Structured Information Standards - Introduction

These subpages are aimed at system integrators in need of an overview of structured information standards used in the defence and need to be kept up to date with changes. Here you will find overall descriptions of the standards, their development and a news feed to lean the most recent developments.

To learn more specific details on the standards, you will need to gain access to the standards themselves. You can do this either through your national defence forces or alternatively contact Systematic who can point you in the right direction or may be able to provide you with the standards directly for a handling fee.

Why use structured information standards?

In the military world, it’s vital to be able to generate, collate and use information about what all the forces involved are doing and to issue orders to take action. This improves situational awareness and boosts combat effectiveness. For modern warfare, it is a requirement that data systems are interoperable, and the extent of the interoperability between specific systems must be determined and agreed according to the information exchange requirements of co-operating forces. Today, messages with structured information are the most widely used method for military interoperability, both within national forces and between nations. Using messages, a complete data package can be pushed to the other party.

What is a structured information standard?

A number of standards have been defined for structured information. The goal of the standards is to specify the contents of information exchange between loosely coupled systems, not to specifically support exchanges between systems. The standards focus on defining the rule set governing the message structure and then the specific contents for a large number of messages (catalogue of message templates) addressing most areas of modern warfare. The Requirements for the message templates have been developed by NATO and USA through a spiral process and are regularly reviewed to ensure that they accurately reflect current doctrine and tactics. Each of the messages templates are concise, reflect the operational need and can be automatically processed by computer systems while maintaining backward compatibility for legacy systems . The structured information standards specify only the permitted message formats, they do not make any assumptions concerning the communication medium.

One of the principles of structured information standards is that they permit the exchange of data between loosely coupled systems. This approach allows external interfaces to be developed to standards without the need to make assumptions about the internal system processes of sending and receiving parties. This reduces the risk that a change in one system will force a change in another. Provided that the protocol for the data exchange between systems is strictly adhered to, this approach permits organisations to develop interdependent systems independently.

Textual and Binary Message Formats

There are basically two kinds of structured information standards in use: Message Text Formats (e.g. ADatP-3, USMTF, GOLD) and the Binary Message Formats (e.g. VMF). The major difference is that Message Text Formats are character oriented and can be processed by both human operators and automated systems, whereas Binary Message Formats are intended for information exchange between automated systems.

Other relevant information

The structured information standards are described further at this site, and news related to structured information standards are also shown here. You may also want to visit the IRIS pages to learn more about Systematic tools for working with structured information. Other interoperability paradigms than message based interoperability exist, e.g. information replication, see the SitaWare pages to learn more.