Based on these findings, we hypothesized that it is necessary to develop a common infrastructure geared toward sharing information and analysis results that are relevant to decision making. We believe that a component-based, distributed, open architecture provides the necessary flexibility. The lowest layer is the data model where the objects representing C2 planning information reside. The controllers represent the middle layer and make available certain services such as C2 object factories, global clipboard, and the C2 wargaming engine. At the top layer are the applications that users interface with directly.
Information flow is directed downward.
The lower layers, however, cannot directly access information from layers above. In addition to the data model, controllers, and applications layers, there is an event service component providing a means for objects from the data layer to asynchronously influence higher layers. The intent is to move away from the stovepipe or large monolithic C2 applications to an environment where components can be developed somewhat independently while conforming to an established set of APIs for the underlying infrastructure. The capability provides a mechanism that quickly interleaves a 2D and 3D COA presentation. Execution monitoring automatically tells about a critical event or a plan deviation based on the underlying current Common Picture.