Interoperation of the Wireless Emulation Laboratory (WEL) and the System-of-Systems Survivability Simulation (S4): 2011 Year-End Status of the Director's Strategic Initiative and Results

摘要

The U.S. Department of Defense (DoD) is pursuing an end-to-end, seamless network-centric enterprise communications infrastructure. Evaluating this network is essential to guiding requirements, design, and procurement activities. However, the DoD currently lacks the capability to analyze the complex networked interactions between Soldiers and equipment. The U.S. Army Research Laboratory (ARL) has made significant investments developing a variety of modeling and analysis capabilities to analyze the impact of technology solutions on Soldiers. ARL researchers need a suite of tools allowing the System-of-Systems Analysis (SoSA) of technology impact on mission performance. ARL's Computational and Information Sciences Directorate (CISD) has developed the Wireless Emulation Laboratory (WEL) to provide a controlled, repeatable emulation environment for the research, development, and evaluation of networking and information assurance algorithms for tactical wireless networks. The System-of-Systems Survivability Simulation (S4), developed by ARL's Survivability/Lethality Analysis Directorate (SLAD), allows analysts to assess how threat effects, such as ballistics, computer network operations, and electronic warfare, impact a small-scale force in a mission context. This Director's Strategic Initiative (DSI), a collaborative research effort between CISD and SLAD to interoperate the WEL and S4, enhances the analysis ability of both directorates. The WEL enhances the communications realism of the S4 suite and supports increased fidelity in the modeling of communications effects. The S4 enhances the domain fidelity with an embedded military domain driven decision-making environment to better measure network technology interactions between Soldiers and equipment. Success will significantly improve the Army's ability to conduct SoSA and assess the impact of new equipment and technology on Soldiers and warfighters in a mission context.