COALITION COMMAND AND CONTROL IN THE NETWORKED ERA Experiences from implementing dynamic and secure Web Services Topics: C2 Experimentation, C2 Architecture, Information Operations/Assurance

The principles of Network Enabled Capability (NEC) highlight the need for seamless and secure information exchange. To achieve this, Service Oriented Architecture (SOA) has been recognized as one of the key enablers. At the same time Web Services has become the de-facto technology for implementing a SOA. This paper presents our approach to and experience from implementing a proof-of- concept C2 system using Web Services standards. The goal has been to develop a system that provides secure and dynamic web services, with dynamic discovery of services and effective information exchange. The focal points of the developed architecture are end-to-end security, Service Registry and communication using publish/subscribe patterns in Web Services. This paper also briefly surveys the theories and standards that our work is based on, and it describes the considerations and delimitations that had to be made to achieve a system that could actually run. Further we describe the unclassified results from the use of this experimental system for demonstrations during NATO CWID 2006. Finally we present our preliminary evaluation of the successfulness of the approach of demonstrating a dynamic and secure SOA using Web Services.