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C4 IMS to Speed Up Processing of Fleet Communications Problems

Navy NewsStand

Story Number: NNS041028-09
Release Date: 10/28/2004 11:29:00 AM

By Gary R. Wagner, Naval Network and Space Operations Command Public Affairs

DAHLGREN, Va. (NNS) -- The C4 Information Management System (IMS) was installed at the regional Naval Computer and Telecommunications Area Master Stations (NCTAMS) in Virginia, Hawaii and Italy starting in May, to automate procedures used to report and track communications outages and related issues.

C4 IMS harnesses industry-standard technology to speed the submission and updating of problems to the NCTAMS' regional Joint Fleet Telecommunications Operations Centers (JFTOC) via the SIPRNET.

"This initiative is one of Navy's first practical applications of Joint Vision 2020 and Task Force Web," said Nancy Rantanen, director of the Defense Message System Consolidated Help Desk (DCHD) at NCTAMS Atlantic Region in Norfolk, Va.

Rantanen has supervised the build-out of the pilot C4 IMS call center, which will merge with DCHD to handle all DMS trouble calls and all network-related issues or problems.

C4 IMS is operationally linked to each regional JFTOC. Trouble reporting and workflow are maintained within the regional view, allowing watch officers to quickly assess overall communications readiness for their area of responsibility. Watch officers can initiate reporting on any data point or timeframe to gain up-to-the-minute situational awareness.

Watch officers can also pass trouble tickets to the gaining NCTAMS when a unit out-chops, or they can escalate tickets to DISA for infrastructure-related issues. The warfighter is kept up-to-date on trouble ticket progress through email notifications that are automatically sent as the ticket progresses through the C4 IMS.

Currently, the JFTOC uses decades-old messaging technology to receive problem reports (COMSPOTS) from the warfighter. The COMSPOTS are record messages that must traverse the DISN backbone to arrive at their destination, which inserts latency into the reporting matrix.

"Similarly, once received, the COMSPOTS are manually tracked and manually assigned to work centers as the problem progresses to resolution," said Rantanen. "Once the mandatory retention period has elapsed, the data contained in the messages, along with their solutions, is lost to the burn bag."

C4 IMS not only automates the process of submitting trouble reports, but it puts the user directly onto the C4 IMS servers via the Web. Once a problem is submitted, it has already arrived at its destination - the JFTOC. JFTOC will assign the trouble ticket to the correct work center again via a standard Web interface, where all troubleshooting information is entered directly to the ticket. Upon resolution, the customer is notified automatically by C4 IMS, and the data is warehoused for future data mining and metric reporting requirements.

"C4 IMS saves valuable time by enabling the warfighter to report problems directly to the database. This eliminates the inherent latency of COMSPOTs submitted through the naval messaging system, and immediately alerts the JFTOC watch officer to critical warfighter issues," says Rantanen. "The JFTOC watch officer has comprehensive as well as granular visualization of all AOR (area of responsibility) issues."

Don Owens, deputy department head for operations at NCTAMS LANT, admits the implementation of C4 IMS may seem "a leap of faith" for Sailors who are used to the long-established procedures for writing COMSPOT trouble tickets, but he emphasized, "Making a commitment to go this way changes things forever."

Cmdr. John Chandler, head of operations at NCTAMS LANT, predicts the fleet will welcome the change.

"It won't be hard to convince anyone who's had to sit down with 30 COMSPOTs and build a story that this new method won't be great," said Chandler.

Naval Network and Space Operations Command in Dahlgren, Va., is sponsoring development of C4 IMS to enable customers to quickly assess the operational environment and provide decision makers with the tools they need to take decisive action based on authoritative information.