This paper describes an exploratory study on how to generate sequences of QoS-constrained messages to challenge the underlying store-and-forward mechanisms in tactical networks. The messages come from Command and Control (C2) systems deployed at the tactical edge and the goal is to create reproducible flow of messages with a certain degree of entropy (randomness). Given a mission/operation, we assume that the user-facing services from C2 systems are related to each other and reuse a stochastic model to generate the sequence of messages; here called QoS-constrained dataflows. We studied the system behavior dealing with three different sequences of messages (A1, A2 and A3) to illustrate the computation of metrics using cross-layer contextual information and to highlight the importance of testing tactical systems with different loads. We also compute metrics to characterize the dataflows such as time in the queue, minimum datarate, number of expired messages and so on. Moreover, we used three disruptions patterns in the network to study the sequence of messages being divided in groups so to illustrate and support general conclusions about dataflow characterization. We claim that our methodology can get closer and closer to the performance bounds of store-and-forward mechanisms in tactical networks and can be reproduced by other researchers for quantitative comparisons.
Creating Ever-changing QoS-constrained Dataflows in Tactical Networks: An Exploratory Study
1. Creating Ever-changing QoS-constrained Dataflows
in Tactical Networks: An Exploratory Study
Tactical Communications (I)
Roberto Rigolin F. Lopes, Pooja Hanavadi Balaraju, Peter Sevenich
roberto.lopes@fkie.fraunhofer.de , pooja.balaraju@rwth-aachen.de, peter.sevenich@fkie.fraunhofer.de
Budva, 14th May, 2019
#ICMCIS 2019
Research supported by
BAAINBw and WTD-81
2. The not so Big Bang…
We have been trying to deploy Web Services
in Tactical Networks. It started in the TACTICS
(2014-2017) project and was extended to
CWIX 2018
2014-2017
Where are the performance bounds of the system?
2018
<UHF><VHF> <SatCom>
OAS FFT MEDVAC
A
B
C
Changing
ChangingNetwork conditions:
User behavior:
TSI RuDi
DEU-RuDiDEU-TACTICS
TacRouter
DEU-FIST
Tactical Network
Router + Middleware
User Applications
3. Background: Problem A
CIS Capabilities
Technical Services
Communication Services
Transmission Services
Transport Services
Communication Access Services
Core Enterprise Services
SOA Platform Services
Enterprise Support Services
COI Services
COI-Enabling Services
COI-Specific Services
User-Facing Capabilities
User Applications
Infrastructure Services
Cross-layerdataexchange
COI-Specific Services
COMMS
FCS
TacRouter
VHF Sat + LTEESSOR
DEU-FIST
DEU-MOTORFIN DEU-SOACC
TSI RuDi Proxy
NORDEU-RuDiDEU-TACTICS
FFT* OpenCOP COP + FFT
FFT
DEU-RuDi NOR
Handheld
<Dismounted>
Problem A
Problem B
Changing…
Changing…
Problem A|B
C3 Taxonomy
B1
B2
B3
Three patterns of network
change:
Three patterns of dataflow
change:
A1 A2 A3
?
4. Background: Problem A
CIS Capabilities
Technical Services
Communication Services
Transmission Services
Transport Services
Communication Access Services
Core Enterprise Services
SOA Platform Services
Enterprise Support Services
COI Services
COI-Enabling Services
COI-Specific Services
User-Facing Capabilities
User Applications
Infrastructure Services
Cross-layerdataexchange
COI-Specific Services
Problem A
Problem B
Changing…
Changing…
Problem A|B
C3 Taxonomy
Sleep x: queue 0: dequeue
No: queue Yes: dequeue
How long to admission?
Buffer below b%?
Sender
User service(s)
3
ε4
ε3
ε1
Invoke:
λx
QoS Handler
Receiver(s)
out
αin
i
ii How much to b%?
Cross-layerContextualMonitoring
4Proxy
Message Queue
1
UDP Transport
Packet Handler
2
Routing ε2
B1
B2
B3
EVER-changing
5. The system: <messages>
<message>
<IP packets>
Priority
0 FLASH
1 Immediate
2 Priority
3 Routine
Sleep x: queue 0: dequeue
No: queue Yes: dequeue
How long to admission?
Buffer below b%?
Sender
User service(s)
3
ε4
ε3
ε1
Invoke:
λx
QoS Handler
Receiver(s)
out
αin
i
ii How much to b%?
Cross-layerContextualMonitoring
4Proxy
Message Queue
1
UDP Transport
Packet Handler
2
Routing ε2
<radio buffer>
B1
B2
B3
6. In short: we are trying to tame RANDOMNESS to study the performance
bounds of tactical systems
8. The solution A
• Creating ever-changing QoS-constrained: let us assume that the
services are states of a Markov chain
OAS
FFT MEDVAC
MEDVAC
OASMEDVAC
.1
.3
.6
Markov Chain
Given a service sj what is the probability of si
also be called?
Service Priority Reliability ToE(sec)
s1 MEDEVAC 0 FLASH Yes 300
s2 Obstacle Alert 1 Immediate Yes 150
s3 Picture 2 Priority Yes 3600
s4 FFT 3 Routine No 120
s1 s2 s3 s4
10. Creating QoS-Constrained dataflows
s1 s2 s3 s4
Changing…
Message Queue
Sorting messages by priority:
the darker the higher
>
User behavior: QoS-constrained dataflows
Markov chains: A1 A2 A3
H(A1) = 1.46
H(A2) = 1.85
H(A3) = 1.80
11. Creating QoS-Constrained dataflows: 10x
s1 s2 s3 s4
Changing…
Message Queue
Sorting messages by priority:
the darker the higher
>
User behavior: QoS-constrained dataflows
Markov chains: A1 A2 A3
H(A1) = 1.46
H(A2) = 1.85
H(A3) = 1.80
12. Why EVER-changing? 20 queues with 20 messages 10x
s1 s2 s3 s4
Changing…
Message Queue
Sorting messages by priority:
the darker the higher
>
User behavior: QoS-constrained dataflows
Markov chains: A1 A2 A3
20
4
= 4,845
20
5
= 15,504
20
10
= 184,756
13. # of expired messages
• Let us vary the message size and the radio
datarate as following:
• Datarate: .6, 1.2, 2.4, 4.8 and 9.6 kbps
• Message size: .5, 2, 4, 8 and 16 KB
• Zero expired messages means no challenge
for the store-and-forward mechanism
00
00
00
Service Priority Reliability ToE(sec)
s1 MEDEVAC 0 FLASH Yes 300
s2 Obstacle Alert 1 Immediate Yes 150
s3 Picture 2 Priority Yes 3600
s4 FFT 3 Routine No 120
14. Simulating disruptions
• What is going to happen with the sequence
of messages if the network is jumping from
disconnect to connected?
• Let us combine the patterns of messages
against the patterns of network states:
• {disconnected, connected, disconnected}
• 1 (2 groups), 4 (5 groups), 9 (10 groups)
A1|B1
A1|B2
A1|B3
A2|B1
A2|B2
A2|B3
A3|B1
A3|B2
A3|B3
15. A1|B1 A1|B2 A1|B3
B1 B2
B3
2 groups 5 groups 10 groups
A1
A2
A3
A2|B1
A3|B1
A2|B2
A3|B2
A2|B3
A3|B3
As a result:
16. Simulating disruptions: # expired messages
Changing…
Message Queue
Sorting messages by priority:
the darker the higher
>
Tactical Network states
A1|B1 A1|B2 A1|B3
B1 B2
B3
# of expired messages
0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0
2 groups 5 groups 10 groups
17. Simulating disruptions: # expired messages
Changing…
Message Queue
Sorting messages by priority:
the darker the higher
>
Tactical Network states
A2|B1 A2|B2 A2|B3
B1 B2
B3
# of expired messages
0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0
2 groups 5 groups 10 groups
18. Simulating disruptions: # expired messages
Changing…
Message Queue
Sorting messages by priority:
the darker the higher
>
Tactical Network states
A1|B1 A1|B2 A1|B3
B1 B2
B3
# of expired messages
0 000 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0
2 groups 5 groups 10 groups
19. Message Queue
A1,2,3|B1 A1,2,3|B2 A1,2,3|B3
B1 B2
B3
# of expired messages
0 000 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0
0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0
0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0
The pattern… can be counter by
increasing the number of
messages
The more you change the
network the less expired
messages
Service ToE(sec)
s1 MEDEVAC 300
s2 Obstacle Alert 150
s3 Picture 3600
s4 FFT 120
20. Exploration and experimentation
• Examples of fundamental computations that
are challenged by ever-changing dataflows:
• Sorting queues by priority
• Dropping expired messages
• Message replacement
• Retransmit reliable messages
• Time for admission
• Aggregation
• Zero expired messages may indicate no
challenge for these computations
0 000 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0
0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0
0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0
Sort, replace
and drop
Continuous
hygiene
Message Queue
21. Conclusion
• The goal was to surely challenge the
underlying store-and-forward mechanism
• We introduced a model to create
reproducible patterns of QoS-constrained
dataflows
• Explored the characterization of the
dataflow patterns defining metrics
• And the future work…
Changing…
B1
B2
B3
2019
Tactical Network
User Applications
22. Future work: Doing experiments like Galileo
• Given a time-window, create a
reproducible set of network states
.6 1.2 2.4 4.8 9.6
1 2 3 4 5
d1|d1 d2|d2
d3|d3 d4|d4 d5|d5
d2|d1 d3|d2 d4|d3 d5|d4
d1|d2 d2|d3 d3|d4
d4|d5
d5|d1
d1|d5
d2|d5
d3|d5
d4|d1d3|d1
d3|d2
d2|d4
D1 1.8 kbps (±1.57) D2 4.1 kbps (±3.12) D3 6.5 kbps (±3.16)
Datarates as states in a Markov chain, then we
can create the following sequences of states:
PR4G supports five datarates:
ThreeMarkovchains COMMS
Exploration, Experimentation, Examination, Exercise
B1
B2
B3
23. D1 1.8 kbps (±1.57)
D2 4.1 kbps (±3.12)
D3 6.5 kbps (±3.16) ~19.13 min
~53.73 min
~28.90 min
zUkWcE7uWxvXgkH5Z
hGpJ/Ehr8CDohpY/AVy
1QkCDuA0eszi/LzhYf1B
K+23OasWSTHjaMhGN
AOfwdDoYy0ewxOngwI
gcAbYWigkZw/qvP7n6i1
EiAKYpqDKg+VDKTCVyn
ToO80qdYeskgd7ZHv2lv
500 kB
<message>
Five datarates: .6, 1.2, 2.4, 4.8, 9.6
24. Creating Ever-changing QoS-constrained Dataflows
in Tactical Networks: An Exploratory Study
Tactical Communications (I)
Roberto Rigolin F. Lopes, Pooja Hanavadi Balaraju, Peter Sevenich
roberto.lopes@fkie.fraunhofer.de , pooja.balaraju@rwth-aachen.de, peter.sevenich@fkie.fraunhofer.de
Budva, 14th May, 2019
#ICMCIS 2019 – The End
Research supported by
BAAINBw and WTD-81Book used as inspiration:
Fractal Geometry of Nature by B. B. Mandelbrot
Editor's Notes
“When you change the way you look at things, the things you look at change.” ― Max Planck
“Enlightenment is man's release from his self-incurred tutelage. Tutelage is man's inability to make use of his understanding without direction from another. Self-incurred is this tutelage when its cause lies not in lack of reason but in lack of resolution and courage to use it without direction from another. Sapere aude! 'Have courage to use your own reason!'- that is the motto of enlightenment.”
― Immanuel Kant
Judge a man by his questions rather than by his answers. - Voltarie
“Either write something worth reading or do something worth writing.” ― Benjamin Franklin
The true delight is in the finding out rather than in the knowing. ― Isaac Asimov
“We are trying to prove ourselves wrong as quickly as possible, because only in that way can we find progress.” ― Richard P. Feynman
“Measure what can be measured, and make measurable what cannot be measured.” ― Galileo
“Nothing exists except atoms and empty space; everything else is opinion.” ― Democritus
“We have to continually be jumping off cliffs and developing our wings on the way down.” ― Kurt Vonnegut, If This Isn't Nice, What Is?: Advice for the Young
Don't be encumbered by history. Go off and do something wonderful. ― Robert Noyce
“All men who have turned out worth anything have had the chief hand in their own education.” ― Sir Walter Scott
“All men who have turned out worth anything have had the chief hand in their own education.” ― Sir Walter Scott
Avoidance of boredom is the only worthy mode of action. Life otherwise is not worth living. ― Nassim Nicholas Taleb, Antifragile: Things that Gain from Disorder
“Any man could, if he were so inclined, be the sculptor of his own brain.” ― Santiago Ramon y Cajal, Advice for a Young Investigator
“It is not the critic who counts; not the man who points out how the strong man stumbles, or where the doer of deeds could have done them better. The credit belongs to the man who is actually in the arena, whose face is marred by dust and sweat and blood; who strives valiantly; who errs, who comes short again and again, because there is no effort without error and shortcoming; but who does actually strive to do the deeds; who knows great enthusiasms, the great devotions; who spends himself in a worthy cause; who at the best knows in the end the triumph of high achievement, and who at the worst, if he fails, at least fails while daring greatly, so that his place shall never be with those cold and timid souls who neither know victory nor defeat.” ― Theodore Roosevelt
“A man is known by his heroes.” ― Benoît B. Mandelbrot, The Fractalist: Memoir of a Scientific Maverick
