Modern warfare is undergoing dramatic change; we may have already witnessed our last conventional war. In light of disruptive technological evolution along with severe economic realities, we have reached a point where we must holistically reconsider our approach to specifying, procuring, and developing avionics systems. While efforts such as FACE hold great promise toward the future, we must also consider the role of Commercial Off the Shelf (COTS) technologies in the development of next generation avionics systems. This presentation will contemplate how commercial software products such as operating systems and middleware can contribute to maintaining our edge in the skies.

1. Your systems. Working as one.
FACE-ing Reality: Maintaining our
Military Edge in the Modern World
Curt Schacker
Executive Vice President and Chief Commercial Officer
Real-Time Innovations

2. About RTI
• Market Leader
– Over 70% DDS mw market share1
– Largest embedded middleware vendor2
• Standards Leader
– Active in 15 standards efforts
– OMG Board of Directors
– DDS authors
• Real-Time Pedigree
– Founded by Stanford researchers
– High-performance control, tools history
• Maturity Leader
– 500+ designs
– 350,000+ licensed copies
– TRL 9
1Embedded Market Forecasters
2VDC Analyst Report

3. RTI Excels at Smart Systems

4. The World has Changed
• Worldwide defense budgets under tremendous pressure
• Enemy acquiring more sophisticated weaponry faster
• From FACETM: “Current DoD Acquisition structure does not
support the process of software reuse across different
programs”1
Business as usual is not an option!
1FACE 101, The Open Group

5. FACE Objectives
• Establish a standard common operating environment to
support portable capability-based applications across
Department of Defense (DoD) avionics systems
– Determine a strict set of Open Standards for the environment
– Build upon Open Architecture (OA), Integrated Modular Avionics (IMA)
and Modular Open Systems Approach (MOSA)
– Portable, Modular, Partitioned, Scalable, Extendable, Secure
• Reduce life cycle costs and time to field
• Obtain Industry and DoD Program Management endorsement
• Facilitate conformance with standards to maximize
interoperability between applications within the avionics
system
5 http://www.opengroup.org/face Distribution Statement A: Approved for Public Release

6. FACE Objectives
Obtain Industry and DoD Program
Management endorsement
6 http://www.opengroup.org/face Distribution Statement A: Approved for Public Release

7. The Role of Commercial off the Shelf
(COTS) Technology in Achieving the FACE
Objectives

8. COTS as the Foundation for Innovation
Personal
Computers SOA
Cloud Computing
The
Internet
Mobile
Embedded The Industrial Internet
Computing Client / Server

9. The COTS “Blueprint”:
The Common Operating Environment
Common Operating Environment

10. Exception: Military Systems
“Our requirements
are special…”
“It’s cheaper to build
it ourselves…”
“No COTS technology
does what we
need…”

11. The Value of COTS-based Ecosystems
COTS Ecosystem provides a technical and
economic foundation for Innovation
Common Operating Environment

12. The Value of COTS-based Ecosystems
Domain Experts deliver value and differentiation
by focusing on market-specific problems

13. The value of COTS-based Ecosystems for
Military Systems
• COTS-based solutions enable a divide and
conquer environment
– COTS technologies used to satisfy non-functional Key
Performance Parameters
– Defense Primes focus on functional Key Performance
Parameters
• Leveraging everyone else’s investment
– Saves time and money
– Spreads the risk
– Fosters innovation

14. Example: RTI Connext DDS
• Hundreds of design wins across multiple
industries
• Hundreds of thousands of deployed, mission-
critical systems
• Every use case imaginable
• 200+ person-years of investment
No substitute for real-world experience

15. Not all COTS are Created Equal:
The Role of Standards
• Proprietary Technologies
– Vendor Retains Control
• Portability and Interoperability at Vendor’s Discretion
– Examples
• Apple IOS, Microsoft Windows
• Open Standards
– Customer Retains Control
• Portability and Interoperability can be mandated by the customer
– Examples
• DDS, TCP/IP, SQL, POSIX
• Proper use of standards
– Help to avoid vendor lock in
– Ensure maximum technology re-use and return on investment
– Keep the focus on innovation

16. What should the FACE community expect
from COTS Vendors?
• A Roadmap
– Putting our own skin in the game
• Active Engagement with FACE
– Don’t trade stovepipes for ivory towers
• Transparent Business Model
– No surprises

17. RTI and FACE Roadmap
DO-178C Level A
Certifiable
DDS-RTPS compliant;
interoperable with
non-FACE DDS apps
Security Profile

18. RTI and FACE Engagement
• Active participation in FACE consortium
– RTI is a principle author of the FACE standard
– Actively involved in Technical Working Group and Data Model Working
Group
– Chair the FACE UCS-FACE Alignment Committee
– Collaboration with other COTS providers
– Hosting the June F2F at RTI in Sunnyvale
• Educational Offerings
– Introduction to FACE
– FACE “Deep Dive”
• Professional Services Offerings
– FACE Requirements Analysis -> TSS System Requirements Review
– FACE Infrastructure Design -> TSS Critical Design Review
– FACE TSS Implementation -> TSS Implementation

19. New RTI IC Business Model
• Infrastructure Community
– An organization with a goal of adopting and broadly
promoting a common software infrastructure across
companies, groups, programs, systems, or applications
• Source code provided free of charge
• Per Developer license fees as low as $1,000
• Royalty-free for distribution

20. FACE Demonstration
GE IP Platform
DDS
Esterel
DDS In Display
+ Mediation Graphics
APEX
WR 653 Partitioned OS
Shows a combination of existing COTS SW and HW to provide a
demonstration of the different layers of FACE
Uses a custom mediation layer within the first 653 partition

21. Summary
• FACE represents strategic change
– Different, not just better
• Requires new government-industry partnership
– Standards-based COTS is critical
• COTS vendors have to carry their share of the load