An Approach for Real-Time Monitoring and Control of Tactical Network Simulations

With the conventional modeling and simulation (M&S) of networks, simulations are usually executed from beginning to the end without interruption, and results are available only at the end of the simulation runs. These results typically consist of various statistics for some measures of performance (MOPs) that attempt to quantify the network's performance. Although these results can capture the timing of significant events and performance transitions, they generally capture neither their causes nor the transient behavior that leads to their occurrence. This paper presents an approach to operate a simulated network similar to an actual network where the simulated network can be monitored in real-time and better, and, if appropriate, be stopped for explorations of the network state. A console equipped with a GUI interrogates the simulated network during the run and displays the relevant characteristics of the network, which allows experimenters to monitor the network's behavior and performance. Experimenters can use the console to stop and query the simulation to obtain detailed information from each node or protocol layer within each node. Examples of such information are route forwarding tables at a node, node position, or some protocol attributes configured at a node. Further, experimenters can use the console to change network configuration during the simulation run and observe its impact on the performance of the network. Our solution is built using OPNET Modeler as the simulation engine and its cosimulation facility to interconnect the experimenter's console with the simulation.