Modelling 2G and 3G ALE: A quantitative comparison

Differences in behaviour between 2G and 3G (Fast Link Setup or FLSU) ALE linking protocols are analysed using a common Discrete Event Simulation (DES) architecture designed to focus on the impact on overall HF network performance due to differences in the ALE linking protocols rather than differences due to their waveforms. This was achieved by setting the statistical likelihood of linking to be the same within the 2G and 3G network simulations - equating to real world scenarios where the propagating channels have SINADs of typically 10dB or more. Under these assumptions the simulation results show that the default 2G ALE linking approach performs poorly in mesh or `tactical' style networks in comparison to 3G, but that there is no significant advantage to using 3G over 2G for `hub and spoke' style networks.