Application of Model-Based Systems Engineering to VICTORY-Enable Tactical Radios

Tactical Radio Systems such as the Mid-Tier Networking Vehicular Radio (MNVR) and the Handheld, Manpack, and Small Form Fit (HMS) Radio provide common functions that can be componentized with standardized interfaces. In the Army’s acquisition and testing processes, next generation radios are being fielded with related systems and components as capabilities. Model-Based Systems Engineering (MBSE) is an ideal methodology to develop a Reference Architecture using a common development process. MBSE uses a formal model of a system of systems to represent all systems engineering information. Key benefits of MBSE include traceability, communication, configuration management and common languages and notations. This paper evaluates implementation experiences in applying MBSE to develop a Reference Architecture (RA) that provides VICTORY interfaces for radio, computing systems, and Satellite Communications (SATCOM) terminals. The information representation of the Hardware/Software (HW/SW) RA is especially suited for interface constructs provided by the Unified Modeling Language (UML) and Systems Modeling Language (SysML) including blocks, ports and associations. This paper also presents an architecture development process that can realize a reference architecture that represents VICTORY applications such as health monitoring of components, status and actionable data collection and transmission.