Modeling and Simulation Support for System of Systems Engineering Applications

Chapter 1Overview and Introduction to Modeling and Simulation Support for System of Systems Engineering Applications

Larry B. Rainey¹ and Andreas Tolk²

¹ Integrity Systems and Solutions, LLC, Colorado Springs, CO, USA

² SimIS Inc., Portsmouth, VA, USA

1.1 MOTIVATION

A little longer than a decade ago, the community of systems engineers started to seriously deal with a category of challenges: system of systems (SoS).

Systems Engineering (SE) is now better understood since its official birth as a discipline in the middle of the last century. It is widely understood to control the total systems life cycle process: definition, development, deployment, and retirement of a system. SE ensures that solutions are reliable, maintainable, and cost-effective. But its solutions focus on a system made up of components born from a common set of user requirements. Interactions with other systems was always possible, but these other systems were external and beyond the central systems boundaries.

In particular, the Internet showed the power of interconnectivity. Net-centric solutions were soon discussed that allowed the reuse of systems by loosely coupling them via information exchange. But this extended system was beyond traditional program, governance, and organization boundaries. New processes were needed to help synchronize activities, budgets, and schedules. Sage and Cuppan (2001) and Keating et al. (2003) contributed to the engineering managerial foundations to move toward System of Systems Engineering ...