A Scalable Services Framework for Modeling Service Exchange Networks

Drawing on the concept of Network Centric Warfare (NCW) in the military domain, we provide a generic provider-consumer services framework to model services exchange networks. An example use of the model in the context of healthcare is provided in order to illustrate its multi-domain applicability. The framework is based on the exchange of six fundamental services between the entities in the network: sensing, cognition, physical movement, information movement, logistics and effects (SCMILE). The unique features of our model are its scalability and fractal nature. Our framework equally applies to human and machine systems and can be used to model complex hybrid service interactions. For example, it can be applied to model interactions between different professionals within a particular hospital department such as an operating room, and it can also be applied to model the interactions between different departments within the hospital, where the network nodes are represented by human actors in the former and by individual departments in the latter.