Research on Capability Architecture Construction Methodology to System of Systems

Abstract

Many different kinds of actions and businesses would be involved when analyzing a System of Systems (SoS), such as modeling, simulation, evaluation, optimization and so on. Because of the essential characteristics of SoS, i.e. the high-complexity, plenty elements, massive relationships, uncertain conditions, and varied human factors, etc., it’s difficult to deal with a SoS effectively. Capability Analysis is a good solution to SoS research. And the most important step of SoS Capability Analysis (SoSCA) is to construct Capability Architecture (CArch) at very beginning. So as to clarify the corresponding SoS capability requirements, and declare the uniform specification and descriptions for the particular SoS missions. Then the SoS missions could be divided into several sub-missions and be dealt with jointly or respectively according to the coherent principles. Furthermore, all the analysis results could be integrated reasonably to avoid unnecessary diffusion or conflict. Yet, constructing SoS CArch would be a much more difficult and complex procedure, because there aren’t the standardized systematic methods or procedures to guide SoS CArch’s design, exploitation and application. To solve the problem, this paper would research the basal primary issue and try to support an effective methodology, i.e. CArchMeth, for SoS CArch construction. CArchMeth could be summarized as Domain Analysis, mainly including Mission Domain, Capability Domain, Method Domain, and Object Domain. The realized CArch could associate each aspect of the special SoS, such as the mission, the capability, the supporting element system, and so on. Then the requirement analysis, configurations description, components, workflow, resources and the pivotal principles of CArchMeth would be discussed respectively. Furthermore, some application would be supported to clarify the effect of CArchMeth.