Synthesis of distributed command and control for the outer air battle

The objective is to design distributed Command and Control organizations for the outer air battle. The synthesis problem is formulated as follows: Given the decision-making and information processing necessary for the outer air battle, design the C2 organization that is accurate, timely, exhibits a task throughput rate that is higher than the task arrival rate, and whose decisionmakers are not overloaded. A simple model of the processes pertinent to the outer air battle has been developed. The model, although an abstraction of the actual naval air operations, retains the fundamental decision-making features. A new quantitative methodology for the synthesis of C 2 organizations is presented. The methodology consists of four phases: (1) Algorithmic generation of data flow structures in the form of Petri Nets that have specified degrees of redundancy and complexity; (2) Transformation of the data flow structures into decision-making organizations by allocating the functions to individual decisionmakers and then into C 2 organizations by incorporating the supporting systems; (3) Evaluation of the resulting designs using three measures of performance - accuracy, response time, and throughput rate - and a measure of effectiveness; and (4) Modification of the candidate designs to increase their measure of effectiveness.