Modeling the Emergent Dynamics of a Tactical Situational Awareness Network Within an Information Operations (IO) Environment

A model developed to analyze the global emergent dynamics of situational awareness (SA) dissemination within a digitized brigade undergoing hostile information operations (IO) stress events is presented. Networked battlefield platforms are modeled as interconnected tactical internet nodes through the use of cellular automata. The cellular automata form a discrete spatially extended dynamical system consisting of a parallel networked lattice of computational cells in two dimensions The global impact of localized IO stress events on SA dissemination can then be analyzed as a function of time by mapping the SA dissemination architecture onto the cellular automata lattice. The lattice cells can represent tactical internet client or server platforms. This model demonstrates the fluctuating patterns of situational 'self-awareness' (i.e., a friendly platform's situational awareness of all other friendly platforms within its area of operations) which emerge across the digitized brigade on a global scale and also illustrates the emergent dynamics of SA dissemination within a 'movement-to-contact' brigade structure.Army Research Lab Aberdeen Proving Ground Survivability Lethality Analysis Directorate is the author of 'Modeling the Emergent Dynamics of a Tactical Situational Awareness Network Within an Information Operations (IO) Environment', published 2001 under ISBN 9781423525042 and ISBN 1423525043.