Authors: Matthew Garr, Nathaniel Horner, Steve Topper
Abstract:
Many proposed concepts for the next generation of USAF Long Range Strike (LRS) and Network Centric Operations include a high level of integration with a larger “infosphere” such as the Global Information Grid. These proposals contrast with many existing systems which, though more self-reliant, are optimized for a more limited set of capabilities. The Air Force Research Laboratory Air Vehicles Directorate (AFRL/VA) and The Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Laboratory (JHU/APL) are therefore designing and building a Modeling and Simulation environment using FLAMES that focuses on analyzing the performance of integrated systems-of-systems that exhibit complex interactions that cannot be adequately or economically evaluated either operationally or with traditional simulations.
The team’s first analysis study aims to determine communication system performance requirements for a variety of Long Range Strike missions. This brief will focus on the team’s strategies for modeling information storage and transmission, and post-processing results. It will first demonstrate how developing, maintaining and analyzing an information repository or “knowledge state” is essential to determine true communications requirements. Second, the brief will illustrate the use of a time-tested general communications model as a basis for implementing a generic communications model, and show how the team develops plug-ins to represent the specific functionality of present-day and proposed communications systems. Finally, the brief will show how the team is employing concepts from classic information theory such as information entropy to interpret the quality of information at individual nodes.