System of systems

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System of systems is a collection of task-oriented or dedicated systems that pool their resources and capabilities together to create a new, more complex system which offers more functionality and performance than simply the sum of the constituent systems. Currently, systems of systems is a critical research discipline for which frames of reference, thought processes, quantitative analysis, tools, and design methods are incomplete. [1] The methodology for defining, abstracting, modeling, and analyzing system of systems problems is typically referred to as system of systems engineering.

Contents

Overview

Commonly proposed descriptions—not necessarily definitions—of systems of systems, [2] are outlined below in order of their appearance in the literature:

  1. Linking systems into joint system of systems allows for the interoperability and synergism of Command, Control, Computers, Communications and Information (C4I) and Intelligence, Surveillance and Reconnaissance (ISR) Systems: [3] description in the field of information superiority in modern military.
  2. System of systems are large-scale concurrent and distributed systems the components of which are complex systems themselves: [4] description in the field of communicating structures and information systems in private enterprise.
  3. System of systems education involves the integration of systems into system of systems that ultimately contribute to evolution of the social infrastructure: [5] description in the field of education of engineers on the importance of systems and their integration.
  4. System of systems integration is a method to pursue development, integration, interoperability and optimization of systems to enhance performance in future battlefield scenarios: [6] description in the field of information intensive systems integration in the military.
  5. Modern systems that comprise system of systems problems are not monolithic, rather they have five common characteristics: operational independence of the individual systems, managerial independence of the systems, geographical distribution, emergent behavior and evolutionary development: [7] description in the field of evolutionary acquisition of complex adaptive systems in the military.
  6. Enterprise systems of systems engineering is focused on coupling traditional systems engineering activities with enterprise activities of strategic planning and investment analysis: [8] description in the field of information intensive systems in private enterprise.
  7. System of systems problems are a collection of trans-domain networks of heterogeneous systems that are likely to exhibit operational and managerial independence, geographical distribution, and emergent and evolutionary behaviors that would not be apparent if the systems and their interactions are modeled separately: [9] description in the field of National Transportation System, Integrated Military and Space Exploration.

Taken together, all these descriptions suggest that a complete system of systems engineering framework is needed to improve decision support for system of systems problems. Specifically, an effective system of systems engineering framework is needed to help decision makers to determine whether related infrastructure, policy and/or technology considerations as an interrelated whole are good, bad or neutral over time. [10] The need to solve system of systems problems is urgent not only because of the growing complexity of today's challenges, but also because such problems require large monetary and resource investments with multi-generational consequences.

System-of-systems topics

The system-of-systems approach

While the individual systems constituting a system of systems can be very different and operate independently, their interactions typically expose and deliver important emergent properties. These emergent patterns have an evolving nature that stakeholders must recognize, analyze and understand. The system of systems approach does not advocate particular tools, methods or practices; instead, it promotes a new way of thinking for solving grand challenges where the interactions of technology, policy, and economics are the primary drivers. System of systems study is related to the general study of designing, complexity and systems engineering, but also brings to the fore the additional challenge of design.

Systems of systems typically exhibit the behaviors of complex systems, but not all complex problems fall in the realm of systems of systems. Inherent to system of systems problems are several combinations of traits, not all of which are exhibited by every such problem: [11] [12]

The first five traits are known as Maier's criteria [13] for identifying system of systems challenges. The remaining three traits have been proposed from the study of mathematical implications of modeling and analyzing system of systems challenges by Dr. Daniel DeLaurentis [14] and his co-researchers at Purdue University. [15]

Research

Current research into effective approaches to system of systems problems includes:

Applications

Systems of systems, while still being investigated predominantly in the defense sector, is also seeing application in such fields as national air and auto transportation [22] and space exploration. Other fields where it can be applied include health care, design of the Internet, software integration, and energy management [19] and power systems. [23] Social-ecological interpretations of resilience, where different levels of our world (e.g., the Earth system, the political system) are interpreted as interconnected or nested systems, take a systems-of-systems approach. An application in business can be found for supply chain resilience.

Educational institutions and industry

Collaboration among wide array of organizations is helping to drive development of defining system of systems problem class and methodology for modeling and analysis of system of systems problems. There are ongoing projects throughout many commercial entities, research institutions, academic programs, and government agences.

Major stakeholders in the development of this concept are:

For example, DoD recently established the National Centers for System of Systems Engineering [24] to develop a formal methodology for system-of-systems engineering for applications in defense-related projects.

In another example, according to the Exploration Systems Architecture Study, NASA established the Exploration Systems Mission Directorate (ESMD) organization to lead the development of a new exploration "system-of-systems" to accomplish the goals outlined by President G.W. Bush in the 2004 Vision for Space Exploration.

A number of research projects and support actions, sponsored by the European Commission, were performed in the Seventh Framework Programme. These target Strategic Objective IST-2011.3.3 in the FP7 ICT Work Programme (New paradigms for embedded systems, monitoring and control towards complex systems engineering). This objective had a specific focus on the "design, development and engineering of System-of-Systems". These projects included:

Ongoing European projects which are using a System of Systems approach include:

See also

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Systems engineering</span> Interdisciplinary field of engineering

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Design for Six Sigma (DFSS) is a collection of best-practices for the development of new products and processes. It is sometimes deployed as an engineering design process or business process management method. DFSS originated at General Electric to build on the success they had with traditional Six Sigma; but instead of process improvement, DFSS was made to target new product development. It is used in many industries, like finance, marketing, basic engineering, process industries, waste management, and electronics. It is based on the use of statistical tools like linear regression and enables empirical research similar to that performed in other fields, such as social science. While the tools and order used in Six Sigma require a process to be in place and functioning, DFSS has the objective of determining the needs of customers and the business, and driving those needs into the product solution so created. It is used for product or process design in contrast with process improvement. Measurement is the most important part of most Six Sigma or DFSS tools, but whereas in Six Sigma measurements are made from an existing process, DFSS focuses on gaining a deep insight into customer needs and using these to inform every design decision and trade-off.

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<span class="mw-page-title-main">Enterprise architecture framework</span> Frame in which the architecture of a company is defined

An enterprise architecture framework defines how to create and use an enterprise architecture. An architecture framework provides principles and practices for creating and using the architecture description of a system. It structures architects' thinking by dividing the architecture description into domains, layers, or views, and offers models – typically matrices and diagrams – for documenting each view. This allows for making systemic design decisions on all the components of the system and making long-term decisions around new design requirements, sustainability, and support.

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System of systems engineering (SoSE) is a set of developing processes, tools, and methods for designing, re-designing and deploying solutions to system-of-systems challenges.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Enterprise modelling</span>

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<span class="mw-page-title-main">View model</span>

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<span class="mw-page-title-main">Generalised Enterprise Reference Architecture and Methodology</span>

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Peter Bernus is a Hungarian Australian scientist and Associate Professor of Enterprise Architecture at the School of Information and Communication Technology, Griffith University, Brisbane, Australia.

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<span class="mw-page-title-main">Enterprise Architect (software)</span> Visual modeling and design tool

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<span class="mw-page-title-main">Technology readiness level</span> Method for estimating the maturity of technologies

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References

  1. ↑ Popper, S., Bankes, S., Callaway, R., and DeLaurentis, D., System-of-Systems Symposium: Report on a Summer Conversation Archived 2011-09-28 at the Wayback Machine , July 21–22, 2004, Potomac Institute for Policy Studies, Arlington, VA.
  2. ↑ collected partly from: Archived 2005-10-15 at the Wayback Machine Jamshidi, M., "System-of-Systems Engineering - A Definition," IEEE SMC 2005, 10-12 Oct. 2005.
  3. ↑ Manthorpe Jr., W.H., "The Emerging Joint System-of-Systems: A Systems Engineering Challenge and Opportunity for APL," Johns Hopkins APL Technical Digest, Vol. 17, No. 3 (1996), pp. 305–310. Archived 2006-09-03 at the Wayback Machine
  4. ↑ Kotov, V. "Systems-of-Systems as Communicating Structures," Hewlett Packard Computer Systems Laboratory Paper HPL-97-124, (1997), pp. 1–15.
  5. ↑ Luskasik, S.J. "Systems, Systems-of-Systems, and the Education of Engineers Archived 2019-06-04 at the Wayback Machine ," Artificial Intelligence for Engineering Design, Analysis, and Manufacturing, Vol. 12, No. 1 (1998), pp. 55-60.
  6. ↑ Pei, R.S., "Systems-of-Systems Integration (SoSI) – A Smart Way of Acquiring Army C4I2WS Systems," Proceedings of the Summer Computer Simulation Conference, (2000), pp. 574-579.
  7. ↑ Sage, A.P.; Cuppan, C.D. (2001). "On the Systems Engineering and Management of Systems of Systems and Federations of Systems" (PDF). Information, Knowledge, Systems Management. 2 (4): 325–345. S2CID   7609190. Archived from the original (PDF) on 2019-06-04.
  8. ↑ Carlock, P.G., and R.E. Fenton. "System-of-Systems (SoS) Enterprise Systems for Information-Intensive Organizations," Systems Engineering, Vol. 4, No. 4 (2001), pp. 242-261.
  9. ↑ DeLaurentis, D. "Understanding Transportation as a System of Systems Design Problem," 43rd AIAA Aerospace Sciences Meeting, Reno, Nevada, January 10–13, 2005. AIAA-2005-0123.
    DeLaurentis, D. A.; Callaway, R. K. (2004). "A System of Systems Perspective for Future Public Policy". Review of Policy Research. 21 (6): 829–837.     doi:10.1111/j.1541-1338.2004.00111.x.
  10. ↑ DeLaurentis, D., Callaway, R.K., "A System-of-Systems Perspective for Public Policy Decisions," Review of Public Policy Research, Vol. 21, Issue 6, Nov. 2004, pp. 829-837.
  11. ↑ DeLaurentis, D., "Research Foundations," School of Aeronautics and Astronautics, Purdue University, West Lafayette, IN, 2007.
  12. ↑ Boardman, John, DiMario, Michael, Sauser, Brian, Verma, Dinesh, "System of Systems Characteristics and Interoperability in Joint Command and Control", Defense Acquisition University, 25–26 July 2006 Archived 2011-07-19 at the Wayback Machine
  13. ↑ Maier, M.W. (1998). "Architecting Principles for System of Systems". Systems Engineering. 1 (4): 267–284. doi:10.1002/(sici)1520-6858(1998)1:4<267::aid-sys3>3.0.co;2-d . Retrieved 2012-12-13.
  14. ↑ DeLaurentis, D. "Understanding Transportation as a System of Systems Design Problem," 43rd AIAA Aerospace Sciences Meeting, Reno, Nevada, January 10–13, 2005. AIAA-2005-0123.
  15. ↑ "Systems of Systems (SoS)," College of Engineering, Purdue University, West Lafayette, IN, 2007.
  16. ↑ DeLaurentis D., "System of Systems Definition and Vocabulary," School of Aeronautics and Astronautics, Purdue University, West Lafayette, IN, 2007.
  17. ↑ Jara, F. (1998, July 24). Visualization systems. Retrieved from web http://www.cs.uml.edu/~fjara/thesis/active/proposal/node6.html Archived 2012-04-15 at the Wayback Machine on 16 Nov 2011
  18. ↑ Mosleh M., Ludlow P., Heydari B., "Distributed Resource Management in System of Systems: An Architecture Perspective", Systems Engineering, 2016
  19. 1 2 Curry, Edward. 2012. "System of Systems Information Interoperability Using a Linked Dataspace." In IEEE 7th International Conference on System of Systems Engineering (SOSE 2012), 101–106.
  20. ↑ Gianni, D., (2015, Jan). Data Policy Definition and Verification for System of Systems Governance, in Modeling and Simulation Support for System of Systems Engineering
  21. 1 2 "COMPASS Research Project". Archived from the original on 2021-09-21. Retrieved 2013-07-15.
  22. ↑ Parker, J. (2010) "Applying a system of systems approach for improved transportation". S.A.P.I.EN.S.3 (2)
  23. ↑ Kremers, E., Viejo, P., Barambones, O., Durana, J., (2010). A Complex Systems Modelling Approach for Decentralised Simulation of Electrical Microgrids. Proceedings of the 15th IEEE International Conference on Engineering of Complex Computer Systems (ICECCS), 2010. https://doi.org/10.1109/ICECCS.2010.1
  24. ↑ National Centers for System-of-Systems Engineering
  25. ↑ "Trans-Atlantic Research and Education Agenda on Systems of Systems". Archived from the original on 2013-05-16. Retrieved 2013-07-22.
  26. ↑ Designing for Adaptability and evolutioN in System of systemsEngineering
  27. ↑ Roadmaps for SoS Engineering
  28. ↑ Dynamic Management of Physically-coupled Systems Of Systems (DYMASOS)
  29. ↑ "Architecture for Multi-criticality Agile Dependable Evolutionary Open System-of-Systems (AMADEOS)". Archived from the original on 2014-08-24. Retrieved 2015-12-18.
  30. ↑ Pan-Arctic observing System of Systems: Implementing Observations for societal Needs (Arctic PASSION); CORDIS reference:
  31. ↑ Collaborative System of Systems Exploration of Aviation Products, Services and Business Models (COLOSSUS); CORDIS reference:

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