Simulation-Based Performance Robustness Studies for Optical Gigabit LAN in Military Applications

The Department of Defense Global Information Grid - Bandwidth Extension (GIG-BE) initiative is to provide a resilient, omnipresent IP-based backbone with no bandwidth constraints. Due to the increased bandwidth demand both in the backbone and at the edge, the local area networks based on 1 and 10 Gigabit Ethernet are viable contenders for the military communication applications, including installation on mobile platforms, and for C4ISR traffic. Unlike conventional LANs that operate in a building/campus controlled environment, the mobile LANs often operate in adverse environment. Temperature fluctuations, mechanical shocks and vibrations, and other environmental factors may affect the link performance and availability. In this paper we use simulation tools to investigate the robustness of the Gigabit Ethernet links in military mobile environments and present the simulation results for system performance variations due to various environmental factors that can adversely affect data transmission characteristics.