Modeling and simulation of an optimized wireless network in a Naval ship system of systems.

摘要

The United States Navy would like to reduce operational bottlenecks and manning costs on ships to enable efficient naval operations. The main objective of this thesis was to develop a model-based simulation for evaluating the operational capability of a Navy ship and its crew as a system of systems. In agent-based simulations of this system of systems model, a wireless computer network enabled interactions amongst the crew throughout the ship environment. The effects of normal operating scenarios as well as emergency scenarios, such as compartment fires and equipment failures, were studied.Physical experiments consisting of signal strength measurements and data transfers were performed on a small network, and the non-linear relationships between the locations of crewmembers, signal strengths, and corresponding data rates were recorded and analyzed. The model that was developed describes the behavior of the signal due to several obstacles that were used to represent a simulated ship environment. The number of crewmembers, access points, and failure scenarios corresponding to a specific schedule was used to examine characteristics related to access point utilization and data transfer times. In the set of simulated ship operational scenarios, the wireless network communication performance was shown to be robust to failure of either the highest or lowest utilized access points. Finally, a reduced number of crewmembers communicating over the wireless network was shown to enable the ship to complete its defined missions.