1. Evolution of Advanced Weather Interactive Processing System (AWIPS): AWIPS II Migration and Vision for the Next Decade 30th AMS Conference on Environmental Information Processing Technologies February 4, 2014
Ronla Henry, AWIPS Program Manager
Dr. Mike Farrar, Chief, Program Management Branch
NOAA/NWS, Office of Science and Technology

2. Outline
AWIPS Overview
AWIPS II Migration
Vision for the future

3. AWIPS Overview What is AWIPS?
Advanced Weather Interactive Processing System (AWIPS)
AWIPS is the NOAA/NWS cornerstone IT system used to
ingest, analyze, forecast, & disseminate operational weather
data, including time-sensitive, high-impact warnings to protect
life and property ….. 24/7/365

4. AWIPS Overview AWIPS Locations4 4

5. AWIPS Overview Scope & IT Footprint
Network Control Facility (NCF) operations
24/7 Helpdesk, trouble shooting, repair, HW/SW installation support, continuous monitoring, and security patching
AWIPS Communications
Satellite Broadcasting Network (SBN): 30Mbps satellite broadcast network; primary and backup Master Ground Station plus 167 site ground stations
LAN: IPv6 ready; Managed by AWIPS NCF
WAN: Private VPN over NOAANet (not part of AWIPS contract)
Hardware Maintenance & Refresh
172 systems at 150 sites; over 3500 servers and workstations; hundreds of routers, firewalls, storage arrays and network switches
Software Maintenance and Support
8 million of lines of AWIPS I code under CM control
8 million lines of AWIPS II code under CM control
Includes 2 million lines of code for legacy applications
Configuration Management
AWIPS Configuration Control Board reviews and authorizes all Requests for Change to the AWIPS IT enterprise 5

6. AWIPS Overview Evolution of AWIPS
Late 80s - early 90s: AWIPS I developed to replace AFOS system
AFOS = Automation of Field Operations and Services (AFOS)
1997: AWIPS I deployed
2004: NWS review identified AWIPS software as major obstacle to meeting future mission requirements
Costly to maintain; Challenging to infuse new science and applications
2006: NWS executed contract option for AWIPS II-related projects
2011: AWIPS II Field OTE began
: AWIPS II migration to National Centers and field offices
Extend Unified
Baseline & Continue Functional
Improvement
AWIPS
AWIPS II
Migration
Extended
and
S&T Infusion
Port Functionality
to Flexible
Architecture 6 6

7. AWIPS II Migration Objectives
Objectives: Migrate existing AWIPS capabilities to a modern, robust Services Oriented Architecture (SOA) in order to:
Unify stove piped applications into single framework
Improve maintainability & stability via streamlined, extensible software
Reduce maintenance costs
Speed infusion of research to operations
Improve public weather forecast accuracy and timeliness
Metrics for success: Migration of legacy to SOA expected to bring measureable benefits:
Reduce time to transition from 18 months to 9 months
Reduce software development time for new products by 50%
Increase software release frequency from 2 to 4 per year 7 7

8. AWIPS II Migration AWIPS II Software Re-Architecture Approach
Perform “black-box” conversion of AWIPS I functions to AWIPS II
Preserve existing functionality, “look and feel” on top of new Services Oriented Architecture (SOA) infrastructure
Thorough field validation and acceptance before deployment
Forecaster initial testing sessions; continuing/expanding in next phase
No loss of functionality
Deployed system current with deployed AWIPS capability
Use open source projects - No proprietary code
JAVA, PostGres, Qpid, Pypyies, Eclipse devel. environment, etc.
Objective is to make AWIPS II the platform for collaborative development with public, private, academic and international weather communities
Added useful functionality
Portable code base
No license fees; No copyright
Source code available to collaborators
Common development environment available to collaborators

9. AWIPS II Migration Current Deployment Status (as of Jan 2014)
AWIPS II currently supporting operations at:
16 (of 122) local Weather Forecast Offices (WFOs)
13 (of 13) regional River Forecast Centers (RFCs)
6 (of 6) national-level NCEP center sites
6 (of 6) NWS Regional Headquarters
WFO deployment timeline
Group 1 complete; exited 30-day stability test on Nov 7, 2013
Group 2 operational, now undergoing testing
Under the schedule in the current Activation Agreement, remaining WFO deployments will continue in groups of 8-10 WFOs
Last group scheduled to be completed by 4Q FY2015

10. AWIPS II Migration Incremental Tech Infusion Approach
AWIPS II Extended Projects are implemented as on-going, pre-planned, major infrastructure enhancements
Each project provides an incremental technology infusion to be built on the foundation of the AWIPS II infrastructure
Major AWIPS II Extended projects include:
Thin Client capability to enable AWIPS remote access from any location, critical for support to CWSUs at FAA sites, Decision Support Services [such as Incident Meteorologists (IMETs)], Continuity of Ops (COOP), etc.
Final Operational Capability achieved in 2013
Smart Push/Pull technologies to enable AWIPS to handle increased data volumes assoc. with major new initiatives (e.g., GOES-R, higher res. models)
Real-time collaboration among NWS operators and with NWS partners
Streamlined hazards services information generation dissemination and access for partners to support Impact-based Decision Support Services (IDSS)
Transition of NCEP-AWIPS (N-AWIPS) into AWIPS II to integrate capabilities between field and national offices leading to more efficient services and consolidation of hardware and software baselines

11. Vision for Future Continuations from current Contract
Basic contract structure:
O&M contract to operate/maintain system across National enterprise; continue approach of building towards stable and predictable O&M costs
Product Improvement contract to provide upgrades (e.g., Extended Projects)
Continued focus on operational reliability/performance, security, cost effectiveness, customer support
Continued system evolution to meet evolving requirements, as well as to meet Dept. Commerce, NOAA and NWS Strategic Objectives:
DOC:
NOAA:
NWS:

12. Vision for Future *Potential Changes with New Contract
In addition to O&M of current WFOs, RFC, NCEP and HQs, may potentially add O&M for new AWIPS II systems at:
Tsunami Warning Centers (2) in Alaska and Hawaii
Central Weather Service Units (CWSUs) located at 21 FAA sites
Implement and maintain a distributed Configuration Management (CM) environment that supports “collaborative” and agile software development between the Contractor, NWS, and other development partners
The Offeror may propose their own solution, or implement/adapt an existing collaborative environment, such as the NWS Virtual Lab (for more detail, see the following URL:
Architecture change that maximizes efficiencies, improves data latency, and minimizes communications bandwidth requirements for using and manipulating large 4-dimensional datasets within the AWIPS system, such as gridded model data and the National Digital Forecast Database (NDFD)
Changes to AWIPS hardware architecture (plus required software changes) to maximize efficiencies and create long-term O&M savings, while minimizing operational risks and required up-front investment
* This subset of potential changes are under consideration only.
NO final decisions have been made

13. AWIPS Points of Contact NWS Office of Science & Technology
Mike Farrar (Chief, Program Management Branch)
Ronla Henry (AWIPS Program Manager)
Mark Miller (Acquisition Lead for new AWIPS contract)
Website to download AWIPS II code + technical library for new contract

14. Back-up slides AWIPS Hardware/Network diagrams

15. Current AWIPS Hardware Footprint at WFO

16. Current AWIPS Hardware Architecture CONUS WFO configuration

17. Current AWIPS Hardware Architecture OCONUS WFO configuration

18. Current AWIPS Hardware Architecture RFC configuration

19. Current AWIPS Hardware Architecture National Center configuration