Static vs Dynamic Architecture of Aware Cyber Physical Systems of Systems

Abstract

The Enterprise Architecture and Systems Engineering communities are often faced with complexity barriers that develop due to the fact that modern systems must be agile and resilient. This requires dynamic changes to the system so as to adapt to changing missions as well as changes in the internal and external environments. The requirement is not entirely new, but practitioners need guidance on how to manage the life cycle of such systems. This is a problem because we must be able to architect systems by alleviating the difficulties in systems life cycle management (e.g., by helping the enterprise- or systems engineer organise and maintain models and architecture descriptions of the system of interest). Building on Pask's conversation theoretic model of aware (human or machine) individuals, the paper proposes a reference model for systems that maintain their own models real time, act efficiently, and create system-level awareness on all levers of aggregation.