GINA : Global Information Network Architecture
Encyclopedia
The concept for the Global Information Network Architecture (GINA) evolved from a realization that the current technologies provided an unprecedented opportunity to create a useful Global Information Grid
(GIG) that could transform the possibilities for Net-Centric Operations
.
The Global Information Network Architecture (GINA) Team was created in 2004 to address this possibility. Originally developed under Cooperative Research and Development Agreement (CRADA)
with The US Naval Postgraduate School
(NPS) in Monterey CA, the projects initial title was Network Aware Business Data Management System (NABDMS).
In late 2008, the United States Army Corps of Engineers (USACE) Engineer Research and Development Center (ERDC) began the second phase of GINA's development. Currently focus is on purposing GINA as a High Level Architecture (HLA) for System Fusion Networks (SFN), GINA is being evolved and deployed globally to facilitate interoperability and a new form of computational design.
(GIG) includes all owned and leased communications and computing systems and services, software (including applications), data, security services, and other associated services necessary to achieve Information Superiority. It also includes
National Security Systems
as defined in section 5142 of the Clinger-Cohen Act of 1996. “
The United States Department of Defense
(DoD) recognized back in 1996 the need to have a GIG. We have struggled, largely unsuccessfully to bring a reasonable facsimile of a GIG forward. There have been numerous research projects directed at creating a GIG, but actually turning DoD networks into a functioning GIG has proved elusive. The GIG is a very hard problem that requires a rethinking of current approaches to interoperability.
While software modeling languages such as Unified Modeling Language
(UML) or Object Role Modeling
(ORM) attempt to provide an iconic representation to articulate the structure or architecture of an application, they are not executable and have limited applicability beyond the software design environment.
The GINA Team created GINA to enable model-based software engineering
, but we did so in such a way that the model, once-defined, represented a working application. By properly bounding the problem space to "Information Applications", i.e., non-algorithmically-intense applications with linear relationships representing the vast majority of software applications, the GINA team was able to create a configurable Component Based Object Model
(CBOM) for information management where the configuration represented the instructions for assembling a working implementation of the model. Moreover, the GINA team made the decision early in its development to make GINA a GINA model. By doing so the configuration itself could be controlled by configuration. As will be illustrated later, that turned out to be an important decision. Enabling GINA’s deep configurability required the development and implementation of multiple models.
The Control Model assembles the components of the component model, according to the assembly instructions in the Application Model into the structures defined in the Implementation Model to create GINA information objects.
The Application Model describes actual GINA applications. Both the description of applications and the GINA and Application Models themselves. These applications are described in terms of components in the Component Model. It represents the set of components that are assembled in order to create GINA information objects as specified in the application model.
Ultimately, we have to define GINA applications using a development model that is appropriate for developing GINA applications. And again, the GINA Development Model is itself described as a GINA application.
GINA, at a high level, is a model for modeling. Designed to facilitate a principle of development where relationships between objects can be objectified and wielded as objects in their own right, GINA itself is an executable model configured using VRDM.
VRDM is a core concept that is embodied by GINA. GINA could be looked at as an environment that turns collected data into a multi-dimensional object environment with each object being connected to other objects through vectors. This environment makes many of the information-centric tasks that a user might want to perform far easier than any other approach.
A key concept of VRDM is that relationships among information objects should themselves be defined as information objects, and be fully configurable.
Taking relationships and implementing them as GINA objects enables GINA to take configurations and assemble models that can perform most, if not all of the work done by typical hard-coded information applications, such as most enterprise systems, integrations, and information sharing systems.
As a result of VRDM, it is possible to specify an application through describing the required components as a series of objects and their relationships, or vectors. VRDM enables disparate data, from disparate sources to be invoked and configured to relate in a “System of Systems
” model called a specification. The behavior of a specification can be the much same as a contemporary application. The difference, however, is that with VRDM, there is no programming. GINA is a true CBOM for Object Modeling, where the models are themselves executable.
Critical to this approach is the concept of Reflexivity, i.e., the GINA model is described as a GINA model, that permits deep configurability. When one is using the interactive development environment used to create GINA applications, one is using a GINA application. More importantly, GINA assembles GINA applications according to a GINA model for GINA applications. Deeper still, the GINA model is itself an example of a GINA model. This deep configurability is the key to GINA’s power as interoperability and multi-level security
("MLS") engine.
As a combination of hardware and software-based components, which meets the requirements of a true GIG, GINA is configured as a universal virtual network of data of any type from any source in any location on collected physical networks. GINA is a product of several key concepts which collectively enable it to represent a complete, configurable interoperability environment. These key concepts are embodied in a series of layers and components which collectively allow GINA to perform the types of functions and provide the type of services it needs to be a fully functional interoperability environment.
programming faster and more accurate, and descriptive languages for specifying procedures (“4GL
”s like SQL
) made procedural programming faster and more accurate, GINA’s VRDM brings a new level of speed and accuracy to object-oriented programming
.
In the long run GINA’s encapsulation of the management of network-available data may be more important that even its speed and accuracy for large organizations.
s ("UIs") involves a process where a developer "paints", or in some other way creates a mark-up of the UI, and then defines the binding of components of that the UI to the underlying application using some standardized approach. The TOUI model takes a different approach: a UI is assembled at the time of request from components according to a set of vectors that take into the account model states and the user during the assembly process. As a result, the UI no longer represents the application that uses information, but rather becomes the external expression of the information model that represents the application. Moreover, because the definition of the UI is done as a set of metadata
-defined GINA components, the expression of those components can be done in any environment that has sufficiently strong semantics for representing applications, whether that is Java, .NET
, Python
, or even a 3-D visualization environment.interfaces, etc.
Global Information Grid
The Global Information Grid is an all-encompassing communications project of the United States Department of Defense.It is defined as a "globally interconnected, end-to-end set of information capabilities for collecting, processing, storing, disseminating, and managing information on demand to...
(GIG) that could transform the possibilities for Net-Centric Operations
Netops
NetOps is defined as the operational framework consisting of three essential tasks, Situational Awareness , and Command & Control that the Commander of US Strategic Command , in coordination with DoD and Global NetOps Community, employs to operate, manage and defend the Global Information Grid ...
.
The Global Information Network Architecture (GINA) Team was created in 2004 to address this possibility. Originally developed under Cooperative Research and Development Agreement (CRADA)
Cooperative Research and Development Agreement
In the United States, a cooperative research and development agreement is an agreement between a government agency and a private company to work together on research and development.-Description:...
with The US Naval Postgraduate School
Naval Postgraduate School
The Naval Postgraduate School is an accredited research university operated by the United States Navy. Located in Monterey, California, it grants master's degrees, Engineer's degrees and doctoral degrees...
(NPS) in Monterey CA, the projects initial title was Network Aware Business Data Management System (NABDMS).
In late 2008, the United States Army Corps of Engineers (USACE) Engineer Research and Development Center (ERDC) began the second phase of GINA's development. Currently focus is on purposing GINA as a High Level Architecture (HLA) for System Fusion Networks (SFN), GINA is being evolved and deployed globally to facilitate interoperability and a new form of computational design.
The Global Information Grid
“The globally interconnected, end-to-end set of information capabilities, associated processes, and personnel for collecting, processing, storing, disseminating and managing information on demand to warfighters, policy makers, and support personnel. The Global Information GridGlobal Information Grid
The Global Information Grid is an all-encompassing communications project of the United States Department of Defense.It is defined as a "globally interconnected, end-to-end set of information capabilities for collecting, processing, storing, disseminating, and managing information on demand to...
(GIG) includes all owned and leased communications and computing systems and services, software (including applications), data, security services, and other associated services necessary to achieve Information Superiority. It also includes
National Security Systems
Committee on National Security Systems
The Committee on National Security Systems is a United States intergovernmental organization that sets policy for the security of the US security systems.-Charter, mission, and leadership:...
as defined in section 5142 of the Clinger-Cohen Act of 1996. “
The United States Department of Defense
United States Department of Defense
The United States Department of Defense is the U.S...
(DoD) recognized back in 1996 the need to have a GIG. We have struggled, largely unsuccessfully to bring a reasonable facsimile of a GIG forward. There have been numerous research projects directed at creating a GIG, but actually turning DoD networks into a functioning GIG has proved elusive. The GIG is a very hard problem that requires a rethinking of current approaches to interoperability.
Vector Relational Data Modeling (VRDM)... Modeling Models.
The dictionary defines modeling as, “The representation, often mathematical, of a process, concept, or operation of a system.”While software modeling languages such as Unified Modeling Language
Unified Modeling Language
Unified Modeling Language is a standardized general-purpose modeling language in the field of object-oriented software engineering. The standard is managed, and was created, by the Object Management Group...
(UML) or Object Role Modeling
Object role modeling
Object Role Modeling is a method for conceptual modeling, and can be used as a tool for information and rules analysis, ontological analysis, and data modeling in the field of software engineering.- Overview :...
(ORM) attempt to provide an iconic representation to articulate the structure or architecture of an application, they are not executable and have limited applicability beyond the software design environment.
The GINA Team created GINA to enable model-based software engineering
Software engineering
Software Engineering is the application of a systematic, disciplined, quantifiable approach to the development, operation, and maintenance of software, and the study of these approaches; that is, the application of engineering to software...
, but we did so in such a way that the model, once-defined, represented a working application. By properly bounding the problem space to "Information Applications", i.e., non-algorithmically-intense applications with linear relationships representing the vast majority of software applications, the GINA team was able to create a configurable Component Based Object Model
Object model
In computing, object model has two related but distinct meanings:# The properties of objects in general in a specific computer programming language, technology, notation or methodology that uses them. For example, the Java objects model, the COM object model, or the object model of OMT...
(CBOM) for information management where the configuration represented the instructions for assembling a working implementation of the model. Moreover, the GINA team made the decision early in its development to make GINA a GINA model. By doing so the configuration itself could be controlled by configuration. As will be illustrated later, that turned out to be an important decision. Enabling GINA’s deep configurability required the development and implementation of multiple models.
The Control Model assembles the components of the component model, according to the assembly instructions in the Application Model into the structures defined in the Implementation Model to create GINA information objects.
The Application Model describes actual GINA applications. Both the description of applications and the GINA and Application Models themselves. These applications are described in terms of components in the Component Model. It represents the set of components that are assembled in order to create GINA information objects as specified in the application model.
Ultimately, we have to define GINA applications using a development model that is appropriate for developing GINA applications. And again, the GINA Development Model is itself described as a GINA application.
GINA, at a high level, is a model for modeling. Designed to facilitate a principle of development where relationships between objects can be objectified and wielded as objects in their own right, GINA itself is an executable model configured using VRDM.
VRDM is a core concept that is embodied by GINA. GINA could be looked at as an environment that turns collected data into a multi-dimensional object environment with each object being connected to other objects through vectors. This environment makes many of the information-centric tasks that a user might want to perform far easier than any other approach.
A key concept of VRDM is that relationships among information objects should themselves be defined as information objects, and be fully configurable.
Taking relationships and implementing them as GINA objects enables GINA to take configurations and assemble models that can perform most, if not all of the work done by typical hard-coded information applications, such as most enterprise systems, integrations, and information sharing systems.
As a result of VRDM, it is possible to specify an application through describing the required components as a series of objects and their relationships, or vectors. VRDM enables disparate data, from disparate sources to be invoked and configured to relate in a “System of Systems
System of systems
System of systems is a collection of task-oriented or dedicated systems that pool their resources and capabilities together to create a new, more complex system which offers more functionality and performance than simply the sum of the constituent systems...
” model called a specification. The behavior of a specification can be the much same as a contemporary application. The difference, however, is that with VRDM, there is no programming. GINA is a true CBOM for Object Modeling, where the models are themselves executable.
Critical to this approach is the concept of Reflexivity, i.e., the GINA model is described as a GINA model, that permits deep configurability. When one is using the interactive development environment used to create GINA applications, one is using a GINA application. More importantly, GINA assembles GINA applications according to a GINA model for GINA applications. Deeper still, the GINA model is itself an example of a GINA model. This deep configurability is the key to GINA’s power as interoperability and multi-level security
Multilevel security
Multilevel security or Multiple Levels of Security is the application of a computer system to process information with different sensitivities , permit simultaneous access by users with different security clearances and needs-to-know, and prevent users from obtaining access to information for...
("MLS") engine.
As a combination of hardware and software-based components, which meets the requirements of a true GIG, GINA is configured as a universal virtual network of data of any type from any source in any location on collected physical networks. GINA is a product of several key concepts which collectively enable it to represent a complete, configurable interoperability environment. These key concepts are embodied in a series of layers and components which collectively allow GINA to perform the types of functions and provide the type of services it needs to be a fully functional interoperability environment.
Descriptive Programming
Just as Assembler made machine languageMachine code
Machine code or machine language is a system of impartible instructions executed directly by a computer's central processing unit. Each instruction performs a very specific task, typically either an operation on a unit of data Machine code or machine language is a system of impartible instructions...
programming faster and more accurate, and descriptive languages for specifying procedures (“4GL
Fourth-generation programming language
A fourth-generation programming language is a programming language or programming environment designed with a specific purpose in mind, such as the development of commercial business software. In the history of computer science, the 4GL followed the 3GL in an upward trend toward higher...
”s like SQL
SQL
SQL is a programming language designed for managing data in relational database management systems ....
) made procedural programming faster and more accurate, GINA’s VRDM brings a new level of speed and accuracy to object-oriented programming
Object-oriented programming
Object-oriented programming is a programming paradigm using "objects" – data structures consisting of data fields and methods together with their interactions – to design applications and computer programs. Programming techniques may include features such as data abstraction,...
.
In the long run GINA’s encapsulation of the management of network-available data may be more important that even its speed and accuracy for large organizations.
Component Objects
With VRDM, Data Agnostic Objects can be created to represent common relationships called Mechanisms. These Mechanisms can be reused and combined with others, new and existing, to create systems and subsystems. This facilitates rapid deployment and non-programmatic implementation.Complexity
Just as everything in the world is assembled from remarkably few elements, arbitrarily complex systems can be assembled from relatively few objects. The key in both cases is that objects have to be designed for interaction and assembly. GINA is designed in that way. Fundamentally, at the bottom level are very few objects, e.g., objects, or XTypes in VRDM, and relationships between XTypes, or Vectors in VRDM. These objects are the primitives on which the VRDM object management model is based. In turn, instances of these primitives are assembled into the basic building blocks of VRDM: fully defined objects representing XTypes and Vectors, as well as constraints and simple entities. These can then be assembled to fully describe the GINA environment, and to allow the administrator to create the data objects to support a Task Oriented User Interface (TOUI), or a specific application.WorldSpace
A central concept in GINA is that objects can be referenced in multiple WorldSpaces, depending on how a user gets to that object. A WorldSpace determines the applicability of an object’s vectors, e.g. attributes and relationships, when assembled for a particular event or usage. WorldSpaces are inherently hierarchical: as one more tightly defines the WorldSpace associated with an event or usage, the more tightly one must define, and the more granularly one needs to specify associated behaviors.HyperPlanes
If we look back at the concepts associated with GINA, we could say that an object exists in a 3 dimensional data object space. Its location in that space is defined by its order of complexity, its usage and related components, and the user and WorldSpace in which it is being accessed. At any given time the behavior of a system is dictated by all of its objects locations in this 3-dimensional object- space. However, this behavior is not the same for every user, and is influenced by the characteristics of that user that effectively define hyperplanes in this object space. Thus, the appropriate object model is only summarized in three dimensions, with multiple user-based dimensions of behavior effectively being summarized on this graphic. In effect, at any given time an object exists as a point in 7+ dimensional object behavior space. Remarkably, GINA not only models this space effectively, but does so in an environment where most specifications are created through configuration, not programming.Directory Sub System (DSS)
GINA is implemented through a software-based, multi-layer, configurable data object management environment. Just as the entirety of GINA can be viewed as a series of well-structured layers, the data object management environment is also structured and layered, with multiple layers of the object management environment corresponding to each of the top three layers in the overall GINA. GINA’s “DSS” layer is actually composed of two separate implementation layers: a content server layer that consists of a collection of configurable objects that know how to navigate the network, acquire data, and present it in a consistent way; and an aggregation layer that homogenizes all incoming data, in both format and name, and presents itself as a universal object repository that insulates the information consumer from the complexities of managing the underlying data stores.Data Access Layer (DAL)
GINA collects data from aggregated systems using a collection of adaptors called Content Servers which structure the protocols, formats, and syntax of collected data into a common representation that then becomes the base data that can then be managed through the GINA model. Just as the providers of data to GINA operate on multiple protocols, formats, and syntaxes, the prospective consumers of GINA data may require information using their own protocols, formats, and syntax. GINA exposes itself using a standard "Data Access Layer" ("DAL") that can be—and has been—used to provide data to standardized or customized DALs such as SOAP Web Services, ODBC interfaces, etc.Task Oriented User Interface (TOUI)
Another model that has been built in GINA is called the Task-Oriented User Interface, or "TOUI". The current mainstream approach to user interfaceUser interface
The user interface, in the industrial design field of human–machine interaction, is the space where interaction between humans and machines occurs. The goal of interaction between a human and a machine at the user interface is effective operation and control of the machine, and feedback from the...
s ("UIs") involves a process where a developer "paints", or in some other way creates a mark-up of the UI, and then defines the binding of components of that the UI to the underlying application using some standardized approach. The TOUI model takes a different approach: a UI is assembled at the time of request from components according to a set of vectors that take into the account model states and the user during the assembly process. As a result, the UI no longer represents the application that uses information, but rather becomes the external expression of the information model that represents the application. Moreover, because the definition of the UI is done as a set of metadata
Metadata
The term metadata is an ambiguous term which is used for two fundamentally different concepts . Although the expression "data about data" is often used, it does not apply to both in the same way. Structural metadata, the design and specification of data structures, cannot be about data, because at...
-defined GINA components, the expression of those components can be done in any environment that has sufficiently strong semantics for representing applications, whether that is Java, .NET
.NET Framework
The .NET Framework is a software framework that runs primarily on Microsoft Windows. It includes a large library and supports several programming languages which allows language interoperability...
, Python
Python (programming language)
Python is a general-purpose, high-level programming language whose design philosophy emphasizes code readability. Python claims to "[combine] remarkable power with very clear syntax", and its standard library is large and comprehensive...
, or even a 3-D visualization environment.interfaces, etc.
GINA Applications
- Command and Control (C2)Command and Control (military)Command and control, or C2, in a military organization can be defined as the exercise of authority and direction by a properly designated commanding officer over assigned and attached forces in the accomplishment of the mission...
- C4ISRC4ISTARIn military usage, a number of abbreviations in the format C followed by additional letters are used, based on expanded versions of the abbreviation C2 - command and control.C2I stands for command, control, and intelligence....
- Intrinsic Multi-level network security
- Extensible executable enterprise solution