Efficient high-fidelity simulation of HF communications systems and networks

Harris Corporation is conducting a series of investigations in which network simulations are used to characterize and analyze the performance of existing HF communications waveforms and protocols, and to develop and optimize innovative techniques realizing improved network throughput, capacity, and user experience. The work reported in this paper includes development of HF physical layer models providing high-fidelity simulation of modem error statistics as a function of the channel attributes of the widely-used Watterson ionospheric channel model; implementation and validation of a simulation model of the NATO STANAG 5066 data link protocol; and integration of these models with the OMNeT++ network simulation framework and its INET library of Internet protocol models. The integrated simulation model is used to characterize the impacts of different STANAG 5066 configuration settings on bulk data throughput, to characterize system performance in conjunction with the TCP transport layer protocol, and to investigate performance improvements realizable over HF links with TCP performance enhancing proxy (PEP) techniques.