Publications

Abstract not provided.

Our society is increasingly reliant on systems and interoperating collections of systems, known as systems of systems (SoS). Our national security is built on SoS, such as Army brigades, airport security, and nuclear weapons security. These SoS are often subject to changing budgets, changing missions (e.g., nation building, arms-control treaties), changing threats (e.g., asymmetric warfare, terrorism, WMDs), and changing natural environments (e.g., climate, weather, natural disasters). Can vital SoS adapt to these changing landscapes effectively and efficiently? This paper describes research at Sandia National Laboratories to develop metrics for measuring the adaptability of SoS.Wereport thatwecouldnotfindasingle or absolute adaptability metric, in large part duetolackof general objectives orstructures of SoS. However, we do report a set of metrics that can be applied relatively, plus a method for combining the metrics into an adaptability index, a single value that can be used to compare SoS designs. We show in a test case that these metrics can distinguish good and poor performance under a variable mission space and an uncertain threat environment. The metrics are intended to support a long-range goal of creating an analytic capability to assist in the design and operation of adaptable systems and SoS.

Our society is increasingly reliant on systems and interoperating collections of systems, known as systems of systems (SoS). These SoS are often subject to changing missions (e.g., nation- building, arms-control treaties), threats (e.g., asymmetric warfare, terrorism), natural environments (e.g., climate, weather, natural disasters) and budgets. How well can SoS adapt to these types of dynamic conditions? This report details the results of a three year Laboratory Directed Research and Development (LDRD) project aimed at developing metrics and methodologies for quantifying the adaptability of systems and SoS. Work products include: derivation of a set of adaptability metrics, a method for combining the metrics into a system of systems adaptability index (SoSAI) used to compare adaptability of SoS designs, development of a prototype dynamic SoS (proto-dSoS) simulation environment which provides the ability to investigate the validity of the adaptability metric set, and two test cases that evaluate the usefulness of a subset of the adaptability metrics and SoSAI for distinguishing good from poor adaptability in a SoS. Intellectual property results include three patents pending: A Method For Quantifying Relative System Adaptability, Method for Evaluating System Performance, and A Method for Determining Systems Re-Tasking.

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