Agent-based Execution Monitoring: Results from the GCCS-ITEM Federation and Planned Activities with the GCCS-JWARS Federation

For years, simulations have been used by analysis and planning staffs to develop and rehearse operation plans, analyze results, and develop doctrine. Typically, combat simulations are used most heavily during the planning stages of an operation, prior to battlefield action. However, simulations are increasingly being used during operations to perform course of action analyses (COAA) and develop real-time forecasts of future conditions on the battlefield. Recent efforts by the Defense Modeling and Simulation Office (DMSO) to improve the interoperability of C4I systems with simulations have provided a powerful means for rapid simulation initialization and analysis during exercises, and made simulations more useful and responsive as the exercises are executed. These DMSO efforts involve technology development to support the integration of operational C4I systems, such as those in the Global Command and Control System (GCCS), with simulations such as the Integrated Theatre Engagement Model (ITEM) and the Joint Warfare Simulation (JWARS). This paper will primarily describe the GCCS-ITEMIntelligent Agent Federation project and its support for agent-based plan monitoring, discuss project results, and present its conclusions. We will then describe the FY04 Simulation-to-C4I Connectivity project, which is integrating the results from the GCCS-ITEM federation with the GCCS-JWARS federation; specifically, extending the monitoring agents from the GCCS-ITEM federation to support the use of JWARS as an embedded tool for the C4I operator. In this integrated project, interfaces between operational C4I systems, simulations, and intelligent agents are designed to exploit web-service technologies and the standardized information exchanges described by the NATO and Multilateral Interoperability Programme Command and Control Information Exchange Data Model (C2IEDM).