A methodology for evaluating and planning future airborne networks

Future military airborne networks is composed of a variety of different aircraft, and each of these aircraft may have a number of different communications options available. As the air force migrates to a single cohesive network, rather than a series of disparate links, it is necessary to determine the best manner in which to interconnect all the different platforms and communications links. In this paper a general methodology for determining the capacity of an airborne network is presented. This methodology applies to almost any airborne network, provides insight into the capabilities of such a network, and can act as a tool for communications planning of the network. It is shown how this methodology can be used to analyze a representative scenario.