www.nplace.wvhtf.org

Program Overview
SRG’s National Product Line Asset Center (NPLACE) offers a variety of services to assist the DoD community in securing its technological infrastructure today, while preparing for the challenges of tomorrow. Network Centric Warfare (NCW) is a concept where joint forces are able to share data in real-time to provide fielded forces with true interoperability and greater flexibility. NCW facilitates more effective warfighting abilities by linking operational entities with common goals for real-time solutions on the battlefield.

The Defense Information Systems Agency (DISA) has identified nine core Network Centric Enterprise Service types crucial to Network Centric Operations. NPLACE is developing and testing software to support four of those services including:

Discovery – Services that proactively search a network for data and services that will help a user complete the mission.

Messaging – Services that provide users with notification of events; used in close coordination with Discovery services.

Security – Services that provide system access and authentication, as well as data filtering for multi-level secure systems.

Collaboration – Services that allow users with a common mission to exchange information in a real-time, dynamically-sized virtual forum.

• Developing Service Oriented Architectures (SOAs)
• Packaging SOA tools for field deployment
• Developing interface tools for legacy C4I applications
• Testing C4I systems and commercial products for NCW compatibility.

NPLACE Testing & Evaluation Services

• DII-COE Compliance Evaluations
• GCCS Compliance Audits
• Performance/Capacity Testing
• Security Evaluations
• Suitability Testing
• Documentation Reviews
• Compliance Requirements Analysis

Secure Test Laboratory & Professional Staff

• The NPLACE staff consists of a variety of knowledgeable, highly-proficient test engineers, analysts, software developers, system administrators, and specialized support staff with decades of DoD project experience.

• Our laboratory facilities have physical and logical security and surveillance features that provide safekeeping for sensitive materials.

DII COE Evaluations
For more than four years, NPLACE has conducted evaluations of software segments from major DoD C4I systems to ensure they are COE-compliant.

DII COE Kernel Support
NPLACE supports COE kernel software efforts by porting the kernel to different versions of the Windows family of operating systems, reviewing kernel installation and use documentation, and conducting beta testing on new versions of the kernel.

DII COE Kernel Commercialization
NPLACE is working to develop a platform-independent, commercial-software-based kernel to maximize interoperability and reduce kernel development/maintenance costs.

Network Centric Enterprise Services (NCES) Validation
NPLACE is on target to become one of the DoD’s validation labs for NCES.

Virtual Enterprise Simulation Integration Lab (VESIL)
NPLACE houses a NCW laboratory to test new concepts and established systems in a Service Oriented Architecture (SOA).

Consulting Services
NPLACE provides a variety of consulting services for the development community, including support for Integration Efforts within a Network Centric Warfare Environment, Development Support, Strategic Planning, and Forecasting.

Other services include educational seminars and related materials, integration services, software documentation reviews, preliminary product analyses & assessments, and related services.

In the NCW platform, a network treats Command, Control, Communications, Computers, and Intelligence (C4I) systems as services that any user may employ to complete the mission. Future C4I systems can be designed to smoothly interact within the DoD’s NCW architecture.

Meanwhile, existing systems – previously considered “stovepiped” or unable to interface with systems developed for another application or organization – can utilize custom application interfaces built to expedite information sharing.