Online Simulation and Control

Abstract

Abstract : Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) invested five years in research to improve the fidelity and performance of network simulations. Universities, industry and government have worked together to demonstrate new state-of-the-art research in the areas of network modeling and simulation. Within the DARPA Network Modeling Simulation (NMS) program, SAIC performed research in the network area of Online Simulation and Control (OSC). The goal of the OSC project was to determine value-added military uses of high performance network simulation and to research the infrastructure that is required to enable eventual deployment of network simulation to those locations. DARPA's investment has improved the state of the art and demonstrated to DoD observers the potential of network modeling and simulation. The OSC framework provides a capability to apply network simulation to real-time network management. OSC allows simulations to run in conjunction with a real network as a decision aid. The simulations can be used to explore alternative network tunings and to compare them with the performance of the actual network as they both execute. The OSC framework is currently delivered as a virtual test bed for testing the ability of a simulation to provide accurate results in near real-time from the limited information available from the real-network. The framework includes standard scenarios and network traffic for study. It is modularly adaptable to real test beds as well.