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A Small-Scale 3d Imaging Platform For Algorithm Performance Evaluation, Steven A. James Jun 2007

A Small-Scale 3d Imaging Platform For Algorithm Performance Evaluation, Steven A. James

Theses and Dissertations

In recent years, world events have expedited the need for the design and application of rapidly deployable airborne surveillance systems in urban environments. Fast and effective use of the surveillance images requires accurate modeling of the terrain being surveyed. The process of accurately modeling buildings, landmarks, or other items of interest on the surface of the earth, within a short lead time, has proven to be a challenging task. One approach of high importance for countering this challenge and accurately reconstructing 3D objects is through the employment of airborne 3D image acquisition platforms. While developments in this arena have significantly …

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Development Of Cursor-On-Target Control For Semi-Autonomous Unmanned Aircraft Systems, Joshua D. Crouse Jun 2007

Development Of Cursor-On-Target Control For Semi-Autonomous Unmanned Aircraft Systems, Joshua D. Crouse

Theses and Dissertations

The research presented in this thesis focuses on developing, demonstrating, and evaluating the concept of a Cursor-on-Target control system for semi-autonomous unmanned aircraft systems. The Department of Defense has mapped out a strategy in which unmanned aircraft systems will increasingly replace piloted aircraft. During most phases of flight autonomous unmanned aircraft control reduces operator workload, however, real-time information exchange often requires an operator to relay decision changes to the unmanned aircraft. The goal of this research is to develop a preliminary Cursor-on-Target control system to enable the operator to guide the unmanned aircraft with minimal workload during high task phases …

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Development And Testing Of The Rigidizable Inflatable Get-Away-Special Experiment, Brady D. O'Neal Jun 2007

Development And Testing Of The Rigidizable Inflatable Get-Away-Special Experiment, Brady D. O'Neal

Theses and Dissertations

The purpose of this research project is to develop the Rigidizable Inflatable Get-Away-Special Experiment (RIGEX) from a computer-based model into a space-qualified prototype. Past research projects have developed RIGEX's command and control, structural analysis, and integration with the orbiter. This thesis details the organization, assembly, and test planning for the RIGEX protoflight model. Strict requirements imposed by the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) must be fulfilled for any payload to travel into space. Based on the requirements set forth by NASA documentation, this thesis establishes appropriate assembly procedures for the construction of a space payload. Detailed design changes are …

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A Case Study Of The Educational Reform Efforts Of Former Mississippi Governor William F. Winter, James Klee Hawkins May 2007

A Case Study Of The Educational Reform Efforts Of Former Mississippi Governor William F. Winter, James Klee Hawkins

Theses and Dissertations

While serving as governor of Mississippi from 1980 until 1984, William F. Winter envisioned education as a key to moving Mississippi away from poverty. He championed educational reform as the means for improving schools with low student achievement. From the beginning of his tenure, Winter?s goal was to improve K-12 education by implementing three needed improvements: public kindergarten, compulsory attendance, and a lay board of education. During the first two years of his administration, Winter struggled to gain support from within the legislative body itself. Mores of Mississippi, which relegated African Americans to a lesser role of social status, were …

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Triangulating Social Capital Measurement For Turnover Research: Applications To The U.S. Military, Frederic W. Lunas Apr 2007

Triangulating Social Capital Measurement For Turnover Research: Applications To The U.S. Military, Frederic W. Lunas

Theses and Dissertations

In the United States, and around the world, social capital is becoming an intriguing new focus for slowing the declining sense of community and community trust. This strengthening focus on social capital in empirical study has great potential for an important role in U.S. public policy, as policy changes focused on increasing social capital may decrease turnover.
Yet, according to researchers, not enough sufficiently tested empirical measures of social capital exist. Combining several existing measures should provide a theoretically informed measurement of social capital for turnover research with application to the U.S. Military. Within this context, this thesis incorporated survey …

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Applications Of Search Theory To Coordinated Searching By Unmanned Aerial Vehicles, Steven R. Hansen Apr 2007

Applications Of Search Theory To Coordinated Searching By Unmanned Aerial Vehicles, Steven R. Hansen

Theses and Dissertations

Concepts in optimal search theory have been used in human-based aerial search since World War II. This thesis addresses the technical and theoretical issues necessary to apply this crucial theory to search path planning for Small Unmanned Aerial Vehicles (SUAVs). A typical search often requires that more than one target be located. Accordingly, a method is presented to locate multiple targets in three dimensions, as well as to differentiate between them. However, significant error can be present when locating targets from an airborne platform, and the idea of target quality is also introduced as a way to describe the reliability …

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In Pursuit Of An Aptitude Test For Potential Cyberspace Warriors, Tiffiny S. Smith Mar 2007

In Pursuit Of An Aptitude Test For Potential Cyberspace Warriors, Tiffiny S. Smith

Theses and Dissertations

The Air Force has officially assumed the cyberspace mission. To perform this mission well, it is important to employ personnel who have the necessary skill sets and motivation to work in a cyberspace environment. The first step in employing the right people is to screen all possible candidates and select those with an aptitude for acquiring the skill sets and with the motivation to perform this work. This thesis attempts to determine the necessary skills and motivations to perform the cyberspace mission and recommends a screening process to select the candidates with the highest probability for success. Since this mission …

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A Comparative Assessment Of The Knowledge Management Leadership Approaches Within The Department Of Defense, Tommy V.S. Marshall Ii Mar 2007

A Comparative Assessment Of The Knowledge Management Leadership Approaches Within The Department Of Defense, Tommy V.S. Marshall Ii

Theses and Dissertations

Knowledge has superseded traditional corporate assets and has become the strategic resource for competitive advantage. To reap the benefits of knowledge, organizations must harvest and leverage the collective knowledge of the entire workforce. This is achieved through effective knowledge management. KM involves processes to create, to store, and transfer knowledge to accomplish business objectives and to achieve a competitive advantage. The Department of Defense has also recognized the importance of KM and has since mandated the acquiring, refining, and sharing of knowledge. The Departments of the Army, Air Force, and Navy have each undertaken individual KM efforts. This research, guided …

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Development Of An Experimental Platform For Testing Autonomous Uav Guidance And Control Algorithms, Justin R. Rufa Mar 2007

Development Of An Experimental Platform For Testing Autonomous Uav Guidance And Control Algorithms, Justin R. Rufa

Theses and Dissertations

With the United States' push towards using unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) for more military missions, wide area search theory is being researched to determine the viability of multiple vehicle autonomous searches over the battle area. Previous work includes theoretical development of detection and attack probabilities while taking into account known enemy presence within the search environment. Simulations have been able to transform these theories into code to predict the UAV performance against known numbers of true and false targets. The next step to transitioning these autonomous search algorithms to an operational environment is the experimental testing of these theories through …

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A Comparative Assessment Of Knowledge Management Education Across The United States Department Of Defense, Gary Lee Wright Mar 2007

A Comparative Assessment Of Knowledge Management Education Across The United States Department Of Defense, Gary Lee Wright

Theses and Dissertations

Knowledge is a critical resource for organizations today, especially to the DoD. When organizations understand what knowledge is, they can begin to draw value from it. Drawing value from knowledge is best accomplished through the processes of knowledge management: knowledge creation, knowledge storage and retrieval, knowledge transfer, and knowledge application (Alavi and Leidner, 2001). Organizations can create an environment in which these processes flourish by ensuring the organization has the elements of a supportive leadership, structure to control and optimize knowledge sharing, technology to facilitate the KM processes, and a commitment to maximize knowledge sharing and continuously improve (Stankosky et …

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Internet Protocol Geolocation: Development Of A Delay-Based Hybrid Methodology For Locating The Geographic Location Of A Network Node, John M. Roehl Mar 2007

Internet Protocol Geolocation: Development Of A Delay-Based Hybrid Methodology For Locating The Geographic Location Of A Network Node, John M. Roehl

Theses and Dissertations

Internet Protocol Geolocation (IP Geolocation), the process of determining the approximate geographic location of an IP addressable node, has proven useful in a wide variety of commercial applications. Commercial applications of IP Geolocation include market research, redirection for performance enhancement, restricting content, and combating fraud. The potential for military applications include securing remote access via geographic authentication, intelligence collection, and cyber attack attribution. IP Geolocation methods can be divided into three basic categories based upon what information is used to determine the geographic location of the given IP address: 1) Information contained in databases, 2) information that is leaked during …

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Strategic Planning To Conduct Joint Force Network Operations: A Content Analysis Of Netops Organizations Strategic Plans, Antonio J. Scurlock Mar 2007

Strategic Planning To Conduct Joint Force Network Operations: A Content Analysis Of Netops Organizations Strategic Plans, Antonio J. Scurlock

Theses and Dissertations

Within the Joint Force Network Operations (NETOPS) environment, war fighters will treat net-centric adversaries and global information grid defense-in-depth situations as complex, adaptive enclaves that are the product of the dynamic interactions between connected entities and processes. Because of net centricity, no entity or process of the enclave can be considered in isolation; no singular engagement methodology will accurately capture the enclave’s complexity, and an alignment of Department of Defense Combatant Commanders, Services, and Agencies (CC/S/A) strategic planning is pivotal. To achieve and maintain information dominance, Joint Network Operations (NETOPS) organizations need to be strategically aligned. Strategic alignment allows organizations …

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Use Of Tabu Search In A Solver To Map Complex Networks Onto Emulab Testbeds, Jason E. Macdonald Mar 2007

Use Of Tabu Search In A Solver To Map Complex Networks Onto Emulab Testbeds, Jason E. Macdonald

Theses and Dissertations

The University of Utah's solver for the testbed mapping problem uses a simulated annealing metaheuristic algorithm to map a researcher's experimental network topology onto available testbed resources. This research uses tabu search to find near-optimal physical topology solutions to user experiments consisting of scale-free complex networks. While simulated annealing arrives at solutions almost exclusively by chance, tabu search incorporates the use of memory and other techniques to guide the search towards good solutions. Both search algorithms are compared to determine whether tabu search can produce equal or higher quality solutions than simulated annealing in a shorter amount of time. It …

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Development Of A Screening Model For Design And Costing Of An Innovative Tailored Granular Activated Carbon Technology To Treat Perchlorate-Contaminated Water, William C. Powell Mar 2007

Development Of A Screening Model For Design And Costing Of An Innovative Tailored Granular Activated Carbon Technology To Treat Perchlorate-Contaminated Water, William C. Powell

Theses and Dissertations

Perchlorate contamination of drinking water is a problem that has recently gained national attention. The purpose of this research was to develop a tool to predict the cost and performance of tailored granular activated carbon (T-GAC), an innovative technology to treat perchlorate-contaminated water. The ability to predict cost and performance is essential to promote transfer and commercialization of innovative technologies. This study investigated how data obtained from small-scale laboratory tests could be applied to predict cost and performance of a full-scale T-GAC system to treat perchlorate-contaminated water. A technology model was developed using GAC design principles and using a multi-component …

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The Effects Of Career Broadening On Leadership Development, S. David Walker Mar 2007

The Effects Of Career Broadening On Leadership Development, S. David Walker

Theses and Dissertations

The goal of this research was to improve the Air Force’s knowledge of the effects of career broadening jobs on the leadership development of its officer corps. Specifically, the study sought to find significant relationships between incidents of career broadening in the officers’ background and their odds of being selected for promotion and in-residence professional military education (PME). Selection under these two areas is considered recognition of an officer’s ability to handle more responsibility and greater leadership challenges. Therefore, they are logical assessments of an officer’s leadership development. Duty histories of officers who met the Major, Lieutenant Colonel, and Colonel …

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A Modular Mixed Signal Vlsi Design Approach For Digital Radar Applications, Brian M. Brakus Mar 2007

A Modular Mixed Signal Vlsi Design Approach For Digital Radar Applications, Brian M. Brakus

Theses and Dissertations

This study explores the idea of building a library of VHDL configurable components for use in digital radar applications. Configurable components allows a designer to choose which components he or she needs and configures those components for a specific application. By doing this, design time for ASICs and FPGAs is shortened because the components are already designed and tested. This idea is demonstrated with a configurable dynamic pipelinable fast fourier transform. Many FFT implementations exist, but this implementation is both configurable and dynamic. Pre-synthesis customization allows the FFT to be tailored to almost any DSP application, and the dynamic property …

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Optimal Sensor Threshold Control And The Weapon Operating Characteristic For Autonomous Search And Attack Munitions, Roland A. Rosario Mar 2007

Optimal Sensor Threshold Control And The Weapon Operating Characteristic For Autonomous Search And Attack Munitions, Roland A. Rosario

Theses and Dissertations

This Thesis considers the optimal employment of a wide area search munition in a battlespace where a target is known to be uniformly distributed among false targets which are Poisson distributed. The Poisson distribution's parameter is obtained from readily available battlespace intelligence. This work formulates and solves the optimal control problem for deriving the optimal sensor threshold schedule in order to maximize the probability of attacking the target during the battlespace sweep while constraining the probability of attacking a false target. The efficiency gained by optimally varying the sensor threshold is compared against the performance achieved with a static, optimum …

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Multi-Dimensional Classification Algorithm For Automatic Modulation Recognition, Ouail Albairat Mar 2007

Multi-Dimensional Classification Algorithm For Automatic Modulation Recognition, Ouail Albairat

Theses and Dissertations

This thesis proposes an approach for modulation classification using existing features in a more efficient way. The Multi-Dimensional Classification Algorithm (MDCA) treats features extracted from signals of interest as elements with irrelevant identities, hence eliminating any dependence of the classifier on any particular feature. This design enables the use of any number of features, and the MDCA algorithm provides the capability to classify modulations in higher dimensions. The use of multiple features requires an equal number of data dimensions, and thus classification in as high a dimensional space as possible can improve final classification results. Finally, the MDCA algorithm uses …

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Professionalism In The Air Force: A Comparative Analysis Of Commissioned Officers With Non-Commissioned Officers, Edward K. Boyd Mar 2007

Professionalism In The Air Force: A Comparative Analysis Of Commissioned Officers With Non-Commissioned Officers, Edward K. Boyd

Theses and Dissertations

Decades ago, military sociologists predicted a rising trend among officers away from traditional institutional military values and toward more economically-based occupational values due to the effects of the transition from a conscription-based military to an all-volunteer force. Subsequent empirical research resulted in data that supports such predictions. More recent researchers have suggested that in addition to the all-volunteer force, an increase on technology may also accelerate the trend toward occupationalism and away from traditional institutional military values and the warrior ethos that typically define successful military organizations. The officer corps may be particularly vulnerable to occupationalism due to increased technical …

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Price Vs. Performance: The Value Of Next Generation Fighter Aircraft, John M. Stelly Mar 2007

Price Vs. Performance: The Value Of Next Generation Fighter Aircraft, John M. Stelly

Theses and Dissertations

The United States Department of Defense (DoD) is currently recapitalizing its aging fighter aircraft inventory with the F-22A and F-35. While the DoD may consider cost and performance issues, it does not use a quantitative model that effectively measures the tradeoffs between the two. This thesis constructs a hedonic model of the fighter aircraft market to measure the implicit price on fighter performance characteristics and specifically applies it to next-generation aircraft. Data from 50 aircraft from 1949-present were used to construct two models – one based on procurement costs and one based on research, design, test, and evaluation (RDT&E) costs. …

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Use Of Thrust Vectors In Support Of The Cybercraft Initiative, Michael Stevens Mar 2007

Use Of Thrust Vectors In Support Of The Cybercraft Initiative, Michael Stevens

Theses and Dissertations

The CyberCraft Initiative is designing a framework for command and control of future Air Force Cyber-weapon systems, that autonomously operate and defend the Air Force networks and information systems to provide Cyberspace Superiority in support of the defense of the United States. The fundamental research question of the CyberCraft Initiative is "What is required for a commander to trust a CyberCraft to autonomously defend military information systems?" The Trust Vector model is one method of integrating trust into the CyberCraft fleet. Trust Vectors define trust and distrust between agents based on three components; current and historical data, intrinsic knowledge of …

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Multi-Dimensional Range Querying Using A Modification Of The Skip Graph, Gregory J. Brault Mar 2007

Multi-Dimensional Range Querying Using A Modification Of The Skip Graph, Gregory J. Brault

Theses and Dissertations

Skip graphs are an application layer-based distributed routing data structure that can be used in a sensor network to facilitate user queries of data collected by the sensor nodes. This research investigates the impact of a proposed modification to the skip graph proposed by Aspnes and Shah. Nodes contained in a standard skip graph are sorted by their key value into successively smaller groups based on random membership vectors computed locally at each node. The proposed modification inverts the node key and membership vector roles, where group membership is computed deterministically and node keys are computed randomly. Both skip graph …

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Heuristically Driven Search Methods For Topology Control In Directional Wireless Hybrid Network, Roger L. Garner Mar 2007

Heuristically Driven Search Methods For Topology Control In Directional Wireless Hybrid Network, Roger L. Garner

Theses and Dissertations

Information and Networked Communications play a vital role in the everyday operations of the United States Armed Forces. This research establishes a comparative analysis of the unique network characteristics and requirements introduced by the Topology Control Problem (also known as the Network Design Problem). Previous research has focused on the development of Mixed-Integer Linear Program (MILP) formulations, simple heuristics, and Genetic Algorithm (GA) strategies for solving this problem. Principal concerns with these techniques include runtime and solution quality. To reduce runtime, new strategies have been developed based on the concept of flow networks using the novel combination of three well-known …

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Distributed Fault-Tolerant Quality Of Service Routing In Hybrid Directional Wireless Networks, Larry C. Llewellyn Ii Mar 2007

Distributed Fault-Tolerant Quality Of Service Routing In Hybrid Directional Wireless Networks, Larry C. Llewellyn Ii

Theses and Dissertations

This thesis presents a distributed fault-tolerant routing protocol (EFDCB) for QoS supporting hybrid mobile ad hoc networks with the aim of mitigating QoS disruption time when network failures occur. The experimental design presented in this thesis describes 22 experiments aimed at illustrating EFDCB's ability to handle fault-tolerance. The interpreted results show that EFDCB excels over a global rerouting protocol at this challenge which is the goal of this work.

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Effective Mobile Routing Through Dynamic Addressing, Heungsoon Park Mar 2007

Effective Mobile Routing Through Dynamic Addressing, Heungsoon Park

Theses and Dissertations

Military communications has always been an important factor in military victory and will surely play an important part in future combat. In modern warfare, military units are usually deployed without existing network infrastructure. The IP routing protocol, designed for hierarchical networks cannot easily be applied in military networks due to the dynamic topology expected in military environments. Mobile ad-hoc networks (MANETs) represent an appropriate network for small military networks. But, most ad-hoc routing protocols suffer from the problem of scalability for large networks. Hierarchical routing schemes based on the IP address structure are more scalable than ad-hoc routing but are …

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Identifying Knowledge, Skill, And Ability Requirements For 33sx Officers In Deployed Environments, Douglas M. Simmers Mar 2007

Identifying Knowledge, Skill, And Ability Requirements For 33sx Officers In Deployed Environments, Douglas M. Simmers

Theses and Dissertations

Military operations in the past, present, and future are highly dependent on the timely distribution of accurate information; the only thing really changing is the speed and means of which it is dispersed. As we proceed forward in the information age, technology and the men and women responsible for it will play an ever increasing role in getting the right information in the right place at the right time. As the United States Air Force continues to transform into an ever increasing expeditionary service the knowledge, skills, and abilities of Air Force officers must transform as well to meet the …

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An Efficient Metaheuristic For Dynamic Network Design And Message Routing, Robert B. Hartlage Mar 2007

An Efficient Metaheuristic For Dynamic Network Design And Message Routing, Robert B. Hartlage

Theses and Dissertations

The implementation of Net-centric warfare presents major challenges in terms of effectively and efficiently delivering critical information across the Global Information Grid. In many cases, the amount of information requested will exceed the capabilities of the network. One challenge is to dynamically design the network (assign transceivers) to maximize the amount of required information that can be transmitted and the quality of service for those transmissions - to best implement the communications tasking order. The problem is as follows: given a list of required message traffic, to include source, destination, size, and priority, design the network to maximize the delivery …

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Updating Optimal Decisions Using Game Theory And Exploring Risk Behavior Through Response Surface Methodology, Jeremy D. Jordan Mar 2007

Updating Optimal Decisions Using Game Theory And Exploring Risk Behavior Through Response Surface Methodology, Jeremy D. Jordan

Theses and Dissertations

This thesis utilizes game theory within a framework for updating optimal decisions based on new information as it becomes available. Methodology is developed that allows a decision maker to change his perceived optimal policy based on available knowledge of the opponents strategy, where the opponent is a rational decision maker or a random component nature. Utility theory is applied to account for the different risk preferences of the decision makers. Furthermore, response surface methodology is used to explore good risk strategies for the decision maker to approach each situation with. The techniques are applied to a combat scenario, a football …

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Quantifying Non-Equilibrium In Hypersonic Flows Using Entropy Generation, Ryan W. Carr Mar 2007

Quantifying Non-Equilibrium In Hypersonic Flows Using Entropy Generation, Ryan W. Carr

Theses and Dissertations

The constitutive relations traditionally used for finding shear stress and heat flux in a fluid become invalid in non-equilibrium flow. Their derivation from kinetic theory only demonstrates they are valid only for small deviations from equilibrium. Because it is fundamentally linked to non-equilibrium, entropy generation is used to investigate the limits of the continuum constitutive relations. However, the continuum equations are inherently limited to near equilibrium conditions due to the constitutive relations; thus kinetic theory must be used as a basis for comparison. Direct Simulation Monte Carlo (DSMC), a particle method alternative to continuum methods, is based on kinetic theory …

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Investigating Hastily-Formed Collaborative Networks, Joshua S. Campbell, Stanley L. Cooley, Matthew F. Durkin, Brian K. Maddocks Mar 2007

Investigating Hastily-Formed Collaborative Networks, Joshua S. Campbell, Stanley L. Cooley, Matthew F. Durkin, Brian K. Maddocks

Theses and Dissertations

This research explores both the human and technical aspects of the network centric environment in the context of a major disaster or incident of national significance. The National Incident Management System (NIMS) is viewed by the authors as a social network, and an organizational topology is developed to improve its effectiveness. A rapid Network Deployment Kit (RNDK) using commercial off the shelf (COTS) wireless networking technology is also proposed that facilitates immediate NIMS implementation. The integration of logical and technical analyses forms a comprehensive systems engineering proposal to facilitate collaboration in a net-centric environment. It is envisioned that the methodology …

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