Evolution of the software communication architecture standard

Abstract

Three primary objectives of the Joint Program Executive Officer (JPEO) Joint Tactical Radio System (JTRS) are: (a) reduce time to field capability, (b) improve interoperability between services, and (c) decrease radio production costs. The Software Communications Architecture (SCA) specification is the architectural framework for all JTRS software artifacts that was created to maximize software application portability, reusability, and scalability while providing the flexibility to address domain specific requirements. SCA version 1.0 was published in 2000 and the last major release (version 2.2.2) was published in 2006. Since release of version 2.2.2, only minor enhancements have been made to the specification, which have been targeted towards addressing items of immediate concern to the development of the Increment 1 JTRS products. Over the course of the last two years technologies have evolved and there have been many SCA related lessons learned through the development of JTRS products such as Ground Mobile Radio (GMR). JPEO JTRS asserts that the SCA will continue to evolve so that JTRS products meet the current and emerging needs of the next generation warfighter. To address the requirements of the JTRS stakeholders, JPEO JTRS has initiated the development of a new SCA release. The overriding philosophy behind this revision is to position the SCA as a specification that is comprehensive yet flexible enough to provide a technical foundation for multiple generations of JTRS and industry products. To accomplish this flexibility, the proposed SCA enhancements will migrate the specification towards a technology independent representation and away from the current dependence on Common Object Request Broker Architecture (CORBA) and extensible Markup Language (XML) Document Type Descriptor (DTD) files. A second feature will introduce optional elements within the specification so that compliant products may be developed which better map to the functional and resource requirements of a wide array of target platforms.