Architectural work for modeling and simulation combining the NATO Architecture Framework and C3 Taxonomy

Abstract

To provide modeling and simulation functionality as services is strategically leveraged in the defense domain and elsewhere. To describe and understand the context, the ecosystem, wherein such services are used and interoperate with other services and capabilities, one needs tools that capture the simulation services themselves as well as the capability landscape they operate in. By using the NATO Consultation, Command, and Control (C3) Taxonomy to structure architecture design in the NATO Architecture Framework (NAF), cohesive descriptions of modeling and simulation capabilities within larger contexts can be given. We show how a basic seven-step approach may benefit architecture work for modeling and simulation at the overarching, reference, and target architectural levels; in particular for (1) hybrid architectures that embed simulation architectures within a larger service-oriented architecture and (2) for architectural design of simulation scenarios. Central to the approach is the use of the C3 Taxonomy as a repository for overarching architecture building blocks and patterns. We conclude that the promotion of technical functionality as capabilities in their own right helps delineate simulation environment boundaries, helps delineate services within and outside the boundary, and is an enabler for defining the service concepts in cloud-based approaches to modeling and simulation as a service (MSaaS).