Real-time Insights for Combat System Integration and Testing

A key challenge to the Navy is the time and cost associated with integrating complex systems of systems, such as SQQ-89 Anti-Submarine Warfare (ASW). Engineers spend time performing root-cause analysis to find the cause of errors related to internal interfaces, which throttles the rate of improvement to warfighting capability. The Interface Traffic Monitoring and Evaluation (IT-ME) software application is an updated and enhanced interface testing tool built on the pedigree of Innovative Defense TechnologiesÆs (IDT's) core automated testing technologies. IT-ME monitors, prepares, and assesses message data in real-time using deep-packet inspection to detect interface and message-level errors. IT-ME makes use of state-of-the-market DevSecOps practices including supporting external access via open Application Programming Interfaces (APIs) and fault-tolerant, scalable, containerized deployments using technologies based on Docker and Kubernetes. IDT extended the development to include a real-time performance dashboard that contains an Alert View with real-time message data assessment artifacts, including warnings and informational messages, to an operator. By automating the interface monitoring and assessment tasks and aggregating those insights into a comprehensive User Interface (UI), IDT effectively short-circuited the costly process of performing root-cause analysis for interface and message errors.