Thesis Abstracts 2001

Research and Graduate Studies Electrical and Computer Engineering

Archived Content

Information identified as archived on the Web is for reference, research or recordkeeping purposes. It has not been altered or updated after the date of archiving. Web pages that are archived on the Web are not subject to the Government of Canada Web Standards. As per the Communications Policy of the Government of Canada, you can request alternate formats on the "Contact Us" page.

Evolving Canadian Army Command and Control Information Systems Towards Interoperability

By:

  • Jocelyn Bergeron, M. Eng. (Soft. Eng.),
  • Greg LeBlanc, M. Eng. (Soft. Eng.), and
  • Johnny Slater, M. Eng. (Soft Eng.).

Supervisor: Dr. Terry C.D. Shepard

Abstract

The Canadian Army is in the process of overhauling its tactical Command and Control Information System (CCIS). Three major systems and one software application are being deployed to provide operational field forces with technology support for planning, co-ordination, information sharing, and control of operations' execution. These systems will impact all levels of the Canadian Army and will constitute a major portion of its tactical CCIS.

Unfortunately, once these much anticipated systems are fielded, the Canadian Army tactical CCIS will be left with a number of systems that do not interoperate. This report will discuss the efforts of three Master of Engineering in Software Engineering graduate students to resolve some of these interoperability deficiencies. These efforts have focused on enabling the exchange of situation awareness data and operational messages between units and their sub-units, fully exploiting the existing capabilities of the soon to be fielded Athene Tactical System, basic Situation Awareness System and Situation Awareness Module systems. This project received sponsorship from the Land Forces Communication System and the Position Determination and Awareness for the Land Forces project management offices within the Director Land Command Systems Program Management 4, located in Ottawa. Although the academic purpose of the project was to apply the knowledge acquired in courses, it is believed that the information presented will also be useful to the project sponsors.

This report also discusses the different fields of study applicable to the project's application domain. In particular, this project report covers the concepts of: CCIS, software development processes, software architecture, commercial off-the-shelf (COTS) components integration, and interoperability within the Army. The report also presents the project team's many lessons learned with: "using COTS in the development of software systems, tailoring the Rational Unified Process 2000 to a small project, and using computer aided software engineering (CASE) tools to support a small software development project".