Command and Control (C2) Database Translation Application

A key challenge to network-centric warfare (NCW) is that current combat systems use a myriad of different message protocols, storage formats, database schemas, and ontologies. Thus, the Army requires tools to facilitate the translation and alignment of information so that it can be transmitted between locations and can be queried, displayed, and transmitted to users at a variety of levels in the form that is of most use to them. To address this challenge, IET will develop Quik-Speak, an on-line data translation utility. Quik-Speak will provide an environment for users to perform semi-automatic alignment of database schemas and specification of message mappings. Quik-Speak will leverage Lockheed Martin Advanced Technology Laboratory’s Ontrapro, a state-of-the-art ontology alignment tool, to supply the user with a graphical environment in which to align schemas to a standards-based Foundational Data Ontology. Users will be able to assign and validate the measurement units of data fields (e.g., latitude in radians). Quik-Speak will leverage a library of built-in translation functions to construct specifications of message mappings, which can be applied on-line to messages and data being sent between databases.