MULTI-NETWORK ENGINEERING TOOL

Recently, the U.S. navy has provided SBIR Phase I and II funding to IRI Corporation to develop a SAFENET and FDDI Performance Evaluation Tool. This unique tool is able to provide for the planning, analysis, design, calibration and configuration of SAFENET and FDDI networks using analytically based and analytical-expert-oriented approaches. Its structure is based on the related Standards and on the actual hardware devices and modules involved in the implementation of such network systems. It is highly user friendly, incorporating an effective graphical user interface. While this tool is able to provide for the modeling, planning and analysis of SAFENET and FDDI networks, it is currently recognized that many naval (including NTCS-A, OSS, NGCR and Copernicus programs) and commercial implementations require the installation of a multi-network system which interconnects multiple such networks. The purpose of this proposed work is to develop in Phase I, through integration into the existing IRI tool, efficient analytical and combined simulation-analytical methods that can then be used in Phase II for the development of a software based engineering tool for the specification of the multi-network system topology, selection of hardware configuration and the engineering of system performance.