High Level Architecture Runtime Infrastructure

Abstract

Abstract : Joint Advanced Distributed Simulation (JADS) is an Office of the Secretary of Defense-sponsored joint test force chartered to determine the utility of advanced distributed simulation (ADS) technology for test and evaluation (T&E) of military systems. JADS is doing this by looking at three slices of the T&E spectrum. One of those slices is the JADS Electronic Warfare (EW) Self-Protection Jammer (SPJ) Test. The EW test was the only JADS test that was in a position to look at the new Department of Defense (DoD) standard technical architecture for DoD simulations -- high level architecture. The JADS EW SPJ Test uses high level architecture (HLA) federations to replicate all elements of an actual open air range (OAR) test environment and the selected EW system under test (an ALQ-l3l Block II SPJ). To determine the utility of ADS technology for EW T&E, JADS will use and evaluate the HLA as part of the SPJ three-phase test program. In developing and implementing an HLA federation for EW T&E, JADS recognized that measuring and controlling the latency imposed by diverse test facilities, simulators, communications equipment, and long-haul communications networks was a critical factor. Because of the importance to T&E, most of these latency measurements have been made in other EW test projects or communications architectures and are documented. A new element used by JADS for EW T&E is the HLA and runtime infrastructure (RTI) software. Since the RTI provides a new means for dissimilar simulators and facilities to communicate, an additional source of latency is imposed on a test architecture which must be measured, optimized, and controlled for accurate real-time measurement of test events for comparison with the range data. This effort was undertaken for the JADS EW Test and is the subject of this special report.