Transitioning Advanced Flight Simulations to the High Level Architecture

Air Force simulation technology must maintain a high degree of precision within the bandwidth limitations of a widely-distributed network, and must do so in a cost-conscious manner. To support fast flying, high fidelity aircraft, an Air Force simulation environment requires low lanteny between source and destination, and can tolerate only negligible packet loss. In addition to these preexisting technical challenges, all simulations must be moving toward compliance with the High Level Architecture (HLA) by the second quarter of 1997. Air Force performance goals may not be achievable in this environment, and if not, any necessary corrective steps must be taken as early as possible. MaK Technologies, by utilizing existing technologies, will provide a low-cost, low-risk solution which meets all of the technical objectives. DIS-Lite, an Air Force sponsored research project designed to lower latency over long-haul networks, will be the basis of an advanced flight federation Federation Federation Object Model. MaK's VR-Link, a networking toolkit, will provide both DIS and HLA compliance. In addition, MaK will perform initial tests aimed at determining whether or not the current HLA will support the needs of advanced flight simulations. MaK's low-risk, low-cost solution provides the Air Force with the tools needed to transition from DIS to HLA, and enables Phase II type testing during the Phase I work effort. The tests will be used to determine if HLA can support the interaction of highly-manuevable aircraft in a shared virtual environment. By performing these tests early on the development process, MaK is able to focus the Phase II effort on the modifications needed to meet the Air Force's needs, possibly including the development of a high performance RTI.