First published 2011 in Great Britain and the United States by ISTE Ltd and John Wiley & Sons, Inc.

Apart from any fair dealing for the purposes of research or private study, or criticism or review, as permitted under the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988, this publication may only be reproduced, stored or transmitted, in any form or by any means, with the prior permission in writing of the publishers, or in the case of reprographic reproduction in accordance with the terms and licenses issued by the CLA. Enquiries concerning reproduction outside these terms should be sent to the publishers at the undermentioned address:

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The rights of Dominique Luzeaux, Jean-René Ruault, Jean-Luc Wippler to be identified as the authors of this work have been asserted by them in accordance with the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988.

Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data

Large-scale complex system and systems of systems / edited by Dominique Luzeaux, Jean-Rene Ruault, Jean-Luc Wippler.

p. cm.

Includes bibliographical references and index.

ISBN 978-1-84821-253-4

1. Systems engineering. 2. Systems engineering--Case studies. 3. Large scale systems. I. Luzeaux, Dominique. II. Ruault, Jean-Rene. III. Wippler, Jean-Luc.

TA168.L3275 2011

620.001'1--dc23

2011032507

British Library Cataloguing-in-Publication Data

A CIP record for this book is available from the British Library

ISBN 978-1-84821-253-4

Author Biographies

We would like to thank all of the contributors to the various chapters of this book.

Jean-François GAJEWSKI

Jean-François Gajewski gained his degrees at ENSAE (Supaéro), and is an EADS technical expert for Astrium Satellites, lecturer at ISAE, as well as a coordinator for the Comité Technique AFIS “Sûreté de Fonctionnement des Systèmes” [AFIS Technical Committee “Dependability of Systems”]. After obtaining his Engineering degree in 1980, he joined Matra Espace where, for nearly 10 years, he was in charge of the dependability of the projects Spot1, Ariane 4 then Ariane 5 (vehicle equipment bay), Columbus, developing autonomous processing methods for complex system anomalies. He became head of the Systems Dependability Department at Matra Marconi Space in 1993 for the deployment of dependability engineering within the company (both space and ground segments). At the same time, he introduced an original training program for systems dependability and safety engineering (Supaéro, ENSICA, INSA, ENSEEIHT) and devised a specialized aeronautics course (Aeronautical Maintenance) for the Civil Aviation University of China (CAUC) in Tianjin (in collaboration with ENAC, ISAE, AIRBUS). Nominated as an EADS technical expert in 2005, he supervises all of the advanced studies in systems dependability for the Astrium Satellites account (including the domain of data security), and is in charge of promoting experience from in-orbit feedback in systems engineering processes.

Hélène GASPARD-BOULINC

Hélène Gaspard-Boulinc, née Uninski, obtained her degrees at École Nationale de l’Aviation Civile, and also has a Masters in fundamental computer science and parallelism (1998). Employed by the Direction Générale de l’Aviation Civile [French Dept. of Civil Aviation], she first occupied the post of research engineer within the Centre d’Études de la Navigation Aérienne [French Air Traffic Management Research Center) on air-ground cooperation projects. She then became responsible for the design, creation and deployment of an analysis system for air traffic control incidents in French en-route control centers. At the same time, she was in charge of the teamwork on flight analysis systems (statistics, charges, experience feedback and safety). Since 2008, she has been an Associate Professor at École Nationale de l’Aviation Civile in project management and systems engineering. She also conducts research into human-computer interaction within the laboratoire d’informatique interactive (LII) [interactive computing laboratory].

Olivier KLOTZ

Olivier Klotz obtained his degrees at ENSAM (École Nationale Supérieure des Arts et Métiers) and is certified in project management (PMP® from PMI). A senior consultant for Altran Technologies since 1989, he manages the project teams on the international environment and helps with systems engineering problems such as the implementation of system references, drafting system specifications, client/supplier problems (drafting requirements and job specifications), etc. He has worked in technical environments both in the civilian and military sector (space, naval, civilian and military aeronautics, air traffic control, automobile, rail, etc.). He also shares his know-how as a trainer in project management and systems engineering on behalf of his employer, their clients and at ISAE/Supaéro, and ENAC (at MSc level).

Dominique LUZEAUX

Dominique Luzeaux obtained degrees at École Polytechnique (1987) and École Nationale Supérieure des Techniques Avancées (1989). After obtaining his doctorate from the University of Paris XI (1991), he was an invited researcher at the University of Berkeley until 1992. Employed by the DGA (Direction Générale de l’Armement [French Ministry of Defence]), he is currently in charge of the Land Systems Division and holds the rank of Brigadier General. Furthermore, having attained the habilitation [French accreditation to supervise research] in 2001, he has supervised a dozen doctoral theses and published more than 60 articles at conferences and in international journals. He teaches systems-of-systems engineering at graduate level. He is the author of several books on system-ofsystems engineering in French and in English with Jean René Ruault, and he has also co-written with Pascal Cantot Simulation and Modeling of Systems of Systems, published in 2011 by ISTE Ltd and John Wiley & Sons. Since 2009, he has been Chairman of Association Française pour l’Ingénierie Système (AFIS), which is the French chapter of INCOSE (International Council for System Engineering).

Daniel PRUN

After gaining his doctorate in 1997 at Pierre and Marie Curie University (Paris 6 – MASI laboratory), he left the academic world to join Altran Technologies first as a junior then a senior consultant in systems engineering. He has thus been involved in many different sectors of the industry (mainly defense, air-traffic control, aeronautics, railways, medical) to lead support activities and advice. His main fields of expertise lie in the technical processes of systems engineering and particularly those of verification and validation. In December 2009, he joined ENAC and laboratoire d’informatique interactive (LII) [interactive computing laboratory] with the objective of developing courses and research in systems engineering. He is a member of INCOSE (International Council in System Engineering) for whom he participates in the development of a book of knowledge for systems engineering (BKCASE project) and its French chapter (Association Française d’Ingénierie Système, AFIS [French association for systems engineering]). He is particularly involved in the development a local Midi-Pyrénées chapter of AFIS.

Jean-René RUAULT

Jean-René Ruault gained his degree from EHESS (École des Hautes Études en Sciences Sociales) in experimental social psychology. After working in various service firms for more than 10 years, he joined the DGA in 2004. He worked as a systems engineer for 7 years. Qualified to expert level in “Methods and tools of systems engineering” in 2008, he contributed to the education of young engineers and worked with programs. Currently, he is design authority and standardization leader. He was the seminar leader for the AFIS “Systems of systems and services; architecture and engineering” technical committee and contributed to the editing and publishing of the BNAE “General recommendation for acquisition and supply of open systems” (RG.Aéro 000 120). He has published more than 15 articles in the field of systems engineering and man-machine interaction. He was co-president of the Ergo’IA conference in 2006. Along with Dominique Luzeaux, he co-edited the book Systems of Systems, published by ISTE Ltd and John Wiley & Sons in 2010.

Charlotte SEIDNER

After obtaining a bachelor’s and master’s degree in engineering from École Centrale de Nantes, Charlotte Seidner defended her PhD thesis in 2009, entitled “Vérification des EFFBDs : Model checking en Ingénierie Système” [Verification of EFFBDs : model checking in system engineering] and carried out in collaboration with IRCCyN (Institut de Recherche en Communication et Cybernétique de Nantes [Nantes Research Institute of Communication and Cybernetics]) and Sodius, an SME in Nantes, highly involved in Systems Engineering. Since 2010 she has been an Associate Professor at the University of Nantes and carries out research activities at IRCCyN, around formal methods applied to high-level problems.

Philippe THUILLIER

Philippe Thuillier gained his degree at SUPELEC (École Supérieure d’Électricité). He first worked in the field of real-time embedded software development before becoming interested in complex systems engineering. For nearly 15 years he has been a senior consultant within Altran Technologies in very diverse sectors (air-traffic control, defense, aeronautics, medical, etc.). As such, he supervises projects on subjects such as: the deployment of SE technical referentials, implementation of methods and tools (MBSE, RBE), systems procurement, etc.; activities which sometimes require approaches like collaborative engineering. He also contributes to the development of SE within his company. A lecturer in some MSc programs, he is also involved in the development of AFIS [French association for systems engineering; INCOSE affiliate], for example through his contribution in setting up the Toulouse Midi-Pyrénées AFIS local chapter.

Jean-Luc WIPPLER

Jean-Luc Wippler gained his degree at SUPELEC (École Supérieure d’Électricité) in signal processing. For the last 20 years he has worked mainly in the sectors of space, defense, and air-traffic control. He has participated as a system architect in numerous projects in the field of Earth Observation (Hélios, Pléiades, Cosmo-Skymed, Orfeo, Musis, CSO) and satellite navigation (Egnos, Galileo). He has also contributed to systems engineering in the air-traffic control, medical and automobile fields. At the beginning of 2011 he joined EADS Cassidian, within the SDC (System Design Center) for whom he managed the Toulouse Antenna. He is also involved with the AFIS [French association for systems engineering]. He was, for example, the co-organizer of the RobAFIS 2009 competition. He is now the coleader of the MBSE working group. In addition to his job as a senior systems architect, he devotes his time to teaching systems engineering at MSc level (ISAE/Supaéro, ENAC) and continuing education in partnership with MAP Système and Eurosae.

Introduction

Although systems engineering has been around for some time, the domain is currently becoming increasingly widespread and attracting the attention of engineers who, rightly, see it as a federating and multidisciplinary approach to dealing with complex systems.

Having emerged in the fields of aeronautics, the aerospace industry and defense, systems engineering is now applied in most economic domains, including transportation, energy and the medical domain, to cite just a few examples. Various factors promote the application of systems engineering in a wide range of domains. Without giving an exhaustive list, these factors include the necessity to avoid beginning each project from scratch by making use of pre-existing resources; the long lifespan of systems integrating technological components with increasingly brief lifespans, necessitating careful management of obsolescence; the need to find appropriate solutions responding to expressed needs, timescales and budgeted costs; and the need to dismantle systems and reduce final wastage.

More broadly, the need to ensure the interoperability of systems with varied origins not designed for interoperability, in order to upgrade existing systems that are not best suited to current operational needs, leads us to apply system-of-systems engineering practices. Several works have already been published covering systemof- systems engineering, presenting theoretical foundations, fundamental concepts, domains of application, methods and tools, modeling and system simulation alongside the standards applied to the domain. In this work, we shall consider the concrete application of these concepts, methods and tools in the context of projects.

The first section of this work is made up of two chapters: Engineering Large-scale Complex Systems and Management of Emergency Situations.

In the first chapter, we shall consider the characteristics of large-scale complex systems that the reader may be called upon to engineer. Current issues include the passage from an approach to systems as patrimonial resources to a perception of systems as services. This has effects in terms of economic models and engineering models (simultaneous creation and consumption of the service). System resilience is also a major concern; we must now design systems “for uncertainty”, taking account of the behavior of the system in relation to its surroundings or beyond its limits. We must also qualify and quantify the “slide” from operational functionality in a system towards a state of failure before major breakdowns occur. Engineering for largescale systems must be based on a broader understanding of the subject of complexity than is currently the case. “Complexity” covers a range of factors, including interactions, non-linearity, unpredictability, sensitivity to initial conditions and multi-scale characteristics. We shall then look at the seven major challenges of systems engineering and the developments that are necessary to respond to these issues. Finally, we shall consider the impact of these issues in terms of modeling, automatic demonstration, and the design of material and software components of systems.

Chapter 2 is a case study on emergency system management, from an architectural and system-of-systems engineering perspective. The chapter gives a 360° view of all dimensions that must be taken into account when providing a region with the capacity to manage crisis situations, in this case road accidents, in order to reduce accidental mortality and morbidity. Chapter 2 shows how these operational, technical, economic and social dimensions are interlinked, both in the practical use of products and in service provision. Based on a reference operational scenario, we shall demonstrate how to define the perimeter and functions of a system of systems. We shall also show how a functional, modular architecture may be developed for an accident detection system, suited to the segmentation of the market, in order to create a viable economic model, and how to express needs based on the analysis of activities and existing resources. A system of systems includes products, but also services that each have their own specific characteristics, including simultaneous production and consumption of a service. Finally, we shall demonstrate a method of organizing information within an architectural structure in order to ensure coherence, but also to communicate only relevant information to those involved to save them from drowning in a mass of disorganized data.

Part 2 of this book is made up of a number of chapters based on a second case study, the Antarctica Life Support Facility.

This case study will show, step-by-step and in detail, the activities involved in engineering the complex system constituted by the Antarctica Life Support Facility: a (sub)system of a fictional mission in Antarctica involving five scientists responsible for obtaining samples from deep underground. This system has a number of significant aspects and shows up particular characteristics of systems engineering, including the definition of perimeters, consideration of the life cycle, links to project management, integration of different disciplines, pursuit of an optimal global solution, etc. This case study is presented in a narrative manner showing both sides of the story. The characters involved in acquisition and supply cross paths, carry out their activities, sometimes with doubts, and do not always succeed at the first attempt; together, they create a suitable solution in an iterative and incremental manner.

Thus, the reader may follow those responsible for acquisition in capturing the stakeholders’ needs, their understanding and subsequent construction of a system model including expectations, the lifecycle, operational and physical boundaries and the representation of the domain. We shall then see how this model is represented in a specification, how a contractor is selected to supply the system and how an agreement is established with the contractor. From the other side, we shall see how the supplier designs a suitable solution to respond to needs within fixed budgetary and time constraints. We then show the establishment and initialization of a constructive systems-engineering approach (finding the best solution to the problem) and the links to project management. This illustrates the dual nature of systems design, which includes operational and physical aspects, and the importance and complementarity of the two. We thus show the creation of a constructive model of the system allowing objective evaluation, verification and validation, before going on to show how this design is punctuated by engaging technical decisions based on evaluations, trade-off studies and fine optimizations of system characteristics. Through this, we see clearly that this design process must involve a multidisciplinary approach, as illustrated by two examples of the integration of transversal disciplines in the system design process: operational security and human factors. Finally, we shall demonstrate the need to correctly place integration, verification and system validation processes, to anticipate them and to link them firmly to other engineering processes. Through this case study, then, we shall show the federative aspects of systems engineering, contrary to a compartmentalized juxtaposition of engineering practices and mutually ignorant disciplines.

PART 1

Engineering Large-Scale Complex Systems and Emergency Situation Management

Chapter 1

Engineering Large-scale Complex Systems ¹

1.1. Introduction

The terms systems science, systems of systems and systems engineering have, for decades, been excluded from use in the field of hard sciences due to their engineering connotations. These gaps have been filled by the domains of control engineering and the theory of dynamical systems, apparently more noble due to their use of equations and theorems derived from applied mathematics. These terms have recently resurfaced to a great deal of media attention in light of recent events: the 2008 economic crisis and subsequent attempts to escape from the crisis, attempts to achieve stability in Iraq and Afghanistan, and the crisis provoked by the Icelandic volcanic ash cloud.

It is, moreover, interesting even entertaining to see how pseudo-specialist media publications, in the form of specialist editions produced by wide-distribution media or successful books by amateur economists, have made the notion of systems more fashionable in the context of the economic crisis. They insist on the heterogeneity of components, their relationships and interactions, and the complexity of these interactions in both temporal and spatial terms. Moving beyond this essential notion, the whole approach of systemics has become fashionable, with general favor accorded to a holistic approach, moving simultaneously from global to local and from specific to general aspects, to take account of all feedback loops at different levels in the system, etc. All of this comes from the same experts who previously spoke of microeconomic parameters and zealously promoted reductionism.

Systemics is once again (for the time being we should not count on permanence in this age of consumption of icons, whether talking about sports stars, pop stars, TV stars or temporary disciples of a stream of thought) on the agenda in an attempt to provide explanations where previous analyses have failed. By considering the object of study from this angle of multiples, links and complexity (in the etymological sense of the term, multi-stranded, braided), we demonstrate the need for multiple perspectives, different approaches, and to avoid becoming trapped in a monolithic vision backed up solely by the knowledge inherent in a single given domain.

This is abundantly clear in a number of studies on the crisis in the Middle East, where it seems evident that, in order to escape the inevitable impasses created by difficult stabilization, a purely military, political or economic response is insufficient. It is clear that military intervention has been unsuccessful in establishing alternatives following the removal of old regimes; donor conferences have not succeeded in establishing bases for permanent economic and industrial reconstruction within the states in question, nor have the creation of constitutions and the establishment of elections been enough to create political stability and guarantee the creation of a viable state. It is, in fact, a conjunction of these actions, and many others, which is currently used in the secret hope that a suitable combination of these ingredients might be found rapidly using the resources already involved. Still, we should note that this magic recipe will not remain the same over time; military, political and economic approaches must be dosed appropriately to create and exploit margins for maneuver, allowing us to envisage progress in the stabilization process.

Once again, systemics provides the keys to explaining and modeling, from which it becomes possible to create action plans supporting trajectories towards desired objectives. However, this system analysis must be carried out without prejudice as to the importance of specific viewpoints: systemics is born of the richness and multiplicity of approaches to a problem, but is destroyed by overly hasty and excessively simplistic conclusions.

Let us return to the example of the stabilization problem in Afghanistan and Iraq. Insurgent action is directed towards neutralization of the conditions necessary for the establishment of a political-economical-judicial system or, in other words, a state that would guarantee the security, prosperity and well-being of the population that created it. This is an example of actions undertaken by insurgents to avoid the establishment of a system, an integrated set of connected and interlinked elements (personnel, products and processes), which aim to satisfy one or more defined objectives (ISO/IEC 15288). The strategies of this mode of combat have been used by T.E. Lawrence against the Turks, Mao Tse-Tung (China), Vo Nguyen Giap and Ho Chi Minh (Vietnam), the Sandinists (Nicaragua), the Intifada and the al-Aqsa Intifada (Israel/Palestine), and finally al-Qaeda. All use systemic reflections in their writings calling for insurrection, as discussed by [HAM 06], providing justification for the use of systems science as an analytical tool to combat this type of situation.

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