Airborne Network Laydown

Architecture Technology Corporation (ATCorp) developed a network lay-down based on empirical data that is representative of the network fabric underlying future airborne networks. The AN lay-down serves as the input to various simulation and emulation based evaluations of airborne information management services and applications.

Specifically, the ATCorp team accomplished the following:

Analyzed a wide variety of link technology empirical data to create a complete taxonomy of available link types and expected performance metrics of current technologies, near-term future technologies (~2011) and far-term future technologies (~2016).
Created a small-scale topology and network lay-down based on an Afghanistan scenario using current and near-term Airborne Network technology (Target FY2011 timeframe).
Created a medium-scale topology and network lay-down for the future Airborne Network (Target FY 2016 timeframe) using the taxonomy and empirical data. This topology includes the interim CABLE platform technology, expected to be used from 2011 to 2016 to bridge the gap in technologies until the objective AN is fully realized.
Translated both the network lay-downs into executable Emulab scripts and demonstrated the scripts on an Emulab testbed.
Provided on-site support to install and setup the Emulab testbed at the AFRL Naresky facility. Emulab is a network testbed, giving computer science researchers a wide range of environments in which to develop, debug, and evaluate their distributed systems and software. The Naresky testbed will be used to provide the needed analysis of the airborne information systems and other software applications in realistic environments. The testbed consists of 90 nodes capable of creating a wide variety of networks and topologies using Windows, FreeBSD, Linux, and CentOS all capable of emulating various radio links.

These accomplishments produced a network emulation environment that will enable the testing and evaluation of future Airborne Network technologies. The emulation environment will be able to use the delivered scripts to create realistic and scalable test cases.