Aerospace & Defense Technology - February 2021 - 4

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INSIDE STORY
Pentek, Inc. designs embedded computer boards and recording systems for DSP, software radio and data
acquisition for both COTS and rugged environments.
What is Open Systems Architecture (OSA)?
In 2013, the U.S. DoD issued a mandate to
incorporate Open Systems Architecture
principles within procurement requirements
for defense hardware and software. OSA
requires the use of existing open standards
for well-defined, modular hardware and softRodger Hosking
ware components that can be sourced from
Vice President
multiple vendors. Once proven, hardware
Pentek, Inc.
platforms should be reusable for quick reaction mission needs, feature upgrades, and new technology
insertion. These advantages reduce development risks and help
ensure significantly longer operational life cycles.
How Did DoD Services Respond to the OSA mandate?
In response, each of the three primary U.S. services (Army,
Navy, and Air Force), began developing standards that
embraced OSA principles to meet future procurement needs of
deployed systems for their respective services. The Army's
CCDC (Combat Capabilities Development Command) in
Aberdeen, MD developed CMOSS (C4ISR/EW Modular Open
Suite of Standards), which is based on other open standards
including OpenVPX, MORA, VICTORY, REDHAWK and SCA.
The Navy's NAVAIR (Naval Air Systems Command) in
Patuxent River, MD created HOST (Hardware Open Systems
Technology) for airborne and ground vehicle mission systems.
It divides hardware into three tiers: 1) the platform (airframe,
vehicle, etc.), 2) the system enclosure, and 3) boards, with the
latter two tiers being subsets of OpenVPX.
The Air Force's OMS (Open Mission Systems) initiative incorporates open standards including SOA, UCI, and FACE, all for
standardizing messages, command, and control mission information for avionics systems.
What Led to SOSA?
While each service made significant progress in advancing
OSA principles, they did so through different initiatives that often
shared many common open standards like OpenVPX, and specific
mandates tailored for service-specific platform requirements.
After recognizing this common ground, the DoD and each of the
services perceived a strong need to promote a single, common initiative to define acquisition activities across all three armed services. In early 2017, the DoD issued an SBIR solicitation for Sensor
Open System Architecture (SOSA) Architectural Research. This
resulted in the formation of the SOSA Consortium managed by The
Open Group, a large organization with strict and well-defined practices, policies, and procedures for standards development efforts.
What Are the Objectives of SOSA?
Major objectives include development and adoption of open
systems architecture standards for C4ISR to provide a common, multi-purpose backbone for radar, EO/IR, SIGINT, EW and
countermeasure systems. Additional objectives include platform affordability, rapid fielding, reconfigurability, new technology insertion, extended life cycles, and repurposing of hardware, firmware, and software.

The major work product of the SOSA Technical Working
Group is the SOSA Technical Standard that documents the
SOSA Architecture. This is a modular system structure, with
tight integration within modules for encapsulating functionality
and behaviors, and yet well-defined interfaces. These modules
must be based on open, published standards, with consensusbased influence stakeholders directing the evolution, and a
strict conformance validation process.
The Technical Standard defines specifications for plug-in
cards, backplanes, chassis, electrical components, and mechanical structures largely derived from VITA standards. The SOSA
Conformance Policy defines processes for qualifying products
against the Technical Standard. Until the award of certification,
no product can claim to be SOSA conformant. The SOSA
Business Working Group defines business and acquisition practices, and creates guidance for acquisition programs.
Who Participates in SOSA?
A primary mandate of the SOSA Consortium is broad participation, commitment, and contribution from DoD, Army, Navy,
and Air Force, as well as industry, academia, and other government organizations. As of this writing, SOSA membership is
headed by nine Sponsor organizations including seven from the
Army, Navy and Air Force, plus two prime contractors. The 14
Principal Members are all prime US defense contractors. The 81
Associate Members include well-known systems integrators, and
major hardware and software suppliers to the defense community. Members of each of these organizations play critical roles
in working groups to help develop the standards and practices.
Membership in SOSA is restricted to US citizens and organizations so that DoD-sensitive or classified requirements can be presented by representatives from the armed services to promote
solution strategies within the SOSA Technical Standard. For this
reason, technical details of ongoing discussions in SOSA may not
be disclosed to the public. However, once the standard is
approved and released to the public, it will contain only specifications and rules, free from the underlying, sensitive use drivers.
Is SOSA Here to Stay?
The release of the Technical Standard Snapshot 3 was
released in July 2020 and the SOSA Technical Standard 1.0
should be released in the second quarter of 2021. After that
release, vendors who collectively have already announced
dozens of " SOSA-Aligned " products then may submit them for
conformance certification. Interoperability demonstrations during 2020 of these early products were highly-successful and
well attended by defense customers.
Ahead of the release of the Technical Standard, the DoD has
already issued numerous requests for proposals and information
clearly favoring respondents that offer OSA-based solutions. Active
participation in SOSA by the DoD, all three armed services, embedded industry vendors, universities, and research facilities gives evidence of their substantial commitments of resources and personnel. These clear signals ensure that SOSA is well on its way to setting the future course for embedded military electronics systems.
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