Exploring Edge Organization Models for Network-Centric Operations

Abstract

Defense analysts must explore and provide insight into how future network-enabled forces will perform across a range of threat capabilities and scenarios. An emerging approach to this challenging problem is the use of agent-based models (ABMs) and novel experimental designs. When used within a data farming framework, these designs allow rapid exploration of models of network-centric military and non-military operations, and provide insights on the performance of edge structures in combat settings. ABMs provide a context for discussing and distilling the key aspects of knowledge and power in an organization as well as its impact on an organization's performance (e.g., knowledge flow, power flow, organizational effectiveness). Currently, ‘what-if’ analyses in computational organizational theory explore a small set of configurations or focus on a handful of factors. Models of edge organizations in network-centric warfare have literally hundreds or thousands of factors that should be investigated. The use of ABMs will enable analysts to build theoretical frameworks from the ground up after investigation of these factors using fast-running simulations and state-of-the-art experimental designs. This paper illustrates an approach for ABMs of edge and hierarchical organizations, and describes ongoing work to extend the experimental design toolkit for exploring organizational structures in network-centric operations.