The Role of Graph Theory in System of Systems Engineering

The world of system of systems engineering (SoSE), and consequently systems engineering, is currently being reformalized so as to provide greater functionality, integration, and extensibility into designed systems of systems (SoS). Graph theory and big data techniques are in position to play substantial roles in this reformalization, and hence, this paper fills a significant need by bringing together all known current applications of graph theory to SoSE in tutorial/summary form. In this paper, we explore the applications of graph theory and known graph algorithms for system design (and SoS design), optimization techniques, complexity measures, and novel graph algorithms for real-time deployment of SoS's and managing SoS design. The work is straightforward with several examples, and is meant to be a standalone document that can be used to quickly come up to speed regarding the applications of graph theory in SoSE.