Distributed decision-making and control for agile military radio networks

We propose an agent-based autonomic network control system that allows an agile mission group to reconfigure their network, while maintaining a high tempo, yet minimise their demands on signals staff. Our architecture describes services that configure a device, and a hierarchy of networks, in terms of the contribution that each makes to networks of which it is a member, end-to-end services provided to its users, and objectives assigned to it by the signals staff. Agent-based services accept high-level direction from commanders, through signals staff, and cooperate to decide and enforce policies for the control of network configuration, services and traffic in support of the mission objectives and the changing needs of the users. To experiment with services that implement our architecture, we created a testbed that provides emulated terminals as part of an emulated military network that can replicate the end-to-end conditions present in a variety of wired and radio network environments.