By John Rhea
FALLS CHURCH, Va. - The next release in the Defense Information Infrastructure Common Operating Environment (DII COE), version 3.3, is scheduled for April, according to the latest timetable of the Defense Information Systems Agency (DISA). COE represents an attempt to achieve data interoperability among the U.S. military services and their allies.
This software version will largely focus on tactical extensions, such as theater ballistic missile defense tracking and display, a position and location reporting system, a World Wide Web-based Common Operational Picture (COP) viewer, COP imagery product library interface, and a COP military intelligence database interface, DISA officials say.
Late last year agency officials released version 3.2, which includes configuration definition support and enhanced network management with the addition of the Hewlett Packard NetMetrix and Openview products on the HP and Solaris platforms.
The timetable calls for version 4.0 in October to achieve parity between the Unix and Windows NT platforms to be followed later by version 5.0 to support real-time extensions for selected platforms. The COE consists of three levels of software: the kernel, infrastructure services, and shared applications.
Sitting just above the operating system, the kernel includes such services as a common desktop, security manager, and installer that establishes and manages the environment used by the mission applications. This can be either Unix or NT.
The next level, infrastructure services, includes such applications as the Netscape Internet browser, database engines like Oracle, Sybase, Informix, and Access, as well as distributed computing.
The third level, common support applications, include common message processor, joint mapping tool kit, correlation, office automation, and data access. These are government-owned or -generated applications, and DISA officials advise that this area is ripe for new user communities to provide additional growth and functional expansion.
Much of the common support application layer evolved from the Defense Department`s command and control activities, DISA officials note, and non-U.S. and even private-sector organizations could take advantage of the COE by adding other sharable applications.
More information about DII COE is available on the World Wide Web at http://www.disa.mil.
