A LOCAL AREA NETWORK RECONFIGURATION ANALYSIS TOOL

TWO LOCAL AREA NETWORK (LAN) STANDARDS, IEEE 802.5 AND ANSI X3T9.5 FFDDI, HAVE SEEN INCREASED USE AMONG BOTH MILITARY AND INDUSTRIAL USERS ESPECIALLY FOR APPLICATIONS WHICH HAVE TIME-CRITICAL PERFORMANCE REQUIREMENTS. THESE STANDARDS ARE THE BASIS OF PROPOSED NAVY STANDARDS, DESIGNATED SAFENET-I AND SAFENET-II. IN THE EVENT OF A FAILURE, A KEY PERFORMANCE PARAMETER ESSENTIAL TO DESIGNERS OF TIME-CRITICAL APPLICATIONS IS THE CAPACITY OF THESE PROTOCOLS TO RECONFIGURE THE NETWORK IN A PREDICTABLE AMOUNT OF TIME. CONSEQUENTLY, THERE IS A NEED TO DEVELOP A HIGHLY ACCURATE TOOL FOR ANALYZING AND THEN OPTIMALLY FINE-TUNING LOCAL AREA NETWORK RECONFIGURATION TIMES IN RESPONSE TO VARIOUS FAILURE SCENARIOS. THE ULTIMATE GOAL OF THE PROPOSED RESEARCH IS THE DEVELOPMENT OF SUCH A TOOL. THE TOOL WILL CONSIST OF A FIMULATION MODEL IMPLEMENTED ON A PARALLEL PROCESSOR AND A SIMULATED ANNEALING OPTIMIZATION TECHNIQUE. THE MAJOR INNOVATION IN THE PROPOSED RESEARCH IS THE UNIQUE INTEGRATION OF GRAPHICAL REPRESENTATION OF NETWORKS, DISTRIBUTED SIMULATION USING ADAPTIVE TIME WARP, AND A TECHNIQUE FOR DETERMINING SETS OF NETWORK PARAMETER VALUES WHICH MINIMIZE LAN RECONFIGURATION TIMES. SATISFYING TWO TECHNICAL OBJECTIVES WILL DEMONSTRATE THE TECHNICAL FEASIBILITY OF THE PROPOSED APPROACH: (1) DESIGNING A SIMULATION MODEL THAT ACCURATELY AND EFFICIENTLY ESTIMATES THE NETWORK RECONFIGURATION TIME IN RESPONSE TO VARIOUS TYPES OF NETWORK FAILURE SCENARIOS AND (2) DEVELOPING A TECHNIQUE THAT GUIDES THE NETWORK DESIGNER TOWARDS A DESIGN THAT MINIMIZES RECONFIGURATION TIME SUBJECT TO VARIOUS CONSTRAINTS.