Alternate routing for the CINC area communications system: what is required and how it can be done?

The CINC (commander-in-chief´s) area communications system is composed of different communications systems provided by the individual services and consists primarily of TRI-TAC, Mobile Subscriber Equipment (MSE), and ATACS equipment interconnected by gateways. The TRITAC and MSE are digital, and the ATACS is analog. TRI-TAC and ATACS both use fixed deterministic routing tables, but the MSE uses adaptive flood search routing. Setting up the routing tables to meet connectivity, capacity, and survivability requirements by hand can take days. In wartime this function must be performed in minutes, which indicates that an automated tool is needed. The author discusses how such a tool might be constructed using graph-theoretical techniques. This automated tool should provide the CINC communications planner with data concerning the trunk loading between switches and the survivability of the network. The author discusses algorithms that, when automated in the form of a tool that can be run on a personal computer, will provide the CINC communications planner with information needed for making intelligent choices concerning the use of available resources