Open architecture in the context of defense applications encourages collaboration across government agencies and
academia. This paper describes a success story in the implementation of an open architecture framework that fosters
transparency and modularity in the context of Environmental Awareness for Sensor and Emitter Employment (EASEE),
a complex physics-based software package for modeling the effects of terrain and atmospheric conditions on signal
propagation and sensor performance. Among the highlighted features in this paper are: (1) a code refactorization to
separate sensitive parts of EASEE, thus allowing collaborators the opportunity to view and interact with non-sensitive
parts of the EASEE framework with the end goal of supporting collaborative innovation, (2) a data exchange and
validation effort to enable the dynamic addition of signatures within EASEE thus supporting a modular notion that
components can be easily added or removed to the software without requiring recompilation by developers, and (3) a
flexible and extensible XML interface, which aids in decoupling graphical user interfaces from EASEE’s calculation
engine, and thus encourages adaptability to many different defense applications. In addition to the outlined points above,
this paper also addresses EASEE’s ability to interface with both proprietary systems such as ArcGIS. A specific use case
regarding the implementation of an ArcGIS toolbar that leverages EASEE’s XML interface and enables users to set up
an EASEE-compliant configuration for probability of detection or optimal sensor placement calculations in various
modalities is discussed as well.
|