Accelerating Wireless Device Development

SNT reduces development lifecycle time and improves performance in high bandwidth MANET applications.

SNT’s network simulation and emulation technologies accelerate the design and development cycle for ad-hoc mobile network devices, and also improves device performance by pinpointing risk factors that can cause communication breakdowns in operation.

QualNet Developer is the only modeling and simulation tool that can explore and analyze early-stage alternative device designs and application code in closed, synthetic networks at real time speed, at a scale of up to thousands of network nodes. EXata is the only network evaluation tool that can create “software virtual networks” (SVNs) — exact digital replicas of physical networks in virtual space that are indistinguishable to applications, devices, or users. Unlike traditional modeling and simulation products, SVNs created in EXata can interoperate with all components of physical networks – devices, applications, users, and network management tools.

Together, EXata and QualNet provide an integrated and seamless solution for evaluating and assuring the performance and reliability of legacy and future wireless networks.

Tactical Communications: Mobile Ad Hoc Networks

Mobile ad hoc networks (MANETs) consist of wireless mobile devices or “nodes” that can freely and dynamically self-organize into temporary networks, allowing people and devices to interconnect in areas with no communications infrastructure, such as disaster recovery environments or battlefields.  First developed about twenty years ago, MANETs have been used almost exclusively for military tactical communications.  Newer technologies such as Bluetooth, WiFi, and HyperLAN are now helping enable commercial MANET deployments outside the military domain.

MANETs are set up ‘on the fly’ without infrastructure components such as access points or base stations.  Therefore, every mobile device acts as both host and router.  As devices move over terrain and through varying weather and atmospheric conditions, they may connect and disconnect repeatedly from the other devices.  As IP technology continues to mature, developers seek to incorporate technology advances into their devices to overcome the environmental effects on reachability and latency from node to node.

How QualNet & EXata Accelerate Development

Today, device designers use a combination of simulation technology, computer models of physical networks or network systems analogous to “flight simulators” used by pilots, and physical “testbeds” scaled-down versions of fully-deployed networks built with prototypes of the new devices being evaluated.

Simulation has become highly sophisticated over the last twenty years, and is best suited for evaluating solution concepts and initial designs in the early stages of the development cycle. Depending on the complexity of the network and the need for real-world fidelity, large-scale simulations and/or testbeds are used to evaluate designs prior to deployment.

EXata breaks new ground in speed and fidelity compared to competitive simulation and emulation systems. The underlying computer code, known as the kernel, is built with patented computationally efficient code that dramatically increases speed and accuracy on any computing platform. EXata is the only emulation system that can use advanced parallel processing to digitally represent every layer in the wireless communications protocol “stack”.

When evaluating network designs using EXata SVNs, any hardware, software, or human user connected to the emulated network is not able to tell the difference between a real network component and its emulated replacement. As a result, engineers can take promising technologies from early designs tested with simulation tools, develop “virtual prototypes” and integrate them into the SVNs, which in turn can be inter-operated with existing deployed networks. EXata also produces greater predictability of actual performance. Many more potential solutions can be tested and evaluated in a given time period, allowing engineers to solve more problems with fewer technical compromises.

SVNs created in EXata deliver two substantial advantages over physical testbeds. First, emulation enables engineers to test and evaluate potential inter-operation solutions much earlier in the design process, at a fraction of the cost of physical testbeds. Emulation reduces cost by minimizing prototype iterations through the development cycle. It also eliminates the need to acquire large physical spaces within which to construct testbeds; you can’t test routing protocols or connectivity issues if all the radios are in the same room.

Second, EXata produces better predictability of actual performance because engineers can test solutions against all potential environmental effects. As a result, many more potential solutions can be evaluated and more problems can be solved with fewer technical compromises.

Application: L-3 Communications

SNT emulation technology is being used by L-3 Communications to develop the MR-TCDL, a Wireless, IP-based, Mobile Ad Hoc Networking System that provides high bandwidth capacity over very long ranges. SNT’s emulation is used to validate MR-TCDL applications and hardware and refine system designs.

Prior to test flights featuring real aircraft, L-3 connects real WMR/MR-TCDL prototypes to an emulated fleet of aircraft in EXata.   The pre-test-flight validation process, which takes place early in the system design and development phases, is intended to reduce the risk of system or network failure during system testing and actual flight test acceptance phases.

With real hardware and actual algorithms integrated into the emulation, protocol service verification takes place throughout various stages of product development, not just at the final step.  QualNet-based simulation and emulation are critical to understanding and refining the performance of IPCM, network protocols and other network services.

Once the test fights are underway, QualNet is used to provide flight test support with real-time 3D visualization of link status and telemetry data.  By providing operational-level validation of networking software and hardware, emulation helps L-3 build a better solution faster and more inexpensively.