Prototyping communication system software with the Distributed Simulation and Prototyping Testbed

The authors describe the Distributed Simulation and Prototyping Testbed (DSPT) and show how it is used to develop prototype software. The ability to prototype software offers significant advantages to the successful development of C/sup 3/ systems, which are typically distributed, complex, and hard to test. The DSPT itself is a distributed system. However, its distributed nature is transparent to the user since interprocess communication and synchronization are handled automatically. The DSPT also provides detailed models of physical layer objects, platforms, transmitters, receivers, etc., via a well-defined interface. This interface provides the context for developing models of higher layer protocols. The use of DSPT tools to develop prototype software for the US Navy's Unified Network Technology is considered.<>