Abstract
The Virtual Testbed for Advanced Command and Control Concepts (VTAC) program is performing research and development efforts leading to the creation of a testbed for new Command and Control (C2) processes, subprocesses and embedded automated systems and subsystems. This testbed will initially support the capture and modeling of existing C2 processes/subprocesses. Having modeled these at proper levels of abstraction, proposed revisions or replacements to processes, systems and subsystems can be evaluated within a virtual workspace that integrates human operators and automated systems in the context of a larger C2 process. By utilizing such a testbed early in the development cycle, expected improvements resulting from specific revisions or replacements can be quantitatively established. Crossover effects resulting from changes to one or more interrelated processes can also be measured. Quantified measures of improvement can then be provided to decision makers for use in cost-to-performance benefits analysis prior to implementing proposed revisions, replacements, or a sequence of planned enhancements.
This paper first presents a high-level view of the VTAC project, followed by a discussion of an example C2 process that was captured, abstracted, and modeled. The abstraction approach, model implementation, and simulations results are covered in detail.
