Scheduling for multi-mission network information management and dissemination

In this paper, we investigate scheduling for information management and dissemination in a multi-mission network. Dynamic network resource scheduling plays a crucial role in tracking critical engagement in battlefield and thus is highly demanded in multi-mission systems. Our focus is on how to resolve bandwidth contention in a heavily loaded network where mission requests surpass available bandwidth. The objective is to maximize the number of high priority and high value mission requests served. To this end, we propose a dynamic mission resource scheduler (DMRS) - a mission value based heuristic for on-line bandwidth allocation. DMRS exploits the fact that in many scenarios, mission values can be modeled as utility functions of the bandwidth. As such, the scheduler can preempt or degrade existing bandwidth allocations in an attempt to accommodate the maximum number of critical missions. Our simulation results show a ten-fold reduction in the rejection rate of high priority requests, while simultaneously increasing mission value by at least 20%.