A Distributed AFSCN Scheduling/Deconfliction/Automated Negotiation System with user extensible constraints, rules and decision processes (DASDAN)

The ultimate goal is to develop a distributed, intelligent AFSCN Scheduling, Deconfliction, and Automated Negotiation System with user extensible constraints and graphically modifiable rules and decision processes. This will require SOC-based intelligent software that allows graphical editing and management of rules and decision processes as well as an extensible constraint model for use by SOC personnel to maintain and manage the rules, constraints, and decision processes associated with their constellations and individual satellites. This software must be able to negotiate resolution of conflicts with the central 22 SOPS AFSCN intelligent scheduling system. The central system must also allow for the end-user creation of rules, constraints, and decision processes. Such a distributed, intelligent communications resource scheduling capability will provide better quality schedules; faster scheduling; handling larger, more complex sets of requests; and handling additional communication system capabilities. The Phase I goals are to understand the current and future satellite communications resource scheduling domain including SOC and 22 SOPS user requirements, investigate integration requirements, elaborate the heuristics, algorithms and techniques for distributed scheduling, analyze them as to their feasibility in several dimensions, further prove the feasibility of the techniques through prototype development, and develop the Phase II system design. BENEFIT: The most direct target for the results of this effort is the Air Force Satellite Control Network (AFSCN). By both demonstrating significantly improved performance during Phase II and ensuring that the ultimate results can be integrated into the operational scheduling system, the Air Force will have a strong incentive to operationalize the Phase II development of the proposed Scheduler. We are already marketing Aurora, our general intelligent planning and scheduling framework, and customizing it for a variety of domains. The additional capabilities developed for communication scheduling can be synergistically marketed to the same clients. We anticipate that this effort will result in additional scheduling algorithms that we will be able to incorporate into our existing scheduling products, thus increasing the benefits they provide and their value.