International Telemetering Conference Proceedings / October 20-23, 2003 / Riviera Hotel and Convention Center, Las Vegas, Nevada / This paper describes the basic foundations of XML and the description of a JAVA-based eXtensible Markup Language (XML) prototype application being developed for the E-9A Airborne Telemetry Platform. In an effort to eliminate proprietary software and improve range safety data exchange, radar boat position data will be tagged with pre-defined XML tags prior to being transmitted from the E-9A. Ground Station software will then processes the XML-based boat position data to provided a means for ground station personnel to strip out data and distribute over the Internet. Leveraging XML for a telemetry application provides the ability to efficiently exchange telemetry data between users over the Internet and harness a web based standard with industry wide support.

International Telemetering Conference Proceedings / October 23-26, 2000 / Town & Country Hotel and Conference Center, San Diego, California / XML is a simple, powerful way to agree on data transfers between organizations, applications and/or computer systems. XML was originally developed to separate data content definition from the display of data on a web page. XML is based on a subset of the Standardized General Markup Language (SGML), which means XML uses a tag-based syntax similar to Hyper Text Markup Language (HTML). Whereas HTML uses fixed tags to display data, XML uses custom designed tags to describe data. XML provides a simple, standard, portable, and flexible way to transfer data between applications. This could provide a useful way to transfer telemetry attributes data between customers and systems. Currently, there is not a significant amount of support for the use of the Telemetry Attributes Transfer Standard (TMATS). Telemetry vendors still use their own formats, customers maintain their own databases, and support facilities/ranges promote the use of their own implementations. TMATS was supposed to define a common ground to transfer data definitions, but the tools to TMATS have not come about. TMATS is a well defined, structured specification that maps into XML extremely well. Even though XML is a fairly new technology, there are already many tools available to support XML parsing with more becoming available. This makes XML an excellent choice to supplement TMATS for the interchange of telemetry attribute information. This paper provides an initial attempt at defining the language and structure for an XML vocabulary of TMATS.

International Telemetering Conference Proceedings / October 22-25, 2001 / Riviera Hotel and Convention Center, Las Vegas, Nevada / Visitors to web pages are, in most cases, restricted to viewing information the page designer has anticipated they will be interested in viewing. Many times this is adequate, but there are instances where the visitor wants the information they view to be based on selections they choose. The Air Force Research Laboratory (AFRL) Space Vehicles Directorate anticipates selected customers will have a need to view very large data sets that vary from the satellite payload to the satellite state of health1, and will require controlling what they view in an “ad hoc” manner. In response, AFRL is using Java Server Pages developed within the data center to bring interactive and dynamic web page content to these customers.

published_or_final_version / abstract / Computer Science and Information Systems / Doctoral / Doctor of Philosophy

published_or_final_version / abstract / Computer Science / Master / Master of Philosophy

Approved for public release; distribution is unlimited / New facility construction and existing facility renovation create new or modified operation and maintenance (O&M) requirements for the maintenance responsibility organization such as a Public Works Department (PWD). This O&M requirement is fully described by an Operation and Maintenance Support Information (OMSI) package. OMSI content includes facility, systems, and product information. This thesis will address information integration, the process of allowing information systems to cross-communicate and share data. OMSI information integrated within the framework of a Computer-Aided Facility Management (CAFM) system allows for early identification of O&M requirements, an improved planning capability for new facilities, and more efficient economies of scale. In addition to PWD manpower savings, OMSI-CAFM integration will also allow a revolution in the way O&M requirements are planned and created. Preliminary OMSI information would be ideally created by the design A/E after having considered work force capability from both a workload and expertise perspective. While this may be impractical due to the changing nature of workforce capability and the lengthy planning and design cycle of military construction, OMSI-CAFM integration will certainly allow O&M planning to begin early in the OMSI development stages. OMSI submittals can be layered to provide preliminary planning information in the first submittal and add additional detailed information in later submittals. In such a manner, PWD O&M planners can begin an incremental planning effort early in the facility construction phase. This thesis provides a non-proprietary, no-cost solution to OMSI-CAFM information integration that minimizes specialized knowledge on the part of the OMSI AE. This will allow a broad applicability of the solution to all OMSI developers, including those for smaller non-MILCON projects that aren’t specifically funded for OMSI generation. An effective solution must also provide for easy and inexpensive repurposing of OMSI information for future (and as yet unknown) uses. The solution uses XML technologies (XML, XSD, XLS, XLST, XPath, XQuery, etc) and XML storage systems for the content creation, management, and repurposing of OMSI information. / Lieutenant Commander, Unites States Navy

Approved for public release; distribution is unlimited / The advent of Wireless Local Area Networking (WLAN) has seen a widespread adoption of its technology and functionality in many different areas. Many studies show more and more organizations are extending their networks to incorporate wireless devices and their applications. Permitting wireless devices to access private networks however, further complicates the tasks of protecting the network and its resources from unauthorized access. Now that they have become a significant element in today's networks, selecting and deploying adequate security measures have become the focus of many research efforts. Typically, network managers implement countermeasures to augment security. The goal of this thesis is to research approaches that compliment existing security measures with fine grain access control measures. The Extensible Markup Language (XML) is adopted to accommodate such granular access control as it provides the mechanisms for scaling security down to the document content level. / Captain, United States Marine Corps

Approved for public release, distribution unlimited / Currently under development, the Global Information Grid (GIG) Enterprise Services (ES) is a suite of capabilities intended to provide improved user access to mission-critical data via Web-based and network technologies. Some of the problems of implementing such capabilities include non-uniform data formats, incompatible run-time environments and nonstandard proprietary applications, all of which block operational interoperability. Web services are specifically designed to address the interoperability challenges of a service-oriented architecture (SOA) such as the GIG. SOAs are networked infrastructures that are designed to facilitate the interoperability of collections of services without requiring service context awareness. Standards-based Web services provide the necessary flexibility and extensibility to ensure information flow is platform, run-time and software independent. The proof of concept (POC) software example developed for this research demonstrates the flexibility and extensibility of standards-based, operating-system-independent Web services. The result is an experimental endeavor to provide a mock operation command center information portal, which provides a notional summary personnel status report to the commander in real-time from a Web service that was originally generated by a stand-alone client/server system. The POC is developed with great attention to open-source technologies and open-standards compliance. The key technologies involved are Extensible Markup Language (XML), the Java programming language, PHP: Hypertext Preprocessor (PHP) scripting language and Simple Object Access Protocol (SOAP). This work demonstrates the benefits of leveraging Web services to unlock legacy specialized applications to enhance the Warfighter's battlespace awareness by improving information flow via a Web based information portal. / Captain, United States Marine Corps

Approved for public release, distribution unlimited / Approved for public release; distribution is unlimited. / A common problem between Military applications and operators is the consistent and meaningful exchange of data. Currently, several models and simulations exist for the purposes of training and analyzing military data. Due to the absence of an agreed-upon standard with which to represent unit data, much is lost during interchange and applications are not maximized. This thesis is a step towards a solution. Extensible Markup Language (XML) technology has been widely accepted as a standard for representing information in such a way that it is self-documenting, self-validating and platform independent. By using the Command and Control Information Exchange Data Model (C2IEDM), formerly known as Generic Hub, and XML it is possible to develop a representation of unit data that is extensible and broadly useable by tactical systems and human operators alike. This thesis approaches the problem exploring the Model Driven Architecture (MDA) and the Extensible Modeling Simulation Framework (XMSF) as possible overarching architectural concepts for a global solution. The C2IEDM is used as the core data interchange model for this research and applies XML technologies, schema and the Extensible Stylesheet Language for Transformations (XSLT) to derive a formatted data representation that is acceptable within the Flexible Asymmetric Simulation Technologies (FAST) Toolbox. The transformation example serves as template for other simulation programs to follow for interchange through the common base model. This thesis shows that by using a common data representation like C2IEDM coupled with the power of XML and XSLT, unit information can be transformed and interchanged between applications. In order to accomplish this, an extensive analysis is done on recently performed and ongoing research as well as the development of exemplars to show how the proposed process is completed. The result of this work is a transformation of unit data extracted from an example C2IEDM instance file that is compliant with the schema for an actual unit order of battle tool used for modeling and simulation. / Major, United States Army

Approved for public release, distribution unlimited / Network-centric warfare (NCW) has changed the way the Department of Defense addresses technological improvements for its military forces. No longer is the emphasis on enhancing the capabilities of a single platform, but the focus is now on networking people, processes and technology to enable knowledge sharing and rapid decision-making. The capabilities required to support network-centric operations (NCO) in the NCW environment must be supported by new, innovative networked communication technologies. There are many sources of requirements for these software systems supporting NCO, which may increase in number as the Services continue to develop the capabilities necessary for the transformation to a fully networked military force. Requirements may also emerge and continue to evolve following the fielding of a NCO capability because new technology has the potential to change how warfighters work. Requirements evolution results in requirements engineering challenges associated with the acquisition and development of network-centric software systems. As such, an approach is needed to provide for consistency in elicitation, management and documentation of evolving requirements for technological capabilities supporting NCO. The purpose of this research is to address the problem of evolving requirements. The requirements engineering framework proposed by this thesis incorporates classification theory and requirements modeling principles, and is supported by the Extensible Markup Language (XML) family of technologies. Particular attention has been paid to the selection of non-proprietary, platform independent technology to ensure data can be exchanged between organizations. The framework demonstrates a means by which requirements can be classified and structured in a standardized format. The result is a set of requirements that is consistent in structure and content, and that can be easily shared among all stakeholders because it utilizes one standard, non-proprietary format. This approach captures evolving software requirements of fielded network-centric software systems for use in the development of future systems. / US Navy (USN) author.