Method and system for network-based, distributed, real-time command and control of an enterprise

• US 20050256735A1
• Filed: 06/10/2005
• Published: 11/17/2005
• Est. Priority Date: 10/03/2003
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: META Command Systems Incorporated
• Original Assignee: Echelon 4 Corporation
• Inventors: Bayne, Jay S.
• Granted Patent: US 7,835,931 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 705/8
• CPC Class Codes: G05B 2219/31394 Field management, low level, instruments and controllers acting in real time
• CPC Class Codes: G05B 2219/31395 Process management, specification, process and production data, middle level
• CPC Class Codes: G05B 2219/31396 Business management, production, document, asset, regulatory management, high level
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 10/06 Resources, workflows, human or project management; Enterprise or organisation planning; Enterprise or organisation modelling
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 10/063 Operations research, analysis or management
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 10/0639 Performance analysis of employees; Performance analysis of enterprise or organisation operations

Abstract

Methods and systems for command and control of an enterprise. An enterprise operating system is disclosed including five frameworks: an enterprise bridge framework, an enterprise controller framework, a performance measurement framework, a control processing framework, and an enterprise operating system services framework. A system is disclosed to receive a plurality of messages, filter and sort the messages, generate courses of action based on the messages, validate and resource the courses of action (create plans of record), execute the plans of record, and monitor the performance of executing plans of record.

Claims

1. An enterprise command and control system, the system comprising:

a model management system configured to provide real-time operating situation and event information, policy constraints, asset constraints, and current situation models;

a scenario management system configured to provide policy base updates, asset base status updates, validated scenarios, and current aggregate situation models;

a policy management service configured to provide a policy status, an asset status, a course of action status, a plan of record status, a subordinate'"'"'s policy status, and a superior'"'"'s policy status, and to receive policy requests from subordinates and policy postings from superiors, and to provide policy requests to superiors and post policies to subordinates;

an asset management service configured to receive asset requests from subordinates and asset allocations from superiors, and to return assets to superiors and allocate assets for subordinates;

a performance management service configured to provide a measure of performance;

a situation assessment service configured to receive asset chain tasks and status requests, supply chain tasks and status requests, and a plurality of messages, to interact with the model management system, to interface with the scenario management system, and to provide prioritized lists of potential courses of action;

a behavior generation service configured to receive the prioritized courses of action from the situation assessment service, to interact with the policy management service, to interface with the asset management service, and to provide a set of resourced and prioritized plans of record;

an execution management service configured to receive the resourced and prioritized plans of record from the behavior generation service, to interface with the performance management service, and to provide asset chain tasking commands and supply chain tasking commands; and

a visual commons configured to receive and display shared data.

2. The enterprise command and control system of claim 1 wherein the performance measurements provided by the performance management service include at least one of capability, potentiality, capacity, latency, productivity, and performance.

3. The enterprise command and control system of claim 1 wherein the situation assessment service provides prioritized lists of potential courses of action with associated resource requirements and policy issues.

4. The enterprise command and control system of claim 1 wherein the situation assessment service further comprises:

a model management system configured to provide real-time operating situations and events, policy constraints, asset constraints, and current situation models;

a scenario management system configured to provide policy base updates, asset base status updates, validated scenarios, and current aggregate situation models;

a filter process configured to receive messages from a plurality of subscriptions, interface with the model management system, decode and sort the messages, and provide a list of events;

a triage process configured to receive the list of events from the filter process, to receive the real-time operating situation and event information, policy constraints, asset constraints, and current situation models from the model management system, to ignore non-critical new situations, and to provide a situation list; and

an analysis process configured to receive the situation list from the triage process, to receive policy base updates, asset base status updates, validated scenarios, and current aggregate situation models from the scenario management system, to modify current aggregate situation models, to create a new aggregate situation model if a current aggregate situation model does not exist for a situation, and provide prioritized lists of potential courses of action with associated resource requirements and policy issues.

5. The enterprise command and control system of claim 1 wherein the behavior generation service further comprises:

a policy management service configured to provide a policy status;

an asset management service configured to provide a status of assets;

a command management service configured to provide plan coordination and authorization;

a policy process configured to develop and maintain policies governing the behavior of VPU plans of record and associated risk;

a resource process configured to develop and maintain a status of deployable assets of the VPU; and

a command process configured to receive the plans of record from the resource process, current situation information and resource status from the planning management service, and to authorize one or more resourced and prioritized plans of record to execute.

6. The enterprise command and control system of claim 1 wherein the execution management service further comprises:

a performance management service configured to provide at least one of a measure of actuality, a measure of capability, a measure of potentiality, a measure of latency, a measure of productivity, and a measure of performance; and

an execution process configured to receive a set of resourced and prioritized plans of record, measures of actuality, capability, potentiality, latency, productivity, and performance from the performance measurement process, to deliver asset chain tasking commands, to deliver supply chain tasking commands, and to provide synchronization between VPUs.

7. The enterprise command and control system of claim 1 wherein the visual commons is further configured to receive and display models, scenarios, situations, plans, policies, assets, execution status, and performance data.

8. The enterprise command and control system of claim 1 wherein the model management service maintains a model database.

9. The enterprise command and control system of claim 1 wherein the scenario management system maintains a scenario.

10. The enterprise command and control system of claim 1 wherein the policy management service maintains a policy.

11. The enterprise command and control system of claim 1 wherein the asset management service maintains an asset database.

12. The enterprise command and control system of claim 1 wherein the asset management service maintains a historian database.

13. A system as claimed in claim 1 further comprising a plurality of user interfaces.

14. A situation assessment service, the service comprising:

a model management system configured to provide real-time operating situations and events, policy constraints, asset constraints, and current situation models;

a scenario management system configured to provide policy base updates, asset base status updates, validated scenarios, and current aggregate situation models;

a filter process configured to receive messages from a plurality of subscriptions, interface with the model management system, decode and sort the messages, and provide a list of events;

a triage process configured to receive the list of events from the filter process, to receive the real-time operating situations and events, policy constraints, asset constraints, and current situation models from the model management system, to ignore non-critical new situations, and to provide a situation list; and

an analysis process configured to receive the situation list from the triage process, to receive policy base updates, asset base status updates, validated scenarios, and current aggregate situation models from the scenario management system, to modify current aggregate situation models, to create a new aggregate situation model if a current aggregate situation model does not exist for a situation, and provide prioritized lists of potential courses of action with associated resource requirements and policy issues.

15. The situation assessment service of claim 14 further comprising a model database.

16. The situation assessment service of claim 14 further comprising a scenario database.

17. A behavior generation service, the service comprising:

a policy management service configured to provide a policy status, an asset status, a course of action status, a plan of record status;

an asset management service configured to provide a status of assets;

a planning management service configured to provide current situation information, and resource status;

a policy process configured to receive a policy status, an asset status, a course of action status, a plan of record status from the policy management service, to receive prioritized lists of potential courses of action with associated resource requirements and policy issues, to determine if the potential courses of action are viable, need modification, or are not viable, and to provide a list of actionable plans;

a resource process configured to receive the list of actionable plans from the policy process, to receive the status of assets from the asset management service, to assign assets to actionable plans, to create asset assignment schedules if a assets are not available for actionable plans, and to provide plans of record; and

a command process configured to receive the plans of record from the resource process, current situation information, and resource status from the planning management service, and to provide a set of resourced and prioritized plans of record.

18. The behavior generation service of claim 17 further comprising a policy database.

19. The behavior generation service of claim 17 further comprising an asset database.

20. The behavior generation service of claim 17 further comprising a command database.

21. An execution management service, the service comprising:

a performance management service configured to provide at least one of a measure of actuality, a measure of capability, a measure of potentiality, a measure of latency, a measure of productivity, and a measure of performance; and

an execution process configured to receive a set of resourced and prioritized plans of record, measures of actuality, capability, potentiality, latency, productivity, and performance from the performance measurement process, to deliver asset chain tasking commands, and to deliver supply chain tasking commands.

22. The execution management service of claim 21 further comprising an execution database.

23. An enterprise operating system, the system comprising:

an enterprise bridge framework configured to provide a plurality of user interfaces within an enterprise;

an enterprise controller framework configured to structure communication between entities within an enterprise;

a performance measurement framework configured to provide performance data for entities within an enterprise;

a control processing framework configured to receive a plurality of asset tasks and a plurality of supply tasks and to provide asset commands and task commands; and

a services framework configured to provide support to the enterprise bridge framework, enterprise controller framework, performance measurement framework, and control processing framework.

24. The enterprise operating system of claim 23 wherein the enterprise bridge framework controls a visual commons.

25. The enterprise operating system of claim 24 wherein the visual commons displays a video feed.

26. The enterprise operating system of claim 24 wherein the visual commons displays a situation assessment representation.

27. The enterprise operating system of claim 24 wherein the visual commons displays a behavior generation representation.

28. The enterprise operating system of claim 24 wherein the visual commons displays a current tactical situation.

29. The enterprise operating system of claim 24 wherein the visual commons displays a community of interest representation.

30. The enterprise operating system of claim 23 wherein the performance measurement framework is further configured to provide normalized performance data.

31. The enterprise operating system of claim 23 wherein the performance measurement framework is further configured to provide a measurement of capability.

32. The enterprise operating system of claim 23 wherein the performance measurement framework is further configured to provide a measurement of actuality.

33. The enterprise operating system of claim 23 wherein the performance measurement framework is further configured to provide a measurement of potentiality.

34. The enterprise operating system of claim 23 wherein the performance measurement framework is further configured to provide a measurement of latency.

35. The enterprise operating system of claim 23 wherein the performance measurement framework is further configured to provide a measurement of productivity.

36. The enterprise operating system of claim 23 wherein the performance measurement framework is further configured to provide a measurement of performance.

37. The enterprise operating system of claim 23 wherein the control processing framework comprises a situation assessment service configured to receive a plurality of messages and provide a list of potential courses of action.

38. The enterprise operating system of claim 37 wherein the situation assessment service further comprises a filter process configured to receive a plurality of messages and providing a decoded and sorted list of events.

39. The enterprise operating system of claim 37 wherein the situation assessment service further comprises a triage process configured to receive a decoded and sorted list of events and provide a list of situations.

40. The enterprise operating system of claim 37 wherein the situation assessment service further comprises an analysis process configured to receive a list of situations and provide a list of potential courses of action.

41. The enterprise operating system of claim 23 wherein the control processing framework comprises a behavior generation service configured to receive a list of potential courses of action and to provide a set of resourced and prioritized plans of record.

42. The enterprise operating system of claim 41 wherein the behavior generation service further comprises a policy process configured to receive a list of potential courses of action and to provide a list of validated actionable plans.

43. The enterprise operating system of claim 41 wherein the behavior generation service further comprises a resource process configured to receive a list of actionable plans and to provide plans of record.

44. The enterprise operating system of claim 41 wherein the behavior generation service further comprises a command process configured to receive a plan of record and to provide prioritized and resourced plans of record.

45. The enterprise operating system of claim 23 wherein the control processing framework comprises an execution management service configured to receive prioritized and resourced plans of record and to provide asset chain tasking commands and supply chain tasking commands.

46. An enterprise bridge framework, the framework comprising:

a visual commons configured to display current tactical situations, video, situation assessments, plan generations, policy management status, plan resource status, plan authorization status, and collaborating user feeds;

a set of commander workstation tools providing user interface functions including policy management, command authorization, situation assessment, asset management, and policy management;

a set of navigator workstation tools providing user interface functions including model management, scenario management, asset development, and policy development; and

a set of operator workstation tools providing user interface functions including asset management, and plan execution management.

47. The framework of claim 46 further comprising a set of process auditor workstation tools providing a user interface for data acquisition and analysis.

48. The framework of claim 46 further comprising a set of regulator workstation tools providing a user interface for supporting coordination amongst executing processes.

49. The framework of claim 46 further comprising a set of process director workstation tools providing a user interface of synopses of subordinate commander workstations.

50. The framework of claim 46 further comprising a set of process workstation tools providing a user interface of synopses of subordinate operator workstations.

51. A performance measurement framework, the framework comprising:

an actuality assessment service configured to provide an indication of the level of performance of an entity in an enterprise relative to its potential;

a capability assessment service configured to provide an indication of the level of performance possible for an entity in an enterprise relative to allocated assets;

a potential assessment service configured to provide an indication of the total potential of an entity;

a latency assessment service configured to provide an indication of the capability of an entity relative to its potential;

a productivity assessment service configured to provide an indication of actual performance of an entity relative to its capability; and

a performance assessment service configured to provide an indication of the level of performance of an entity relative to its potential.

52. The performance measurement framework of claim 51 wherein indications are normalized.

53. A control processing framework, the framework comprising:

a situation assessment service configured to receive a plurality of messages, a plurality of tasks, and a plurality of requests, the situation assessment service further configured to assess the plurality of messages, tasks, and requests and to provide a list of potential courses of action;

a behavior generation service configured to receive the list of potential courses of action from the situation assessment service, the behavior generation service further configured to validate the potential courses of action, to assign assets to the potential courses of action, and to provide validated and resourced courses of action as prioritized plans of action; and

a execution management service configured to receive the prioritized plans of action from the behavior generation service and to provide a plurality of asset commands and a plurality of supply chain tasking commands, the execution management service further configured to monitor the performance of a plurality of executing commands.

54. A computer-implemented method of performing enterprise command and control, the method comprising:

monitoring situation information;

assessing situation information;

determining a course of action based on assessed situation information;

validating the course of action;

providing assets to a validated course of action;

executing a validated and resourced course of action; and

monitoring the performance of an executing course of action.

55. The method of claim 54 further comprising providing a visual commons.

56. The method of claim 55 further comprising providing a situation assessment display.

57. The method of claim 55 further comprising providing a behavior generation display.

58. The method of claim 55 further comprising providing a media display.

59. The method of claim 55 further comprising providing a current tactical situation display.

60. The method of claim 55 further comprising providing a community of interest display.

61. The method of claim 54 further comprising maintaining a model database for assessing situations.

62. The method of claim 54 further comprising maintaining a scenario database for matching a course of action to a situation.

63. The method of claim 54 further comprising maintaining a policy database for validating courses of action.

64. The method of claim 54 further comprising maintaining an asset database for monitoring available and used assets.