Reliability of Information-Fueled Services in Network-Centric Operations

Abstract : The Network-Centric Operations Conceptual Framework (NCO-CF) contains many factors pertaining to the use of information in NCO. Information plays such a central role, however, that the importance of high-quality information must not be overlooked. Information that is of poor quality (even in an informal sense) is at best distracting and at worst catastrophic to NCO. In addition, a key quality attribute for information is that consumers of the information must be able to access it reliably. The highest quality information is useless if it cannot be seen so that it can be acted upon. This paper discusses aspects of service reliability for NCO information distribution services that commanders and warfighters use to obtain information. A framework for thinking about these problems and several examples from recent case studies are discussed.