Modelling Utility of Networked Services in Military Environments

Abstract

Utility of services and applications in the complex structure of a communication network are modelled using probabilistic methods. Quantitative utility measures are computed by combining two different views of utility: connectivity on the physical network level and usability from a user’s point of view in performing military tasks or operations. This paper introduces a novel method of computing reliability measures by using adjacency matrices, and then combines this resulting information with usefulness information of services. Services are evaluated individually for all of the connections between all pairs of nodes in the networked services regardless of the number of physical links in the communication network between any two given nodes. This method enables describing various uses of different services and operational situations. Practical examples with numerical results are presented in the text. Different methods for computing probability of connectivity are available but adjacency matrices are illustrative and computationally efficient for small and medium-sized network structures in the military context.