A Reliability-Based Measurement of Interoperability for Systems of Systems

The increasing complexity of net-centric systems of systems requires each system to be interoperable to achieve operational goals. Interoperability can be considered a metric of an architecture, and must be understood by decision makers as early as the conceptual design phase. Many measurements of interoperability of system pairs exist, but an architecture-level method for calculating interoperability of a system of systems is not currently available. This research presents a flexible, intuitive measure of interoperability of system pairs within a potential architecture performing a set of resource exchanges. It draws from reliability theory to incorporate system requirements and to link the interoperability of a system of systems with operational metrics of performance. This measure of interoperability could provide decision makers with information about an architecture and allow them to compare existing and potential systems of systems during the early phases of acquisition.