Challenges for SoS architecture description

Abstract

A System-of-Systems (SoS) is a composition of components (constituent system) that are large scale and independent systems with its own purpose and operating together to achieve a common goal. This paper discusses some of the challenges for architecting SoS, considering the architecture description perspective in the light of the fundamental principles of SoS: operational and managerial independence of the components, geographic distribution, evolutionary nature and emergent behavior. The challenging topics discussed include: (i) the representation of the SoS elements; (ii) the interactions between the constituent elements; (iii) the dynamic support to enable the evolutionary nature of SoS; (iv) the need of handling quality attributes.