Technical Standard for SOSA™ Reference Architecture, Edition 1.0

This document is the Technical Standard for SOSA™ Reference Architecture, Edition 1.0. It will enable rapid, affordable, cross-platform capability advancements based upon fundamentals of system, software, hardware, and electrical and mechanical engineering best practices and Modular Open Systems Approach (MOSA) principles to develop a solution that addresses Department of Defense (DoD) needs for a cohesive unified set of sensor capabilities.

The goal of The Open Group SOSA Consortium is to develop open architecture at the right level for Communications (Comms), Electro-Optical/Infra-Red (EO/IR), Electronic Warfare (EW), Radar, and Signals Intelligence (SIGINT) systems. The open architecture supports airborne, subsurface, surface, ground, and space. The SOSA Consortium strives to develop an ecosystem that allows interoperability, reuse, and faster delivery of products to market through vertical integration from cables, mechanical interfaces, hardware, software, and system designs.

Long lead times, cumbersome improvement processes, lack of reuse, platform-unique design, and extensive testing requirements characterize the current Department of Defense (DoD) C5ISR (Command, Control, Communications, Computers, Cyber, Intelligence, Surveillance, and Reconnaissance) capability. This results in higher costs and the inability to deliver capabilities to the war fighter in a timely manner. To counter these trends, the United States Air Force (USAF) Air Force Life Cycle Management Center (AFLCMC), Naval Air System Command (NAVAIR), US Army C5ISR Center, and Program Executive Office (PEO)-Aviation program offices, enabled by the expertise and experience of the DoD’s industrial base, are adopting a revolutionary approach. The Technical Standard for SOSA Reference Architecture will enable rapid, affordable, cross-platform capability advancements based upon fundamentals of system, software, hardware, and electrical and mechanical engineering best practices and Modular Open Systems Approach (MOSA) principles to develop a solution that addresses DoD needs for a cohesive unified set of sensor capabilities. The goal of The Open Group SOSA Consortium is to reduce development and integration costs and reduce time to field new sensor capabilities.