Conceptual Requirements for Command and Control Languages

Abstract

The current Coalition Battle Management Language initiative (C-BML) will define a language to unambiguously exchange command and control information between systems. This paper introduces a categorization that may be used to guide the process of developing C-BML effectively by enumerating the conceptual requirements the authors have identified in model-based data engineering and process engineering based studies in various domains. First, it is important to distinguish if application of the language will support the planning, execution, or observation phase of command and control. While C-BML already distinguishes between tasking and reporting, planning is a category with different requirements. Second, the language must be able to express various spatio-temporal constraints, which can be expressed using fixed expressions, relative to each other, or in mixed forms. In addition to the traditional spatio-temporal constraints, operation-specific constraints – or the perception thereof – need to be expressed. Finally, it must be determined if the constraints are used in support of accomplishment-driven objectives or avoidance-driven objectives. While this category seems to be trivial to most human consumers of the language, it has significant implications for systems. The paper introduces the conceptual constraints using examples and evaluates mathematical means provided by discrete structures needed for computation to describe their ability to cope with these challenges.