Resource allocation through network architecture in systems of systems: A complex networks framework

Traditional systems engineering methods and theories are not sufficient for analyzing and explaining the dynamics of the resource allocation for Systems of Systems (SoS) with autonomous parts. This paper introduces a framework, using complex network models, for studying the interaction of autonomous components and the design of the system connectivity structure in SoS as well as their impact on resource management. The framework introduced in this paper explicitly incorporates costs of connection and the benefits that are received by direct and indirect access to resources and provides measures of the optimality of connectivity structures. We discuss central and a distributed schemes that, respectively, represent systems in which a central planner decides the connectivity structure and systems in which distributed components are allowed to add and sever connections to optimize their own resource access.