1. Sensor Open Systems Architecture (SOSA) Webinar
September 29, 2015
SOSA Team
Judy

2. Agenda Overview of SOSA Problem Statements and SOSA Scope
A recap and summary of results of the August 4, 2015 SOSA Industry Day
Description of incubation activities in each of the five planned SOSA Working Groups
A discussion to lay out the future SOSA meeting rhythm
Instructions for how to get involved in the SOSA incubation process that will be performed within The Open Group FACE Consortium’s infrastructure
A call for participants
Judy

3. Problem Statements Problem I
Current implementations display minimal consideration given to interoperability and compatibility to other potential applications
C4ISR operational systems are custom designed for a given mission profile
Vendor hardware, software, and electrical/mechanical interfaces do not demonstrate commonality
C4ISR sensor from vendor A is not interface compatible with an C4ISR sensor from vendor B
Current ISR platforms require substantial engineering development to sufficiently alter mission capability given a mission profile
Required time to alter C4ISR capability is unreasonably long
Patrick

4. Problem Statements Problem II Problem III
Current C4ISR hardware and software instantiations are tightly coupled
C4ISR platform software loads, hardware and electrical/mechanical interfaces are not portable to other platforms
Problem III
Current acquisition strategy increases the over-all life-cycle program cost, complexity, hastens technology obsolescence, and restricts operational flexibility to the end user, due to lack of commonality among systems
Patrick

5. Proposed SOSA Solution
Develop
A non-proprietary open system architecture based on DoD relevant government and or commercially available and commercially driven open standards for a reconfigurable and affordable Command, Control, Communications, Computers multi-intelligence, surveillance, and reconnaissance (C4ISR) capability for disparate C4ISR missions
A common hardware, software, and mechanical/electrical interfaces to allow for platform agility, flexibility, and scalability, as well as engender competition and lower costs while encouraging more rapid innovation, deliver more capability to warfighter faster
A common understanding for Business and Government Intellectual Property (IP) rights, conformance and or compliance, guidebook documents for acquisition support within SOSA
Patrick

6. Initial SOSA Overall Scope to Bound the Effort
Utilize an Open Systems Architectural framework and an agreed subset of Commercial and or Government Open Standards as design philosophies to develop a viable Sensor Open Systems Architecture (SOSA)
Bind boundaries within C4ISR architecture to what make sense for competitive sub-system functional acquisition of sensor capabilities e.g. tracking, data processing, connecting, antenna plugs, power, and the CPU
Patrick

7. SOSA Recap and Summary of Results
Industry Day held in Dayton Ohio attracted over 230 Industry and Government partners participation
Government: Army, Navy, Air Force, NSA, and Coast Guard
Industry: Numerous partners and vendors
The Open Group, its FACE Consortium, and SAE agreed to work toward developing SOSA
FACE Consortium will help and support incubation activities to stand up SOSA Consortium
Future meetings will leverage FACE work as well as meetings to stream line the initiative
The Open Group has stood up SOSA webpage and started sign up process for SOSA activities
Based on feedback an Enterprise Working Group was added
Ilya

8. Description of SOSA Incubation Activities
Incubation and Alignment Activities are related to initial organization of the SOSA Consortium
Mission Statements
Governance
Charters
Organizational Charts, etc…
Evolve organizational documents such as:
Ilya
Generation of technical or business products is out of scope as well as participation in FACE working groups until after SOSA Consortium is fully stood up

9. SOSA WG Initial Focus and Development
SOSA Working Groups
Hardware, Software, Business, Electrical/Mechanical, and Enterprise
Organizational Documents
Governance Documents
Charter Development
Roadmap of Tasks
Working Group Scope
Ilya:
Define Vision and Mission Statements
Define Initial Notional Organizational Structure
Governance and Direction Group
Working Groups
For Each Group:
Establish Charter
Establish Objectives
Establish Short/Long term deliverables and timelines

10. SOSA/FACE Alignment Advisory Group (AAG)
First Order Items for the AAG
FACE Consortium will establish AAG with Government and Industry
FACE Consortium will appoint AAG Chair and Vice Chair
Chair options:
Vice Chair options:
AAG governs, directs and guides alignment and incubation activity to create an independent SOSA consortium
Approves the SOSA WG Chair and Vice Chair appointments
Approves initial SOSA Incubation Work Plan
Ilya

11. SOSA Draft Enterprise Working Group Charter
The charter of the EWG is to define and develop formal architecture products (artifacts) to create clear, top-level picture of the SOSA Enterprise for a wide variety of Consortium and outside audiences, address the SOSA role in the context of related initiatives and programs, and ensure internal consistency across the SOSA Business and Technical architecture
Ilya

12. SOSA Enterprise Working Group (EWG)
First Order Items for the EWG
Discussion and Consensus Vote on EWG Charter
Is the current language sufficient to provide an outsider a clear understanding of the EWG’s intent?
Nominate and appoint EWG Chair and Vice Chair
Chair options:
Vice Chair options:
EWG need to develop consolidated roadmap to ensure WG tasks are aligned to achieve vision and mission
EWG need to develop and document cross WG coordination
EWG need to develop coordination activities with other OA efforts that are part of SOSA
Ilya

13. Draft Business Working Group Charter
The charter of the SOSA Business Working Group (BWG) is to Develop, Implement and Communicate Attractive Business Models that Incorporate SOSA Vision and Mission:
Define business models to communicate SOSA goals to DoD and Industry leaders and promote the use of SOSA approach in sensors development, procurement and upgrades
Establish integration with the other standards such as: FACE, HOST, JICD 4.x, MBE, MORA, OMS, REDHAWK, SPIES, VICTORY, and VITA 65
Ilya

14. Draft Business Working Group Charter (cont.)
Develop guidance documents for Government acquisition processes such as RFP (sample language Section L/M and CDRL tailoring)
Modeling of government to government, government to contractor, and contractor to contractor interactions in the execution of contractual obligations utilizing SOSA environment
Develop conformance policy and program
Evaluate, develop, and disseminate business models that will support successful development, delivery, maintenance and conformance of components and systems to the SOSA Technical Standard
Establish Conformance Program which will include a set of plans, procedures, and certification environments, with roles and responsibilities for participants, to Certify SOSA products that have applied for SOSA Conformance Certification
Ilya

15. SOSA Business Working Group (BWG)
First Order Items for the BWG
Discussion and Consensus Vote on BWG Charter
Is the current language sufficient to provide an outsider a clear understanding of the BWG’s intent?
Nominate and appoint BWG Chair and Vice Chair
Chair options:
Vice Chair options:
Develop functional breakdown of BWG responsibilities
Develop guidance language and documents plan for acquisition
Develop a conformance policy and program plan based upon existing FACE precedence
Ensure that technical needs are aligned to business objectives
Ilya

16. Draft Software Working Group Charter
The charter of the Software Working Group (SWG) is to identify open standards where such exist, define standards that do not yet exist, reuse when possible and provide guidance for using these standards to achieve agility and affordability of software-based capabilities across multiple sensor platforms
The SWG is a technical body responsible for all software SOSA technical aspects
The SWG defines Technical Standard for SOSA software Reference/Objective Architecture (or a set of architectures) to include:
Provide guidance supporting the standard
Provide guidance implementation
Develop additional support documentation
Defines procedures for SOSA Conformance
Ilya

17. Draft Software Working Group Charter (cont.)
The SWG ensures that software architecture be capable of supporting time critical and deterministic execution of the architecture components
SWG ensures that software supports system security engineering requirements
The SWG will describe a set of common software capabilities across all or some of the sensor modalities
For capabilities that are unique to each sensor modality the SWG will develop an objective architecture leveraging common core software solution
The SWG will ensure that the architecture is hardware agnostic and that hardware accelerated capabilities can be seamlessly swapped between software and hardware
Ilya

18. Software Working Group (SWG)
First Order Items for the SWG
Discussion and Consensus Vote on SWG Charter
Is the current language sufficient to provide an outsider a clear understanding of the SWG’s intent?
Is the scope sufficient to bound the effort?
Nominate and appoint SWG Chair and Vice Chair
Chair options:
Vice Chair options:
Develop functional breakdown of SWG responsibilities
Develop technical reference architecture plan to evaluate how other OS solutions will be integrated within SOSA
Provide a subset list of existing open software architectures that are relevant to SOSA
Ilya

19. Draft Hardware Working Group Charter
The charter of the Hardware Working Group (HWG) is to identify open standards where such exist, define standards that do not yet exist, reuse when possible and provide guidance for using these standards to achieve portability of hardware capabilities across multiple sensor platforms
The HWG is a technical body responsible for all hardware SOSA technical aspects
HWG ensures that hardware supports system security engineering requirements
The HWG defines Technical Standard for SOSA hardware Reference/ Objective Architecture (or a set of architectures) to include:
Provide guidance supporting the standard
Provide guidance implementation
Develop additional support documentation
Defines procedures for SOSA Conformance
Ilya

20. Draft Hardware Working Group Charter (cont.)
The HWG ensures that hardware architecture can support common COTS components from various industry partners e.g. Chassis/Board/Backplane
The HWG will describe a set of common hardware capabilities across all or some of the sensor modalities
For capabilities that are unique to each sensor modality the HWG will develop an objective architecture leveraging common core hardware capabilities
The HWG will ensure that hardware accelerated capabilities can be seamlessly swapped between software and hardware
Ilya

21. Hardware Working Group (HWG)
First Order Items for the HWG
Discussion and Consensus Vote on HWG Charter
Is the current language sufficient to provide an outsider a clear understanding of the HWG’s intent?
Is the scope sufficient to bound the effort?
Nominate and appoint HWG Chair and Vice Chair
Chair options:
Vice Chair options:
Develop functional breakdown of HWG responsibilities
Develop technical reference architecture plan to evaluate how other OS solutions will be integrated within SOSA
Conduct a trade survey of existing hardware standards used by industry and government that are applicable to SOSA
Ilya

22. Draft Electrical/Mechanical Working Group Charter
The charter of the Electrical/Mechanical Working Group (EMWG) is to identify open standards where such exist, define standards that do not yet exist, reuse when possible and provide guidance for using these standards to achieve portability of various components and sensor capabilities across multiple C4ISR platforms
The EMWG is a technical body responsible for all Electrical/Mechanical SOSA technical aspects
The EMWG defines Technical Standard for SOSA Electrical/Mechanical Reference/Objective architecture (or a set of architectures) to include:
Provide guidance supporting the standard
Provide guidance implementation
Develop additional support documentation
Defines procedures for SOSA Conformance
Ilya

23. Draft Electrical/Mechanical Working Group Charter (cont.)
The EMWG ensures that Electrical/Mechanical architecture can support common COTS capabilities from various industry partners for Chassis/Board/Backplane, as well as housing of said components, and cable connectors(e.g. common power or antenna connectors)
The EMWG will describe a set of common Electrical/Mechanical capabilities across all or some of the sensor modalities
For capabilities that are unique to each sensor modality the EMWG will develop an objective architecture leveraging common core hardware, housing, and Electrical/Mechanical/Cabling solutions
Ilya

24. Electrical/Mechanical Working Group (E/MWG)
First Order Items for the E/MWG
Discussion and Consensus Vote on E/MWG Charter
Is the current language sufficient to provide an outsider a clear understanding of the E/MWG’s intent?
Is the scope sufficient bound the effort?
Nominate and appoint E/MWG Chair and Vice Chair
Chair options:
Vice Chair options:
Develop functional breakdown of E/MWG responsibilities
Develop technical reference architecture plan to evaluate how other solutions will be integrated within SOSA
Conduct a trade survey of existing E/M standards used by industry and government that are applicable to SOSA
Ilya

25. Instructions to Get Involved
If you wish to be involved in SOSA activities in the future, we encourage you to participate in the SOSA incubation activities within the FACE Consortium, and eventually participate in the SOSA Consortium once it is officially launched.   See the three participation options below:
<<option 1>>  If you are already on the FACE Consortium members roster and wish to participate in SOSA incubation activities, please contact and we’ll add you to the SOSA members roster   
<<option 2>> If your organization is a member of the FACE Consortium, but you are not yet on the FACE Consortium members roster and wish to participate in SOSA incubation activities, please contact to receive instructions for the 3-step member onboarding process.  You will be added to the SOSA member roster after completing said process.  If you are unsure, please click here to determine whether your organization is a FACE member
 <<option 3>> If you wish to participate in SOSA incubation activities and your organization is not a member of the FACE Consortium, please contact Mike Hickey at for more information about membership opportunities to join the FACE Consortium for incubation activities, and the SOSA Consortium after it is officially formed as an Open Group consortium    
Judy

26. Future SOSA Meetings Rhythm
Conduct weekly all-hands SOSA WebEx session
1 hour duration
Establish time that does not overlap with other SOSA meetings, or FACE equivalent WebEx activities
Conduct weekly WG SOSA Webex sessions (up to 5)
Establish time(s) that do not overlap with other SOSA meetings, or FACE equivalent WebEx activities
Conduct first face-to-face (F2F) SOSA Meeting
Dec 3-4, 2015
Arlington (Crystal City), VA
Establish SOSA F2F Meeting Rhythm
In conjunction with every other FACE members meeting?
During every FACE members meeting?
Quarterly, with some meetings independent of FACE sessions?
Judy

27. Call for Participants
The Open Group will send announcement to current SOSA members roster with a request for working group(s) participation – Sept 30, 2015
Individuals will respond with WG preferences by Wednesday Oct 2, 2015
s with SOSA WebEx URL and dial-in info will be distributed to SOSA members and WG rosters
SOSA WebEx rhythm will commence the week of Oct , 2015
Judy

28. Backup

29. FACE Consortium Fees & Entitlements
Membership Tiers, Fees & Entitlements
Associate $1k/($2.5k/$7.5k/$12.5k – depending on type & size of co./org.)
Entitlements
Participate in any Working Group
Can run for Chair of Working Group
No formal vote in Governance matters
Principal ($20k)
Associate entitlements, plus:
1 Steering Committee (SC seat and Vote
Participation in SC/Advisory Board meetings
Sponsor ($45k for Government/$95k Industry)
Principal entitlements, plus:
Voting Entitlements (Principal) in the DirecNet Task Force
Logo on web and promotional materials
Make appointments to the Advisory Board
Mike

30. How FACE Initiative is Different From Previous DoD OA Efforts
FACE initiative is addressing business aspects in parallel with development of the Technical Standard
Analyzed previous OA efforts
Developed FACE Business Guide
Establish FACE Library to provide the infrastructure necessary to enable the discovery and acquisition of FACE Conformant products
Enables the software supplier to control the flow of information
Standard defined in sufficient detail to allow robust conformance certification program
Public-Private collaboration to establish value for both customer and supplier
Government owns/manages the data rights to interfaces
Protects Industry investment by allowing retention of IP to the business logic of the capability
Designed as platform and hardware agnostic
Allows for unprecedented scale of reuse across multiple platforms with unique implementations
Aggressive outreach by both Industry and Government
Build executive interest and adoption from the bottom up
2 Contract Awards (Navy), 4 RFPs (Navy), 11 RFIs (4 Navy, 4 Army, 3 SOCOM), 2 BAAs (1 Army, 1 ONR), 4 Sources Sought (2 Navy, 2 Army) 3 SBIRs (1 Navy, 2 Army) *
Judy
* Please refer to for the most recent list of solicitations referencing the FACE initiative

31. Benefits of Consortium Participation
Influence and gain early access to the architecture and specifications developed by the Consortium
Collaborate with government customers, other companies and their experts in a fair & neutral, non-competitive environment
Lower commercial risk as development aligns with specs and future procurement requirements
Expand and evolve standards into new platforms, other services and perhaps commercial market
Participate in efforts that align with Better Buying Power 3.0 to increase competition in the market
Judy

32. How Does The Open Group Approach Help You?
Rapid formation is possible, since barriers have been removed
Legal, Governance, IT and standards process infrastructure in place
Expert staff support in place
Trusted neutral 3rd Party
Trusted Global Standards Body
Build on Open Group, FACE and DirecNet best practices, work products and infrastructure
Leverage all business and technical work products and add SOSA
Low cost compared to other funded options
Focus on your mission from Day 1 instead of formation and governance
Build on an existing standard that has been built by roughly the same cos. & service branches
Create an enduring organization with government/industry partnership
Procure products that are certified conformant to a standard
Judy

33. Resources Needed for Success
Commitment to Procure Conformant Products – Communicated by Gov’t to Industry
Commitment for Government/Industry collaboration to create the standard(s), business strategy, Conformance Requirements, and Contract Guidance
All industry (large & small cos. in supply chain)
Adopt/Adapt from existing reputable/relevant standards
No one standard will solve your entire problem
Commitment of Funding via consortium member dues
Needs to support the work
Program Manager, supporting staff
Commitment of People (the real investment with payoff)
Subject Matter Experts
Architects, Engineers, Business and Contract Professionals, etc.
Leaders for Business & Technical Teams
Executive Sponsorship
Outreach/Promotion
To create demand for the standard
To educate end users
Travel to meetings
Time to contribute and work between meetings
Judy