Forms of Network Representation for Network Enabled Capability: Human Factors interpretation of Network Representations
Abstract
Background
The representations used to define and explore Network Enabled Capability are concerned with the definition of networks involving technology (i.e., computing or communications) and the processes that these support. However, there remains a question as to whether these perspectives can be usefully employed by Human Factors, and whether Human Factors recommendations can be couched in terms that are amenable to technology-oriented representations. Addressing this relationship (between technology- and human-oriented representations of networks) allows Human Factors issues and concerns to be considered within the context of these engineering models.
Goal
In this report a primary goal is to consider approaches to representing networks with a view to drawing analogies between the representations used by communications and computer networks engineering and Human Factors Engineering. The reason for doing this is to explore whether assumptions relating to network structure and activity that are necessary for communications and computer networks are justifiable from a Human Factors perspective, and whether some assumptions regarding human performance are feasible from an engineering perspective. A secondary goal is to employ computer network models (using OpNet (Optimised Network Evaluation Tool)) to represent human activity in Command and Control (C2) networks.
Scope
The main focus of this report is to reconcile Human Factors with computer / communications representations of networks. In particular, it is argued that Human Factors tends to consider ‘networks’ as ad hoc instantiations of communications for the performance of specific missions. In contrast, one can claim that technology-oriented representations have tended (until recently) to focus on predictive, generalised representations (such as system architectures). However, the work on ad hoc networks (in the communications domain) and Service Oriented Architectures (in the computer networks domain) suggest a possible rapprochement between Human Factors and technology-oriented approaches that could be exploited within the development of NEC. Furthermore, representations which emphasise behaviour at ‘nodes’ might lead to quite different predictions about performance when compared to representations which emphasise the properties of ‘links’. The implication of these assumptions is that there is unlikely to be a single form of representation that reveals all of the aspects of a network.
Readership
This report is aimed at Human Factors practitioners and intended to be read as both an introduction to network concepts and a treatise on how humans might be represented in such concepts. Consequently, the level of detail (from the point of view of computer / communications network theory) will be kept to a minimum, and mathematics only mentioned in passing. The aim is to provide sufficient material to open a debate on network representation.
Related HFI DTC work
There are aspects of the wider HFI DTC research programme that are related to this work. Social, Task and Knowledge network representations have been considered in work related to the WESTT (Workload, Error, Situation Awareness, Time and Teamwork) software tool [10.]. Aspects relating to Socio-Technical Systems are the subject of ongoing research in the ‘NEC as a Socio-Technical System’ work package [14.]. Finally, research has been conducted into the development of a ‘Human View’ within Architectural Frameworks (e.g., MoDAF) [4.].
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