Tactical Data Links
Ferhat Yalcin
Chief Scientific Assistant
CAT2 , NC3A
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AGENDA OF THE PRESENTATION
(~20 Minutes)
 To introduce ourselves and capabilities
 Our TITO Based Prototypes
 Our SOA Based Prototypes
 Some of US / NATO trials related to TDL
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Who are we ?
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A subgroup of 8 -10 engineers
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Working in the area of Tactical Data Links , Text based(AdatP-3, OTH-Gold ,etc) , XML
based (NFFI ,etc ) , binary (Link16 , Link11 ,etc)
of Interoperability division. NC3A (CAT2)
What do we do ?

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Requirements capturing / documenting & specifications development (Recently , Developed
DAMA (Defense Anti Mortar Attack TDL Technical Note , XML based)
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(via ) Prototype development
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(via) Deployment of the prototype to NATO exercises , workshops and trials with some
other systems (then ,update documents with feedbacks and lessons learned)
SOA (NNEC) based solutions development and testing for TDLs and Information
exchange(Currently developing NATO metadata registry and repository federation
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specification )
Some of our prototypes & tools
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TITO Based prototypes
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NIRIS (Interoperable Real-time Information Services) TITO ( TDL-in, TDL-out) API
OANT TDL VIEWER
RECORDING MANAGER
SERIAL PORT MANAGER
SERVER WAN GUI
NSCD (NATO Simple Compliant Device)
JRE ( Joint Range Extension )
IEG- FS (Information Exchange Gateway - Functional Services)
SOA based prototypes
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TIES (TITO Information Exchange Service)
NMRR (NATO Meta Data Registry & Repository )
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Our TITO Based Prototypes
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NIRIS (Interoperable Real-time Information Services) TITO ( TDL-in, TDL-out) API
•TITO is an application programmer's interface (API) which can be used by third-party
applications to receive the data fields of the data links and to allow applications to
generate STANAG-compliant tactical data link messages from their data.
•If you have a Java application for example , you can use NATO NIRIS API to create a
socket that listens a specific port in a LAN and receives and scans Link 16 ,etc messages.
•Why is it powerful ?
1. Hand-coding of the 3000 or so tactical data link message fields is a long and error-prone
process. NIRIS 3 therefore used a state-of-the-art automatic process. This process
involved several steps: the written STANAG was first converted into a XML
representation ; and the XML STANAG was then automatically converted into the Java
code, Java tests and HTML documentation using the XSLT (extensible stylesheet
language transformations) processing language. Of course, parts of each STANAG
contained ambiguities that needed human input to resolve, but the vast majority of the
code was auto-generated leaving the human programmer only the task of solving the
interesting problems.
2. Developed and tested during many NATO exercises, trials , workshops with different
national systems .Probably very less systems have been tested that much with a huge
variety of different systems.
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Automatically generated HTML documentation of a STANAG . By clicking , you go into
more detail levels (for example , from message to sets , from sets to fields ,etc) (See
above)
All STANAG is converted into an XML file. This is the main input for Java code , unit
test and documentation generation. If NIRIS supports a TDL , it always supports all of
the messages in the STANAG . For example all 300 messages in AdatP-3 , all Link 16
messages in different versions(ed3,ed4,ed5) are supported. (See above)
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NATO Real-Time Data Exchange After NIRIS
Land C2
Link-11B
ASTERIX
Link-16
AWCIES
NATO
WAN
Air C2
Maritime C2
OTH-Gold
Friendly
Force
Tracking
VMF
SOF C2
… and then adds support for every
major TDL format ( C2 system can
then display JOINT COMMON
OPERATIONAL PICTURE)
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OANT TDL VIEWER
• A Graphical User Interface application
•OANT TDL Viewer is the tool that is used for verifying and validating the TDL output of
different systems compliance with the STANAGs .It has also a decoder that lets the TDL
messages data to be displayed as human readable format .
TDL Message decoded and verified
Some of the supported TDLS.
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RECORDING AND REPLAYING (TDL Messages )
• For further analysis and testing purposes , TDL messages can be recorded and replayed
with different speeds during an exercise
•Used during CWID 2009 to examine all recordings in our NATO SECRET lab.
Recording Manager GUI
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SERIAL PORT MANAGER
•The Serial Port Manager (SPM) is in charge of transmitting and receiving message
streams from serial interfaces (as used by the traditional modems) to and from the LAN
(Local Area Network).
•The main use of the SPM is to broadcast data feeds that arrive from TDL systems .If there
are different LANS ,to broadcast all the messages produced in one LAN to the other LANs
, you can use (SPM) in order to work as a relay; forward all the traffic to the other
participating LANS. (MAJIIC 2009 exercise)
Serial Port Manager
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NIRIS SERVER – WANGUI
•
NIRIS Server provides real time configuration and statistics on all the functionality of the
NIRIS components (like recording manager , serial port manager) through a web
browser called the WAN-GUI.
•
On access to the WAN-GUI the user has to authenticate himself. After that the user can
select to view or update the configuration of all available Managers. Whether a user can
change a specific aspect depends on the role that was assigned to this user.
Furthermore the statistics for all available Managers can be shown to monitor the
working of the Manager and troubleshoot problems.
NIRIS Server GUI
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NSCD (NATO SIMPLE COMPLIANT DEVICE)
•The NSCD reads the recognised TDL data from a STANAG-5602 compliant Local Area
Network (LAN)/WAN TCP/IP port of a remote node. Then it unpacks the data, translates the
network format into SIMPLE, and converts it into Transmission Control Protocol (TCP) or
User Datagram Protocol (UDP) packets for onward transmission over the SIMPLE network,
which can be either via encrypted telephone lines or the IP-based CFBL network. TDL data
can now be forwarded to any place that has connectivity to this WAN.
•NSCD is mainly used as a router during exercises. All participant platforms from different
nations connect to NSCD WAN (mostly via CFBL net) . When a platform sends a message to
NSCD , this message is forwarded to all other participants in the WAN. And all other
participants verify this message.
A sample NSCD WAN
participants’ interconnection
diagram
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JRE – JOINT RANGE EXTENSION

JRE provides a foundation for Joint Range Extension of Link 16 and other tactical data
links (TDLs) to overcome the line-of-sight (LOS) limitations of radio terminals, such as
Joint Tactical Information Distribution System (JTIDS) and Multifunctional Information
Distribution System (MIDS). It uses a variety of secure media, including satellite
communications, telephones and Internet protocols to essentially extend the coverage
area beyond the line of sight.
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JRE was developed to function much like a router commonly used in home and
business computer networks.
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JRE gathers information between the various air, ground and maritime forces operating
in a given area and routes that information across the different data links, effectively
creating a wide-area network. It also takes information and transmits it to other routers,
linking together other networks much in the same way the Internet links the entire globe.
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NIRIS JRE Processor General Characteristics
 MIL-STD 3011 Appendix C complaint.
 Messages structure and Data dictionary defined in XML.
 Automatic generation of source code, documentation and Unit test from XML
representation.
 Platform Independent (written in Java).
 Easy to expand (Others TDLs and Transmission media).
 Reliable and highly available.
 User friendly.
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JRE NIRIS Processor in the deployed environment
Joint Range
Extension
Processor
SIMPLE
ICC
LAN
OWL
JREAP
LINK 16
NETWORK
Nato Secret
WAN
LINK 16
NETWORK
JREAP
OWL
SIMPLE
LAN
ICC
Joint Range
Extension
Processor
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IEG- FS (Information Exchange Gateway - Functional Services)
•NATO has introduced the concept of the Information Exchange Gateway (IEG - FS) to
improve and enable cross security domain interoperability for functional services.
•It enables us to exchange information between different classified networks , for example
from NATO classified to National network or vice versa .
•Based on configuration files (labeller.xml and sanitizer.xml), a part of a TDL message that
is defined as classified (for NATO or for a Nation) can be removed/set to zero and the TDL
message can be recomposed without the classified data before it is send.
ADatP-3 Baseline 11C (All 300 Msgs) / 11F(All 10 Msgs) and
Link 16 , Link 11, Link , OTG Protocols
NATO Domain -Nation Domain Demonstration
NATO
Secret Domain
A figure from the trial with
Italy . 6-7 different Italian
systems received TDL from
NATO classified domain after
NATO classified fields were
removed
NATIONAL
SECRET Domain
IEG - FS
OANT
FileToSMTP NIRIS
Tool
replay
NS BPD
OANT
ICC
SMTPToFile
Tool
IEG FS proxy
ADatP-3 ACO (Baseline 11C)
Link 16 J3.2 (Edition 3)
Link 11 M2
Link 1 S.5
OTG Gold(Contact Report)
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Our SOA (NNEC) Based Prototypes
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TIES (TITO Information Exchange Service)
•TIES is the way to access information available from NIRIS TITO via web services. It is a
(Tactical) Data Link information provider service with an underlying SOA approach.
•TIES design :
The TIES module will start its own Trackstore(s) from which it will serve the information. It will
be started similar to the other components (managers, servers) via a script and will use a
number of configuration files. In these files , it is specified which data to make available (port
numbers, wrapper formats, etc) and via which web-service interfaces (TIDE, TIDE2, STGP,
etc).
TIES architecture
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NMRR (NATO METADATA REGISTRY AND REPOSITORY )
•
We are moving to NNEC architectures and using XML , XSD , WSDL ,etc more and
more everyday .Within the NATO , metadata management is identified as an important
service for the realization of net-centric environment where information is visible and
accessible for users.
•
We need to store XML based metadata files in a registry and repository that should be
available to authorized users and applications.
•
Our group has developed the NMRR prototype software which is a web based User
Interface application. Users can browse/search registered xml artifacts from a web
browser after they are logged in and authenticated.
NATO Classified
NATO Unclassified
NATO Metadata Reg&Rep
User
Current NMRR
NATION Metadata Reg&Rep
•
Currently we are working on machine-machine interface for our NMRR especially
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secure SOAP messaging.
NMRR (NATO METADATA REGISTRY AND REPOSITORY )
NMRR GUI
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Some of US / NATO trials related to TDL and
information Exchange
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TDLITS – US is the test manager , Link16 interoperability testing
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MAJIIC - Exchange of ISR information between NATO nations
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ICC – TBMCS MTF message exchange via IEG – FS
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Link 16 shared early warning information exchange through JREAP (US GCCS system)
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US – ONIR system (TBM) plots displayed on ICC those are processed by NIRIS (not live –
via recording)
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Summary
• I have tried to summarize some of our prototypes /
capabilities and some US/NATO related trials.
• I have some of our software ready for demonstration in
my laptop . If anyone is interested in , I can demonstrate it
where available. After this presentation ,please feel free to
asks questions to me about the details .
• Based on our prototypes and capabilities , we are very
much interested in working together with US . We think
that both US and NATO can benefit from it , especially in
the field of TDL and information exchange .
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