The USACECOM Digital Integrated Lab infrastructure

Abstract

The US Army Communications-Electronics Command (CECOM) Research and Engineering Center (RDEC) has developed at Fort Monmouth, New Jersey an integrated advanced research environment known as the Digital Integrated Laboratory (DIL). The DIL allows users to rapidly create unique integrated laboratory testbed environments by interconnecting government laboratories and testbeds, distant Army Battle Labs, remote field sites, and dispersed contractor testbeds as well as providing access to defense simulation networks and commercial communications networks. The complexity of today's research and development for Army C3IEW systems and the need for more efficient resource utilization has led to the creation of the DIL. The backbone of this integrated research environment and key to its flexibility is the distributed communications infrastructure which links the numerous laboratories and facilities. As the demands for information transport and connectivity of the DIL evolve, so too must the communications infrastructure evolve. To this accommodate evolution the DIL infrastructure has been designed to allow for future communications technologies to be incorporated as they become available and to allow for the smooth integration of these added capabilities with minimal loss of investment.