System Reference Architecture Research Articles

The Evolution of Dismounted Soldier Systems: A Comprehensive Review of GOSSRA’s Innovations

The Generic Open Soldier System Reference Architecture (GOSSRA) project represents a significant step forward in the evolution of Dismounted Soldier Systems (DSS). This article provides an in-depth analysis of the project, drawing on direct author participation, extensive project documentation, and a wide range of academic literature. It synthesizes key insights into the technological advancements, operational challenges, ethical considerations, and strategic implications of DSS. The research highlights the potential of advanced technologies to substantially enhance soldier capabilities but also underscores the complexities of integrating these technologies into cohesive and functional systems. The analysis delves into the operational effectiveness and flexibility of DSS, illustrating their ability to improve situational awareness, decision-making, and mobility in diverse operational contexts. However, it also points out the need for systems to adapt to varying scenarios and environments. The ethical and strategic dimensions of DSS deployment are explored, emphasizing the need for robust ethical frameworks and strategic planning to ensure that advancements in military capabilities align with ethical norms and contribute positively to global security. Lessons learned from past deployments and case studies provide invaluable insights into the real-world performance, user acceptance, and integration challenges of DSS. The article concludes with a forward-looking perspective, anticipating future developments in DSS and outlining strategies for their successful implementation. The conclusions and recommendations presented provide a roadmap for the development and integration of DSS, ensuring they evolve in alignment with the imperatives of modern and future warfare.

VERBAL DESCRIPTION OF THE TECHNOLOGY FOR PLANNING THE QUALITY IMPROVEMENT OF A SUBSET OF THE PROCESSES OF THE SPICE MATURITY REFERENCE MODEL

It is noted that to solve the problem of developing information technology for planning the increase of maturity level of a subset of the processes of the SPICE reference maturity model, this issue must first be considered at the verbal level as a technology (sequence of stages) for the implementation of the given problem. At the first stage, the structure of the SPICE reference model, which consists of a number of separate processes, was formalized. This set is presented as a hierarchical structure: the first level is a set of processes and subprocesses; the second level is a set of process groups; the third level is a set of process categories. At the second stage, the method of assessing the level of possibility of a separate process/sub-process of the reference maturity model SPICE is considered. It is given from the point of view of two dimensions of the SPICE model: the purpose of the processes; the attributes of the processes (measurable characteristics necessary for managing the process and increasing the possibility of its execution). The third stage of the technology is focused on the synthesis of planning model of the subset development processes for the SPICE model, which determines the quality level of a separate component of the software development process (SDP), which in turn has a positive effect on the level of development of software systems. Assessment and planning of the possibility level of a subset of processes is implemented during a certain planning period under conditions of limited resources based on their optimal distribution, taking into account the importance of individual processes and their practices during the planning period. At the fourth stage of the technology, an algorithm for planning the development of a subset of processes of the reference maturity model SPICE is considered based on the method of sequential analysis of options. This is primarily due to the fact that the optimization model has an additive objective function. The method allows discarding those appropriate solutions that do not contain optimal solutions. In the future, when specifying the model, it is planned to choose an algorithm that belongs to this method and adapt it to the solution of the given problem. The fifth stage is devoted to information technology implementation of the developed model and algorithm. At this stage, the following set of problems is solved. Analysis of business processes of the technology of improving the quality of software development process. Definition of software requirements. Forming a diagram of use cases. Development of data models. Justification of the choice of tools for software development. Selection of reference system architecture. Next, software coding and testing. At the sixth stage, based on information technology, a number of variants of the plan for improving the quality of a subset of the processes of the SPICE maturity model are formed in order to support decision-making by the management of the IT company. For this, a set of effective solutions is preliminarily determined, which is proposed to determine the final option, which is implemented later.

A Reference System Architecture with Data Sovereignty for Human-Centric Data Ecosystems

Since the European information economy faces insufficient access to and joint utilization of data, data ecosystems increasingly emerge as economical solutions in B2B environments. Contrarily, in B2C ambits, concepts for sharing and monetizing personal data have not yet prevailed, impeding growth and innovation. Their major pitfall is European data protection law that merely ascribes human data subjects a need for data privacy while widely neglecting their economic participatory claims to data. The study reports on a design science research (DSR) approach addressing this gap and proposes an abstract reference system architecture for an ecosystem centered on humans with personal data. In this DSR approach, multiple methods are embedded to iteratively build and evaluate the artifact, i.e., structured literature reviews, design recovery, prototyping, and expert interviews. Managerial contributions embody novel design knowledge about the conceptual development of human-centric B2C data ecosystems, considering their legal, ethical, economic, and technical constraints.

Publishing public transport data on the Web with the Linked Connections framework

Publishing transport data on the Web for consumption by others poses several challenges for data publishers. In addition to planned schedules, access to live schedule updates (e.g. delays or cancellations) and historical data is fundamental to enable reliable applications and to support machine learning use cases. However publishing such dynamic data further increases the computational burden for data publishers, resulting in often unavailable historical data and live schedule updates for most public transport networks. In this paper we apply and extend the current Linked Connections approach for static data to also support cost-efficient live and historical public transport data publishing on the Web. Our contributions include (i) a reference specification and system architecture to support cost-efficient publishing of dynamic public transport schedules and historical data; (ii) empirical evaluations on route planning query performance based on data fragmentation size, publishing costs and a comparison with a traditional route planning engine such as OpenTripPlanner; (iii) an analysis of potential correlations of query performance with particular public transport network characteristics such as size, average degree, density, clustering coefficient and average connection duration. Results confirm that fragmentation size influences route planning query performance and converges on an optimal fragment size per network. Size (stops), density and connection duration also show correlation with route planning query performance. Our approach proves to be more cost-efficient and in some cases outperforms OpenTripPlanner when supporting the earliest arrival time route planning use case. Moreover, the cost of publishing live and historical schedules remains in the same order of magnitude for server-side resources compared to publishing planned schedules only. Yet, further optimizations are needed for larger networks (>1000 stops) to be useful in practice. Additional dataset fragmentation strategies (e.g. geospatial) may be studied for designing more scalable and performant Web apis that adapt to particular use cases, not only limited to the public transport domain.

The development of a digital twin concept system

Background: Digital twins are gaining ever-increasing attention from academies and industries to standardization bodies worldwide owing to their great capabilities and fundamental values in the coming fourth industrial revolution. However, there is no consistent set of definitions or concept system of the digital twin domain yet. Especially, the polysemy problem of the term “digital twin” is leading to ambiguities and an obstacle to standardization. Methods: This paper summarizes the principles and guidelines of developing a concept system mentioned in two international standards, enriches them to a methodology of developing a concept system with (1) system thinking viewpoints and systems engineering methods, (2) procedures for analyzing the semantic relationships among candidate superordinate concepts, and (3) a three-dimensional taxonomy framework with procedures of developing a taxonomy, and proposed a maturity level model for terminology work which offers a high-level vision of digital twin terminology work. Results: This paper analyzes the polysemy phenomenon of the term "digital twin” and identifies the necessity to differentiate digital twin entity and digital twin system from the general term “digital twin”. After analyzing twenty-one definitions of digital twin and summarizing ten superordinate concepts from them, this paper proposes that a digital twin entity is a kind of digital asset rather than digital representation. Based on the new superordinate concept and definition of digital twin entity, a systematic digital twin concept system is developed with one hundred concepts and fifty definitions. Conclusions: This work resolves the polysemy problem of the term “digital twin” and demonstrates the effectiveness of the enhanced methodology of developing a concept system. The proposed digital twin concept system could be a benchmark for future digital twin terminology work and useful input to the development of digital twin system reference architecture standard and lays a solid foundation for future concept systems development of other domains.

A human-centered IIoT platform approach for manual inspections: Towards digital documentation and assistance applications

Manual inspection processes’ results are difficult to map into digital twins. Since they rely on the expertise of the inspector and lack support systems, the process and the accompanying manual documentation are error-prone and time-consuming. This paper addresses this deficit, presenting an IoT-based platform approach to enable digitized and assisted inspections. Requirements for this platform are derived from process analyses in the aircraft domain and are addressed with the help of ISO's IoT reference system architecture based on adaptable solution modules. The focus is on the cross-application data model and the documentation module, enabling the mapping of the inspection process as a digital twin.

Towards the Modelling of European Railway System Architecture

To master the increasing complexity of railway system, many European railway architecture initiatives are moving towards the application of Model Based System Engineering (MBSE) at overall railway system level or subsystems levels. Most of these initiatives apply the MBSE in their specific scopes. There is no common or unified MBSE methodology and related domain modelling language. Railway domain experts are usually not familiar with general-purpose modelling languages such as UML/SysML and need to collaborate with modelling experts to construct the future digital model of European railway system reference architecture. This paper presents a MBSE methodology and unified modelling language for the railway domain. The methodology is developed in LinX4Rail project, and the domain specific modelling language is used to model the preliminary description of LinX4Rail Architecture.

A Collective Intelligence Platform to Support Older Cancer Survivors: Towards the Definition of LifeChamps System and Big Data Reference Architecture.

Within the most recent years, most of the cancer patients are older age, which implies the necessity to a better understanding of aging and cancer connection. This work presents the LifeChamps solution built on top of cutting-edge Big Data architecture and HPC infrastructure concepts. An innovative architecture was envisioned supported by the Big Data Value Reference Model and answering the system requirements from high to low level and from logical to physical perspective, following the "4+1 architectural model".

Retailer’s Dual Role in Digital Marketplaces

Digital marketplaces have entered the retail sector and have proven to be a successful business model compared to traditional retailing. Established retailers are increasingly launching digital marketplaces as well as participating in marketplaces of pure online companies. Retailers transforming to digital marketplaces orchestrate formerly independent markets and enable retail transactions between participants while simultaneously selling articles from their own assortment to customers in the digital marketplace (dual role). A retailer’s dual role must be supported by retail information systems. However, this support is not explicitly represented in existing reference architectures for retail information systems. Thus, we propose to develop a reference architecture for retail information systems that facilitates the orchestration of supply- and demand-side participants, selling their own articles, and providing innovation platform services. We apply a design science research approach and present nine architectural requirements that a reference architecture for a multi-sided market business model in retail needs to fulfill (dual role, additional participants, affiliation, matchmaking, variety of services, innovation services, smart services, aggregated assortment, and boundary resources) from the rigor cycle. From the first design iteration, we propose four exemplary, conceptual architectural patterns as a solution for the requirements (matchmaking for participants, innovation platform services, boundary resources, and aggregated assortment). These patterns can form a conceptual reference architecture that guides the design and implementation of information systems.

Workflow provenance in the lifecycle of scientific machine learning

AbstractMachine learning (ML) has already fundamentally changed several businesses. More recently, it has also been profoundly impacting the computational science and engineering domains, like geoscience, climate science, and health science. In these domains, users need to perform comprehensive data analyses combining scientific data and ML models to provide for critical requirements, such as reproducibility, model explainability, and experiment data understanding. However, scientific ML is multidisciplinary, heterogeneous, and affected by the physical constraints of the domain, making such analyses even more challenging. In this work, we leverage workflow provenance techniques to build a holistic view to support the lifecycle of scientific ML. We contribute with (i) characterization of the lifecycle and taxonomy for data analyses; (ii) design decisions to build this view, with a W3C PROV compliant data representation and a reference system architecture; and (iii) lessons learned after an evaluation in an Oil & Gas case using an HPC cluster with 393 nodes and 946 GPUs. The experiments show that the decisions enable queries that integrate domain semantics with ML models while keeping low overhead (<1%), high scalability, and an order of magnitude of query acceleration under certain workloads against without our representation.

Study on Security and Privacy in 5G-Enabled Applications

5G applications face security risks due to the new technology used and the performance requirements of the specific application scenario. This paper analyzes the security requirements and presents hierarchical solutions for stakeholders to build secure 5G applications. First, we summarize the technical characteristics and typical usage scenarios of 5G. Then, we analyze the security and privacy risks faced by 5G applications and related security standards and research work. Next, we give the system reference architecture and overall security and privacy solutions for 5G applications. Based on the three major application scenarios of eMBB, uRLLC, and mMTC, we also provide specific suggestions for coping with security and privacy risks. Finally, we present a use case of industrial terminal access control and make conclusions of this paper.

Blockchain Reference System Architecture Description for the ISA95 Compliant Traditional and Smart Manufacturing Systems.

The next-generation technologies enabled by the industry 4.0 revolution put immense pressure on traditional ISA95 compliant manufacturing systems to evolve into smart manufacturing systems. Unfortunately, the transformation of old to new manufacturing technologies is a slow process. Therefore, the manufacturing industry is currently in a situation that the legacy and modern manufacturing systems share the same factory environment. This heterogeneous ecosystem leads to challenges in systems scalability, interoperability, information security, and data quality domains. Our former research effort concluded that blockchain technology has promising features to address these challenges. Moreover, our systematic assessment revealed that most of the ISA95 enterprise functions are suitable for applying blockchain technology. However, no blockchain reference architecture explicitly focuses on the ISA95 compliant traditional and smart manufacturing systems available in the literature. This research aims to fill the gap by first methodically specifying the design requirements and then meticulously elaborating on how the reference architecture components fulfill the design requirements.

A Flexible Lunar Architecture for Exploration (FLARE) supporting NASA's Artemis Program

The Flexible Lunar Architecture for Exploration (FLARE) is a concept to deliver four crew to the lunar surface for a minimum of seven days and then return them safely to Earth. FLARE can be implemented whenever the component vehicles are operational. FLARE was developed as an alternative to NASA's Human Landing System (HLS) reference architecture from the Design Analysis Cycle (DAC) #2 created in 2019. The DAC2 guidelines required utilization of the Gateway vehicle in a Near- Rectilinear Halo Orbit (NRHO). Instead, FLARE chooses a Low Lunar Frozen Polar Orbit (LLFPO) for lunar rendezvous of components, and an optional Gateway vehicle. The LLFPO provides a stable orbit that overflies the south pole every 2 h, ensuring easy access to the lunar surface for surface aborts with a much lower propellant requirement than NRHO. The minimum FLARE concept uses one Space Launch System (SLS) launch, one Orion, one European Service Module (ESM), and one human lander (launched on commercial vehicle(s)). FLARE adds the SpaceTug, based upon the mature and successful ULA “Common” Centaur Upper Stage vehicle, with modifications to create an Earth-Moon transfer vehicle. In the FLARE baseline mission, the SpaceTug provides propulsion needed to return the Orion + ESM from LLFPO to Earth. The SpaceTug also provides propulsion to deliver the separate human lander components – the Descent Element (DE) and the Ascent Element (AE) - from Low Earth Orbit (LEO) to LLFPO. The SLS Block 1 then launches the Orion + ESM and completes a rendezvous with the mated DE + AE components in LLFPO. FLARE offers optional phases beyond the baseline mission. The SpaceTug can deliver components of the planned Gateway, including the Power and Propulsion Element (PPE) and the Habitable and Logistics Outpost (HALO), to LLFPO. FLARE provides an option to deliver precursor equipment to the lunar surface to enhance and extend the human mission. With these components, including an inflatable habitation module and airlock, individual crew mobility vehicle(s), an In-Situ Resource Utilization (ISRU) demonstration, and science and technology experiments, the crew can explore and conduct science on the lunar surface for up to 14 days.

A Review of Recent Reference Architectures for Cyber-Physical Systems, in the Industry 4.0 Era

Abstract With the uptake of the IoT in the industrial domain, a whole new range of cyber-physical systems has emerged; Industry 4.0 is the title given to this technological domain of highly interconnected, data-rich systems. To aid the development of such systems, a range of reference architectures has been developed throughout the years. This paper reviews a number of recent reference architectures, detailing their essential traits as well as identifying aspects that need to be further explored in order to obtain reference architectures better tuned to generating cyber-physical social systems.

Development of Platform-Independent System for Cooperative Automated Driving Evaluated in GCDC 2016

Cooperative automated driving is a promising development in reducing energy consumption and emissions, increasing road safety, and improving traffic flow. The Grand Cooperative Driving Challenge (GCDC) 2016 was an implementation oriented project with the aim to accelerate research and development in the field. This paper describes the development of the two vehicle systems with which KTH participated in GCDC 2016. It presents a reference system architecture for collaborative automated driving as well as its instantiation on two conceptually different vehicles: a Scania truck and the research concept vehicle, built at KTH. We describe the common system architecture, as well as the implementation of a selection of shared and individual system functionalities, such as V2X communication, localization, state estimation, and longitudinal and lateral control. We also present a novel approach to trajectory tracking control for a four-wheel steering vehicle using model predictive control and a novel method for achieving fair data age distribution in vehicular communications.

Reference system architecture for biomedical data analysis

The development of adaptive system has been researched for a decade, but only recently machine learning problems became solvable. In this paper is presented an overview of current smart systems and the problem of development real adaptive and versatile data analysis system. Such system has to analyze multivariate signals of different nature. That is why the overview part is based on examples of biomedical human health monitoring systems (BHMS). BHMS have complex internal structure, to simplify it can be divided into three big tiers: tier of data acquisition, communication and analytics tiers. In the first tier, all data acquisition steps are made, including placement sensors to the specific location. The communication tier is responsible for gathering data from all available hardware and send it via wireless channel to the third layer. The analytical tier is the final destination of acquired data. This layer includes all algorithms which will be used for processing data and interpretation of the results. Such simple division allow us to specify and select our potential field of study and improvements. Specifically, in this paper the analytics tier will be explored and new system architecture will be proposed.The crucial step in the adaptive systems development is solving reconfiguration problem. Nowadays, almost all data analysis systems have specific applicable fields. The main advantages of the latter are that they are robust, fast, but the development of such system can take a lot of time and reconfiguration of currently used systems will allow speed up that process. The reconfiguration is process of creation a specific targeting system from general system setup or currently known system. In this paper we have investigated problems, related with reconfiguration and proposing the theoretical basis for creation the reconfigurable adaptive system. The output structure is two-tier system, which allow to analyze any task from different field of study and then process it in a single setup. Each of the tier is considered as independent components, however the combination of the general reference system (tier one) and training agent subsystem (tier two) creates a highly adaptive system with reconfiguration properties. The reference system itself is a big storage of available algorithms which can be applied for certain problem and the algorithms workflow can be tuned for specific problem. Such adjustments can be made because of system training agent, which main purpose is to process input task and defined which algorithms can be applied. Such task classification problem can be solved by using machine learning algorithms.Since, this paper presents only theoretical basis there is no precise implementation of proposed system. Currently we just gave a small overview of the future development of adaptive and reconfigurable systems.Ref. 12, fig. 5.

A Reference System Architecture for the Energy–Water Nexus

The energy–water nexus has been studied predominantly through discussions of policy options supported by data surveys and technology considerations. As the degree of coupling between the energy and water systems is affected by the design and operation of various engineered system components, our understanding of the nexus and ability to tackle its associated challenges would be enhanced by a system-of-systems engineering model. Such a model, however, requires, first, the development of an appropriate system architecture that clearly identifies the relevant flows of matter and energy and the defining system parameters. This paper presents a reference system architecture for this purpose developed and presented with the Systems Modeling Language (SysML). Once instantiated, this architecture can serve three purposes. First, the presented graphical models can serve qualitative discussions on where and how the supply and demand of water and energy are interdependent. Second, within the operations timescale, the SysML models can support the development of automated information technology and control solutions that integrate energy and water management. Finally, at a planning timescale, the models can inform quantitative decisions on how to best grow and reconfigure the water, wastewater, and energy infrastructure.

Optimisation of energy efficiency based on average driving behaviour and driver's preferences for automated driving

The implementation of anticipating driving styles in adaptive cruise control systems promises to considerably reduce fuel consumption of vehicles. As drivers have to accept the optimised driving styles of such systems, which implement longitudinally automated driving, the optimisation results should not deviate strongly from the average driving behaviour. This work presents an approach to the optimisation of the vehicle's longitudinal dynamics, which is based on a predicted average driving profile. The proposed approach ensures that the optimisation results meet the expectations of drivers by directly accounting for driver's preferences on weighting up travel time against fuel consumption relative to the average driving profile. Based on human decision finding, rational and intuitive planning decisions are modelled in a cost function and represent optimisation constraints. The approach generally includes information from vehicle-to-vehicle and vehicle-to-infrastructure communication (V2X), which is an extension to the state-of-the-art. This study describes the optimisation approach and presents a method to determine suitable optimisation parameters in order to consider driver's preferences. The optimisation approach is applied in a simulated test drive and improvements in fuel economy are analysed. Finally, the authors sketch a reference system architecture to prove the feasibility of the presented approach.

An Axiomatic Design of a Multiagent Reconfigurable Mechatronic System Architecture

In recent years, the fields of reconfigurable manufacturing systems, holonic manufacturing systems, and multiagent systems have made technological advances to support the ready reconfiguration of automated manufacturing systems. While these technological advances have demonstrated robust operation and been qualitatively successful in achieving reconfigurability, their ultimate industrial adoption remains limited. Among the barriers to adoption has been the relative absence of formal and quantitative multiagent system design methodologies based on reconfigurability measurement. Hence, it is not clear that the degree to which these designs have achieved their intended level of reconfigurability, which systems are indeed quantitatively more reconfigurable, and how these designs may overcome their design limitations to achieve greater reconfigurability in subsequent design iterations. To our knowledge, this paper is the first multiagent system reference architecture for reconfigurable manufacturing systems driven by a quantitative and formal design approach. It is rooted in an established engineering design methodology called axiomatic design for large flexible engineering systems and draws upon design principles distilled from prior works on reconfigurability measurement. The resulting architecture is written in terms of the mathematical description used in reconfigurability measurement, which straightforwardly allows instantiation for system-specific application.

Constraints for the design of variability-intensive service-oriented reference architectures – An industrial case study

ContextService-oriented architecture has become a widely used concept in software industry. However, we currently lack support for designing variability-intensive service-oriented systems. Such systems could be used in different environments, without the need to design them from scratch. To support the design of variability-intensive service-oriented systems, reference architectures that facilitate variability in instantiated service-oriented architectures can help. ObjectiveThe design of variability-intensive service-oriented reference architectures is subject to specific constraints. Architects need to know these constraints when designing such reference architectures. Our objective is to identify these constraints. MethodAn exploratory case study was performed in the context of local e-government in the Netherlands to study constraints from the perspective of (a) the users of a variability-intensive service-oriented system (municipalities that implement national laws), and (b) the implementing organizations (software vendors). We collected data through interviews with representatives from five organizations, document analyses and expert meetings. ResultsWe identified ten constraints (e.g., organizational constraints, integration-related constraints) which affect the process of designing reference architectures for variability-intensive service-oriented systems. Also, we identified how stakeholders are affected by these constraints, and how constraints are specific to the case study domain. ConclusionsOur results help design variability-intensive service-oriented reference architectures. Furthermore, our results can be used to define processes to design such reference architectures.