A GH-Based Ontology to Support Applications for Automating Decision Support

Abstract : The United States Department of Defense is pursing net-centricity as its data strategy. A fundamental goal of net-centricity is that data be understandable to agents searching the Global Information Grid. IDA has studied the feasibility of making Command and Control data understandable by representing it using a formal ontology, and also by developing a prototype application that makes use of this ontology to search for and detect threats to a battlefield unit. The ontology is based on the Generic Hub, a NATO-standard information exchange data model; the data elements it contains are therefore real. Analysis of these elements illustrates both what can be represented using an ontology and the advantages and limitations of the Generic Hub as the basis for automated search. Many Generic Hub data elements model physical quantities. Such properties of these elements as units of measure and conceptual meaning can be formalized and interrelated through an ontology. Other elements, principally those that model abstract concepts, will require extensive input from subject matter experts to formalize. The prototype application shows how agents can use C2 information to assist decision makers. It was developed to execute using open-source systems. It simultaneously illustrates the potential of state-of-the-art technology and the relative immaturity of certain aspects of this technology. In particular, rule-based reasoning, which is seen as necessary for net-centricity, is not yet adequately supported by production-quality tools.