STANDARD SOFTWARE ENVIRONMENT FOR LOCAL AREA NETWORK (LAN) INTEGRATION

MORE EFFECTIVE COMMUNICATION AMONG SHIPBOARD ELECTRONICS APPLICATIONS AND INSULATION FROM VENDOR-SPECIFIC PROTOCOLS REQUIRES STANDARDIZATION OF NEW COMMON MESSAGE STRUCTURE, ENCODING AND ENGAGEMENT PROTOCOLS BELONGING TO OSI LEVELS 7-5 (APPLICATION, PRESENTATION, SESSION). PROJECT EMPHASIS IS FIRST PLACED ON A NEW ABSTRACT MESSAGE STRUCTURE AT LEVEL 7, EMBRACING FIVE MESSAGE TYPES: INFORMATION UPDATE, FILE TRANSFER, COMMAND/ACTION, QUERY AND ACKNOWLEDGEMENT/REPORT. THE SMALL SUITE OF EVENTS WHICH TRIGGER MESSAGES WILL BE IDENTIFIED AND MAY INCLUDE FOR EXAMPLE: REPORT SIGHTINGS, FIRE WEAPONS, REQUET STATUS, CHANGE SHIP MOVEMENT. THE PROPOSED COMMON ENCODING PROTOCOL OF LEVEL 6 IS RECORD ORIENTED WITH STANDARD DATA FIELDS DEFINED BY THEIR SPECIFICATIONS AND ORDER WITHIN THE RECORD. ALSO, EACH RECORD IDENTIFIES ITS TYPE AND THE CODES USED FOR DELIMITERS AND CONTROLS. WITH THIS STANDARDIZATION OF SHIPBOARD OSI LEVELS 7-5, CUSTOM INTERFACING OF MULTIPLE PAIRS OF APPLICATIONS WILL BE REDUCED FROM N(N-L) UNITS TO (N+1) STANDARD VENDOR-FURNISHED INTERFACES. THIS PROJECT ORIENTATION IS BASED ON A SIMILAR NATIONWIDE UPPER-LEVEL STANDARDIZATION EFFORT FOR HOSPITAL COMPUTER COMMUNICATIONS (HL-7) IN WHICH THE PROJECT PRINCIPALS ARE PROMINENT PARTICIPANTS.