High fidelity modeling and simulation for SATCOM networks

Owing to the extensive use of commercial wide-band SATCOM systems by the Department Of Navy (DON) and the Department of Defense (DOD) in general, designers and operators of such systems need to investigate and analyze the performance of a broad range of deployment options with respect to communications requirements under a given warfighting scenario, and show the effects of these alternatives on these scenarios. This paper documents a high fidelity modeling and simulation toolset developed for operations planning and performance assessment of commercial SATCOM networks. The toolset consists of analytical models for communications requirements and SATCOM performance in support of system planning and design, and an OPNET model interface which enables detailed discrete event simulation for network operational scenarios. The paper discusses some applications of the modeling and simulation approaches to planning, designing, and assessing the performance of various SATCOM systems in a warfighting environment.