Date of Award

3-2003

Document Type

Thesis

Degree Name

Master of Science

Department

Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering

First Advisor

Rusty O. Baldwin, PhD

Abstract

The purpose of Link- 16 is to exchange real-time tactical data among units of the United States and allied forces. Primary Link- 16 functions include exchange of friendly unit position and status data, fl%the dissemination of tactical surveillance track data, and the control/management of air, surface, and subsurface engagements. Because Link- 16 will play an integral role in fl% network-centric Joint Battlespace Infosphere (JBI), the performance of Internet Protocol version six (IPv6) and IP Security (IPSec) over Link-16 needs to be determined. Using OPNET modeling software to simulate a Link- 16 network, the investigation of this research revealed that the overhead from IPv6 and IPSec does not significantly affect end-to-end delay and effective throughput of the Link- 16 network. As long as the encryption and authentication protocols are preprocessed, these protocols add minimal amounts of latency overhead to the Link- 16 network. However, as the offered load is extended beyond the 90% level, the overhead from the IPSec extensions begins to have more of a negative effect on the End-to-End delay and throughput. Therefore, as the offered load increases beyond the 90% level, it begins to have a significant impact act on the performance of the Link- 16 network.

AFIT Designator

AFIT-GCE-ENG-03-04

DTIC Accession Number

ADA420762

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