Melbourne Florida., February 2001 -- Interface and Control Systems, Inc. (ICS) has an extensive background in developing embedded systems for mission critical applications.  Based on our past experience with the Naval Research Laboratory (NRL), ICS was part of the Joint Combat Information Terminal (JCIT) software development team for the Tactical Technology Development Lab (TTDL) at NRL.  ICS provided Systems Engineering for waveform development, embedded systems software development for the SINCGARS, TRAP and TIBS waveforms, and provided twenty-three Testsets to contractors throughout the country.  The Testsets were designed to capture communication bus traffic, and to simulate missing system components in the development integration-and-test environments.  ICS also supported exercises at Ft. Hood with the Army Aviation Command and Control System (A2C2S) in a Blackhawk helicopter. 

Based on our experience with JCIT, ICS teamed with Assurance Technology Corporation (ATC) on the Joint Tactical Radio System (JTRS) Phase 2B program.  ICS is currently under contract with ATC to develop an implementation of the Advanced SINCGARS Improvement Program (ASIP) waveform.  The ASIP waveform software radio is a critical component of the new tactical internet system intended for use across the American armed forces as a part of the replacement for the current hardware-oriented communications systems.  Software-based systems are innately far more flexible and operationally supportable than hardware systems.  This ASIP implementation utilizes various mil-standard vehicular amplifier adaptors to support both analog and digital communications, across both circuit-switching and packet-switching networks integrating tactical internet routers (INCs).

The waveform architecture is captured in a UML model, using Rational Rose.  Design was begun by defining Use Cases.  Each Use Case was analyzed to derive classes that embodied state and operations; these classes were tested across all of the Use Cases to ensure correct class decomposition.  Both the static and dynamic aspects of the classes and their methods are modelled in UML, including functionality and attribute descriptions, sequence diagrams, inter-class collaboration diagrams, and other industry-standard UML representations.  The classes are currently implemented on PCs using the Microsoft Visual C++ development environment; the intention is to port to LynxOS.  CORBA is used as the communications infrastructure.

ICS personnel were responsible for implementing the Waveform Controller and its interface to the Web Server, object mode control, channel-oriented stream data services, FEC correlator, alarms, voice and audio, and parts of the Crypto, COMSEC, and TRANSEC.  The ASIP/INC waveform requires minimal hardware and low-level functional capabilities that are instantiated by an SCA-compliant Core Framework.   JTRS 2B has been successfully demonstrated to the customer and has been given the green light for further development.  

ICS is a product development and engineering services company specializing in the development of Open Source real-time, embedded, and autonomous command and control software systems.  Services include software systems engineering, integration and test, and project and software life cycle management. ICS is a privately held company with main offices in Columbia, MD, and Melbourne, FL.

Contact information:

info@interfacecontrol.com Interface & Control Systems, Inc. 877-404-CONTROL