An embedded radio software emulation platform using OPNET and VxWorks to develop distributed algorithms for military ad-hoc networks

Military radios have been evolving from push to talk devices into multitasking, networking capable, handheld mobile ad-hoc computers. Software defined radio technology has been fueling this evolution and as result, responsibilities and utilization of military radios along with the military network sizes have been increasing. As the complexity of ad-hoc networking radios continue to increase, the distributed protocols designed to manage the networking requirements, such as medium access control and routing, are becoming more complex and harder to analyze than they have ever been. In this paper, we present an embedded radio software emulation platform that we have developed to facilitate distributed algorithm design for military ad-hoc networks This platform enables the development and testing of distributed network protocols through emulation of the embedded software implementing these protocols. Distributed networking protocols used by the radios are emulated using the radio software´s native operating system, Wind River VxWorks, which is virtualized by using Wind River Hypervisor to run on a personal computer. The remaining parts of the radio software, physical layer properties, air interface of the radio, and all networking scenario details (e.g., terrain, mobility, and user generated traffic) are implemented in OPNET, through co-simulation. Performing design, evaluation, and debugging of distributed network algorithms on this platform will significantly reduce the amount of time spent on field tests, which can require hundreds of radios and last for months for each enhanced or modified version of the algorithms.