A Taxonomy of Network Centric Warfare Architectures

The Australian Defence Force (ADF) is committed to transitioning, over time, to Network Centric Warfare (NCW). NCW sees the elements of the ADF as “nodes” in a network. The capability of such a force is determined not so much by the individual capabilities of each node, but by the systems properties of the network as a whole. In this paper, we provide a taxonomy of possible NCW architectures, in order to illuminate the possible options and to foster debate and experimentation regarding the appropriate NCW architectures for use by the ADF. The taxonomy is based on the fundamental concepts of value symmetry and homogeneity/heterogeneity, and distinguishes Centralised, Request-Based, and Swarming architectures, as well as combinations of these. We provide several examples of each architecture, and a list of key questions.