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Part I. OverviewDMACFor planning purposes, IOOS is considered to be composed of three subsystems: the OBSERVINGSUBSYSTEM (collection of remotely sensed and in situ environmental measurements and theirtransmission from platforms - telemetry); the DATA MANAGEMENT AND COMMUNICA-TIONS SUBSYSTEM (DMAC – discovery and delivery of data within IOOS, and interoperabilitywith other relevant observing systems); and the MODELING AND ANALYSIS SUBSYSTEM(evaluation and prediction of the state of the marine environment).Central to the success of IOOS (and other regional, national, and international ocean and coastalobserving systems) is the presence of a DMAC Subsystem capable of supporting the wide varietyand large volumes of data, the reliability and integrity requirements of operational data delivery,and the many other needs of the IOOS user community. The DMAC Subsystem is the primary integratingelement of IOOS, and it will provide the linkages among other IOOS components, partnerorganizations, and systems in other disciplines (e.g., terrestrial, atmospheric). Because of thecritical need for a basic data communications infrastructure to support existing and newly emergingIOOS observing systems, the DMAC effort was initiated early on in the IOOS planning process.In the spring of 2002, the Director of Ocean.US appointed the Data Management and CommunicationSteering Committee (DMAC-SC), including representatives from Federal and state governmentagencies, academia, and the private sector. The DMAC-SC was tasked with developing a detailedphased implementation plan for this IOOS subsystem.The DMAC Plan, this document, presents a coherent strategy for integrating marine data streamsacross disciplines, organizations, times scales, and geographic locations. It has been divided intothree main parts: Part I provides an overview of the requirements and technological considerations,and the strategies for addressing them. Part II presents the detailed DMAC System ImplementationPlan in outline form. Part III, the Appendices, provides in-depth discussion of key technical topics.The DMAC Plan focuses on enhancing the interoperability of existing IOOS components throughdevelopment of a common Data Communications Infrastructure. The infrastructure will consist ofstandards and protocols for metadata, data discovery, transport, on-line browse, and long-term archive.Other important issues such as QA/QC, modeling and applications, security, data assembly,and telemetry will be addressed in future IOOS documents. It should be noted that this documentis a plan, not a specification. The cost model presented herein includes support for systems engineeringservices to conduct a formal design analysis leading to a formal specification. The specificationwill guide planning and implementation decisions such as application of resources.The DMAC Subsystem is an integral part of IOOS, and it is being developed in close coordinationwith other IOOS components. The longer-term implementation priorities and recommendationsarticulated in the DMAC Plan are being incorporated into the overall IOOS planning and budget-13