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The Web-Enabled Navy:
Made possible through XML
Topics
What is the Vision for the Web-Enabled
Navy?
 How do we get there?
 How is XML different from HTML?

Web Enabled Navy (WEN)
TFW Mission:
“To provide integrated and transformational
information exchange for both the ashore and afloat
navy to take full advantage of Navy’s IT21 and NMCI
infrastructure investments.”
Operational and business processes are conducted
worldwide via interconnected and interoperable webbased IT systems.
Current State of the World Wide Web
Numerous Web Sites Increasing
Every Day
Portals vs. Vortals
Portal -- A Web site or service that offers a broad array of resources
and services, such as e-mail, forums, search engines, and on-line
shopping malls. The first Web portals were online services, such as
AOL, that provided access to the Web, but by now most of the
traditional search engines have transformed themselves into Web
portals to attract and keep a larger audience.
Vortal -- Vertical Industry Portal is a portal Web site that provides
information and resources for a particular industry. Vortals are the
Internet's way of catering to consumers' focused-environment
preferences. Vortals typically provide news, research and statistics,
discussions, newsletters, online tools, and many other services that
educate users about a specific industry. As the Web becomes a
standard tool for business, vortals will join and maybe replace
general portal sites like AOL and Yahoo! as common gateways to the
Internet.
Source: http://webopedia.com/
Service-Centric View
NAVY PORTAL
Business
Operations
C2
Purchasing
Education
Chat
Weather
ATO
Telecommunications
Personnel
Calendar
Logistics
RMP/COP
Medical
MWR
Finance
Databases and Repositories and Applications
Architectural
Framework
Accessible
via Business
and
Warfare Operations
Navy Marine Corps Intranet
IT21
Marine Corps Tactical Network
Navy
Research Learning
Network Network
Industry
Partners
Replicated
Data Bases
Per Mission
Requirements
“.edu”
Extranet
SYSCOM
Defense Information
System Network (DISN)/
Global Information Grid
(GIG)
Training
Center
Pier
Connections
Fleet & USMC
Deployed Forces
TELEPORT
HQ
Network Operations Center
Clinic
Authoritative
Data Sources
and
Data Consolidation
(DISN Interface)
Common
User Access
Between
Afloat and Shore
Web Evolution
HTTP Request
Today
Document
Request
HTML
Browser
Client
HTTP Server
XML or
Native API
XML
HTML
Evolution
Browser
Client
XML
Portal Server
XML or
Native API
XML
Applications
Application
Server
XML
HTTP Server
Relational
Data
Hierarchical
Data
One Enterprise Portal
Notional Data; Unclassified
Email
Web Servers
(Intelligent Search)
Service Directory
Access
Visualization
Calendars
Phone, Pager, Cell
Phone, PDA Access
Messaging
Application Servers
Authoritative
Data Bases
Data Storage
and Retrieval
Infrastructure
Knowledge Base
Collaboration Tools
Web Enablement Services
Personalization
Features
Common Communication
Services
NMCI
Single Portal
With Common Services
User
Security
Access
IT-21
Service Registry
and Libraries
DISN/GIG
Navy Wide Business
Integration
How Do We Get There?

Current state – no enterprise approach
– Each ship and Echelon II is on their own


IT-21 (Afloat) and NMCI (Ashore) both bring
some, but not all, components to the enterprise
solution
Need to make concurrent changes to IT-21 and
NMCI and converge paths
– Engineering for enterprise architecture
– Hardware, software infrastructure changes
– Migration of applications to web services
WEN Architecture:

Architecture is XML centric
– Technically Feasible at little risk
– Leverages commercial evolution
– Future Web languages will incorporate XML

Standards based
– Hardware independent

Facilitates interoperability Navy wide,
Joint/Allied and Coalition
Emerging Technologies
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From
Proprietary systems
Wired
HTML
Limited browser use
Manual use
Limited specific use
Diverse message formats
Diverse database exchanges
Low bandwidth
Desktop
MHz computers
HTML
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To
Internet standard based systems
Wireless
XML
Universal portal use
Automation
Service Centric Usage
Common message format (XML)
XML based database exchanges
More efficient use of bandwidth
Network appliance / Handheld
GHz computers and PDAs
XML
Next Gen
XML??
Extensible Markup Language XML

Method for Putting Structured Data into Text File
– Set of rules, guidelines, conventions for structured data
– Cross-platform, software and hardware independent standard for
transmitting information

Looks Similar to HTML, But…..
– XML Describes Information; HTML Displays Information

Text based, but not Meant to be read (machine readable)
– Text files allow ease of debugging
– Way to structure, store, and send information

Conglomeration of Technologies
– XML Specification, stylesheets, schemas, etc.
XML was designed to store, carry and exchange data
XML vs HTML
• Both are a subset of SGML -Standard General Markup Language.
• SGML is too complex. It is used for describing different document
types, from ancient Irish manuscripts to musical notation.
• HTML doesn’t enforce a strict structure, and is not implemented
by all browsers the same. Can’t handle data rich pages well.
HTML is limited to displaying documents and information with
some hypertext and multimedia.
• XML describes information while HTML displays it.
XML is a “metalanguage” - a language for describing other
other languages. Can design your own markup language
(e.g. MetocML).
Rules for XML Coding:
•Begin with the XML Declaration:
<?xml version=“1.0” standalone=“yes” encoding=“iso-8859-1”?>
• All tags must have an end tag:
<greeting>Hello, world!</greeting>
• All tags must be in matched case:
<title> Document title </title> or
<LI> List item
</LI>
• All tags must be properly nested:
you <b>must do it <i> this </i> way</b>,
not <b><i>this</b> </i> way.
WEN Benefits

More ubiquitous access to information services
– Afloat/Ashore
– Via web browsers

Improved interoperability
– Extensive use of XML
– Separation of data from presentation layer enables support for
multiple display devices

Improved quality of information
– Establishment of authoritative, central databases supporting
similar services across multiple locations
– Ability to aggregate data from multiple sources

Reduced Total Costs
– Software support & hardware costs reduced
– Configuration management simplified