understanding of
what Interoperability was
– Often confused with Open Systems,
modularity, integratability, componentization
etc

23. IOA 2012 positive’s
• Greater commonality of understanding what
Interoperability is and why its an important
focus
• Start of shift from technology enabling
discussion towards procurement process
change discussion
• Supply chain ‘just’ starting to shift from
skeptical to believers
• Core Early Adopters starting to align and co-
ordinate
• US DoD taking a global lead

24. IOA 2012 open issues
• Concerns of how to secure an open
interoperable architecture
• European slow down on resourcing
this fundamental shift

25. IOA 2013
• Creating an Affordable Future for
Defence
– Sharing best practice in defense procurement
strategy
– Speeding technology adoption for the
warfighter
– Enhancing Innovation insertion
– Creating an agile procurement methodology
for the modern ‘asymmetric’ combat world