Open Tool Kit for Mission-Critical Systems

This project will define, prototype and evaluate a framework and tool kit for building distributed real-time, fault-tolerant, mission-critical systems in heterogeneous environments. The primary elements are: CORDS/GIPC, a group communications system thatprovides fault tolerance in scalable, distributed real-time system; and a Real-Time Java environment for hard real-time applications. Other elements of the tool kit include: distributed clock management, instrumentation, and application management,including control and performance modeling. The targeted commercial product would address both the initial development and the continuing development and life-cycle maintenance of evolving mission-critical applications, which would be written primarily,but not exclusively, in Java. This project will also initiate a standardization effort based upon the interfaces defined for the framework.BENEFITS: Use of a platform-independent, extensible framework supporting the creation of real-time fault tolerantsystems significantly eases the complexity of integrating tactical applications in multiplatform environments. This capability is particularly important for tactical systems wishing to migrate to a more open COTS architecture while continuing to meetmission performance constraints. Using a standard and open COTS software base leverages commercial markets increasing likeleyhood of long-term COTS support.