Chapter 3
Network Operations
Crucial to the effective employment and survival of the LWN is the need for successful management and defense as a single, coherent, seamless enterprise. NETOPS is the cornerstone of managing the LWN at strategic, operational, and tactical levels. NETOPS provide integrated visibility and end-to-end collaborative management of systems, services, and applications as part of a joint network environment. It is essential to achieve NETOPS situational awareness in order to allow commanders to manage their networks as they would other combat systems. For signal forces, this also improves the quality and speed of decision making in regards to the employment, protection, and defense of LWN.
SECTION I - NETWORK OPERATIONS IN THE LANDWARNET
NETWORK OPERATIONS GOALS
3-1. NETOPS is defined as those activities conducted to operate and defend the GIG. The goal of Army NETOPS is to provide assured and timely network enabled services across strategic, operational, and tactical boundaries (LWN). These services will support the commanders' entire spectrum of Warfighting, intelligence, and business mission requirements. NETOPS is the essential set of policies, structures, capabilities, techniques, and procedures that ensure that the systems and services provided by signal command provides the highest level of quality of service for the LWN users.
3-2. Properly coordinated and executed in a joint environment, NETOPS will provide the Warfighter with the following desired effects:
• Assured system and network availability provides visibility and control over the system and network resources. These resources are effectively managed and problems are anticipated and mitigated. Proactive actions are taken to ensure the uninterrupted availability and protection of the system and network resources. This includes providing for graceful degradation, self- healing, fail over, diversity, and elimination of critical failure points.
• Assured information protection provides protection for the information passing over networks from the time it is stored and catalogued until it is distributed to the users, operators, and decision makers.
• Assured information delivery provides information to users, operators, and decision makers in a timely manner. The networks are continuously monitored to ensure the information is transferred with the correct response time, throughput, availability, and performance that meet user needs.
NETWORK OPERATIONS PROCESSES
3-3. NETOPS enable signal organizations to operate, manage, defend, and respond to issues which negatively impact the ability to use networks as a combat multiplier. NETOPS processes are defined in three interdependent essential tasks: GIG Enterprise Management (GEM), GND, and Global Content Management (GCM). See Figure 3-1.
Figure 3-1. NETOPS interdependent essential tasks
NETOPS ESSENTIAL TASKS
3-4. GEM is defined as the technology, processes, and policy necessary to operate effectively the systems and networks that compromise the GIG. This essential task merges the five major IT services with the NETOPS critical capabilities. The following IT services are within the GEM and manage the GIG services and technologies:
• Systems management.
• Enterprise services management.
• Network management.
• SATCOM management.
• EMS management.
3-5. The GND ensures and manages the integrity, viability, availability, identification, authentication, confidentiality, and non-repudiation of friendly information and systems. The following fundamental attributes are an essential element of network protection, which encompasses those prior actions needed for counter attack, intrusion or exploitation of the LWN transport, storage, and operational uses:
• Protection.
• Monitoring.
• Detection.
• Analyzing.
• Responding.
3-6. GCM is defined as the technology, processes, and policy necessary to provide awareness of relevant, accurate information, automated access to newly discovered or recurring information, and timely, efficient and assured delivery of information in a usable format. The following core services are envisioned to be enterprise-wide services used by the entire DOD to ensure information is available to all authorized users:
• Content discovery.
• Content delivery.
• Content storage.
3-7. NETOPS will be addressed in greater detail with the future publication of FMI 6-02.71, Network
Operations.
SECTION II - MANAGING THE LANDWARNET
3-8. Managing the LWN encompasses a number of different, often overlapping and mutually supporting, organizations, environments, and architectures. Added to that are Army commands, and ASCCs that operate separate networks to support specific facilities located around the world, such as the Army Corps of Engineers, Army Recruiting Command, Army Space and Missile Defense Command/Army Strategic Command, United States Army Intelligence and Security Command (INSCOM), and United States Army Reserve Command (USARC). One challenge to the LWN is that some separate networks create duplication of effort in network management and integration. In the worst case, having different networks with potentially different security policies and practices can create security vulnerabilities for the entire Army when the various networks are linked together with each other and with mainstream Army networks.
LANDWARNET AWARENESS
3-9. NETOPS requires developing an integrated view of the overall health of the network, providing real- time or near real-time NETOPS situational awareness. This will provide Army commanders and other users information related to the LWN system and transport failure, service attrition or shortfalls, and possible resolutions. Ideally, the NETOPS situational awareness will provide a valuable tool in predictive analysis regarding changes in operational requirements, allocation of LWN resources,