Development of Affordable and Portable Defense Simulation Internet

Mobile SIMNET/DIS assets cannot easily participate in exercises carried on the DSI. Getting sufficient LHN bandwidth to National Guard sites in expensive. Hooking up the mobile SIMNET/DIS assets to the new site is problematic. However, new technologies hold promise to solve these problems. First, we propose to determine specific technical requirements from customer-provided functional requirements. We propose to build and test a short-haul link to solve the "last mile" problem. We propose to build and test two LHN alternatives -- multiple voice-grade dialup lines, and ISDN. We propose to produce a Final Report containing test results, conclusions, and recommendations for further work. The requirements-gathering step assures that the customer's requirements will be met. MaK's proximity to the DSI hub and MaK's extensive DIS resources and experience assure that program cost and program risk will be low during the build-and-test step. Anticipated Benefits: The proposed project will increase the readiness of both National Guard units. It can increase the readiness of deployed tropps by enabling forward-deployable simulators. It will increase DSI participation by lowering the cost-barrier to entry. It will enable extremely low-cost DIS LHN operations independently of the DSI.