Towards operational agility using service oriented integration of prototype and legacy systems

NATO has identified Web services standards as a key enabler for interoperability between the different military systems of the various NATO nations. Interoperability is required on several levels: Network hardware compatibility (NATO has workgroups that are addressing this), network protocol compatibility (IP has been chosen by NATO), middleware compatibility, and so on. In this paper, we address Web services technology, that is, the middleware aspect of interoperability. An operational military network is complex, consisting of heterogeneous networks. Some networks have infrastructure and high capacity, others are mobile ad hoc networks (MANETs) consisting of wireless links with varying throughput, error-rates, and mobility (so-called disadvantaged grids). Agile deployments can be achieved by leveraging the implementation, flexibility and interoperability that Web services can provide. This paper presents an experiment where prototype solutions and legacy systems were service-enabled and interconnected by employing a combination of established standards and bespoke solutions.