Parameter optimization for SINCGARS packet radio networks

The objective of network parameter optimization is to minimize message delay while maximizing data reliability. The MIL-STD-188-220A protocol specifies a number of link layer and radio parameters which are interrelated and have significant cross-correlation which makes linear optimization techniques difficult. The four control parameters associated with the adaptive scheduler of the MIL-STD-188-220A protocol, the number of voice slots, number of routine message slots, acknowledgment timer of the link layer retransmission, and the maximum number of link layer retransmissions are selected as optimizing parameters. The data traffic consists of situation awareness (SA) messages, internet routing messages (sent as a broadcast message MIL-STD-188-220A Type-4 with no acknowledgment) and battle command control messages (sent as uni-cast Type-4 with acknowledgment). Voice load expressed as a percentage is added 0%, 30% and 60% of the time to the net. The dominant data traffic is routing and SA messages. We must optimize the parameters such that voice, data throughput and data end-to-end delay are acceptable to the users.