Enhanced Interoperability Through Common Translation Architecture

"The primary goal of this SBIR is to develop a layered architectural approach for future inter-exchange gateways that enables data translation from one medium to another and/or among several mediums. For example, with the mandated proliferation of Link-16over the next 5 years, every SPO must work together to ensure overall interoperability, not only among Link-16 participants but also among numerous other diverse systems and datalinks which are not Link-16 compatible. This non-interoperability betweendiverse systems may be resolved by implementation of data forwarding rules, translation architecture(s), or other unique translation applications that act as a "gateway" between otherwise non-communicative datalinks. These gateways will providecommunications connectivity for legacy and other disparate communications systems. Our approach seeks to leverage established or developmental initiatives in DoD and commercial practices that deal with the translation of data from one medium to another. Asthis SBIR progresses through its phases, the end objective is to minimize the duplication of effort at various AF agencies, establish a centralized translation protocol and provide a body of reusable tools that any future gateway might use. The benefits ofan interoperability gateway based on a common, neutral data format is best evidenced by the considerably increased number of users of disparate systems that will be able to contribute to and acqui