Our paper, A Simulation Testbed for the Analysis of Desired Emergent Properties in System Running in Dynamic and Contested Environments, has been accepted for publication in the Winter Simulation Conference 2018.

Authors: C. Szabo, D. Craggs, W. Johnson, G. Judd, K. French

Abstract: Designing complex systems with a specific emergent property is challenging even in perfect environmental conditions, and several additional challenges are introduced in contested, dynamic environments such as ongoing battles or military exercises. An example of a desired emergent property is disseminating information in a timely manner without causing significant network disruptions. While military communication strategies exist, their evaluation is performed in costly real-life deployments with limited exploratory capability. In this paper, we propose to achieve timely information dissemination through a rule-based expert system that adapts to network and operational context changes by change the priority of messages sent to the network. To analyse this emergent behavior, we present an evaluation simulation testbed that explores various operational conditions for the evaluation of communication strategies in a land-exercise focused scenario.