Models for Data Source Tracing with XML

The Air Force Research Laboratory, Sensors Directorate, Electronic Warfare Simulation Branch (AFRL/SNZW) is responsible for developing and maintaining real-world and hypothetical scenarios for an array of threat engagement simulation systems. The general process for scenario creation involves mapping from real-world databases and operations plans to specific fields in the input files which represent the scenario. As part of the AFRL/SNZW's overall initiative for the development of a Collaborative Engineering Real-Time database COR relation tool (CERTCORT), as important to the scenario files themselves is the capability to trace back to the source of data for the scenario fields. Acquiring this capability consequently results in the reusability of the old scenario components. In this research, a nascent markup technology, extensible Markup Language (XML) and its derivative languages are studied as a basis for representing and capturing the source of data for the fields of an old scenario file and exploiting it for the creation and editing of new scenario files.