Modeling and simulation for evaluating the C3 structure in a NCW mission environment

Abstract

This paper proposes a simulation model for evaluating the command, control and communication (C3) structure in a network centric warfare mission environment. When a mission is executed, much interaction between commanders and combatants occur through a predefined C3 structure. Our model focuses on measuring the mission completion time, which is dependent on the C3 structure. To achieve this goal, we model the flow of information and command messages between the mission participants, and identify the time-related factors. It is especially important to model a time delay that can be divided into the delay due to the limits of human capabilities and due to communication delay. For measuring the delay of the former type, we design the commander as an infinitely buffered single server with workload-dependent processing time. For communication delay, we use a propagation loss model. Finally, simulations are performed to evaluate the performance of the various C3 structures.