Designing for high performance of a command, control, communication and information network

The design of effective communication and information networks (CIN) is important to the supported command and control (C²) structure. The Command, Control, Communication and Information Network Analysis Tool (C3INAT) allows experts in different fields to develop sub-models independently, thus allowing analysts to compare various communication networks under the same C² structure. Statistical tools have been applied to C3INAT to reduce the simulation effort and to direct the study toward a near optimal solution through the application of Taguchi´s method (experimental design), outlier tests, and stopping conditions. This paper outlines the applications of statistics to the evaluation of CIN. The application of Taguchi´s method has reduced the necessary simulation time immensely while the structure of the method has aided in finding near-optimal conditions faster than a full-factorial analysis. Structuring the experiments before simulation allows future versions of C3INAT to incorporate automatically many of these tasks. The variance reduction technique and stopping condition place a lot of importance on the quantity ε. The algorithm requires minimal computer time and memory, and it can be used in conjunction with other variance reduction techniques. The algorithm, separate from the variance limit, can be applied when the variance limit is substituted with another. The technique can also be applied to post simulation analysis where the data are intact