Planning and Architectural Design of Modern Command Control Communications and Information Systems

The subject of this book is Command Control Communication and Information 3 (C I) which is the management infrastructure for any large or complex dynamic resource systems. Here command means the determination of what to do, and control means the ongoing managementofthe execution ofa command. 3 Decision making is the essence of C I which is accomplished through a phased implementation of a set of facilities, communications, personnel, equipment and procedures for monitoring, forecasting, planning, directing, allocating resources, and generating options to achieve specific and general objectives. 3 The C I system that is in question here is for a strategic military command including its subordinate commands. Although the design methodology that will be expounded in the book is for a military system, it can, to a large extent, apply also to tactical military as well as to civilian management information systems (MIS). 3 A C I system is a decision making network that reflects a hierarchical organization 3 of C I nodes. Each node is responsible for the management of some portion ofthe available resources, where the higher level nodes are responsible for a 3 correspondingly greater portion of the resources. Within a C I system both command and control decision making occur at every level of the hierarchy. Command decisions at one level determine how to satisfy the management decisions at a higher level.