Request for Solutions: Distributed Live Virtual Constructive Prototype Project

Request for Solutions: Distributed Live Virtual Constructive Prototype Project 1.0 Purpose This Request for Solutions is seeking a demonstratable system that balances computer processing for modeling and simulation at ground and aircraft processing nodes when connected by a training datalink with limited bandwidth. The Government will evaluate the solutions with the intent of negotiating an Other Transaction Agreement under the Training and Readiness Accelerator (TReX). 2.0 Summary and Background The US Air Force uses training to acquire skills, develop proficiency, and evaluate performance. The Distributed LVC prototype project will demonstrate an architecture which balances model and simulation processing requirements between ground and aircraft nodes given a limited-bandwidth datalink. These computer models are required to generate virtual and constructive weapons, threats, and targets which enable flying training for initial skills and proficiency in support of air mobility and combat readiness. The Distributed LVC prototype will consist of a ground-based computational node connected to a mobility rack-mounted or tactical aircraft pod-based node via a simulated radio datalink similar to the fifth-generation advanced training waveform (5G-ATW) developed by the Air Force Research Laboratory's SLATE Advanced Technology Demonstration. The 5G-ATW datalink passes encrypted messages via compressed distributed interactive simulation (cDIS) data packets. During a training exercise, many (several hundred) simulators and computer generated forces (i.e., synthetic entities) will pass data about their position performance, weapons and status through ground-based communication node(s) to many (~100) live training systems via a training radio datalink. The live training systems will also be sending data about their performance, weapons, and status to the synthetic entities. Through this data exchange, the live operators will be able to train with and against many more entities than can be reasonably fielded in an exercise hosted on a range with limited airspace, real estate, and security. Entities generate data packets as required to communicate a change in their performance, weapons and system status. In a dynamic training environment, many (~10-20) messages may be rgenerated from a single entity every second. These data are transmitted on the 5G-ATW datalink using up to 64 discrete frequencies within the upper L band. However, the transmission is subject to interference and attenuation requiring repeating messages. Therefore, in order to support a large force employment exercise with up to 1000 live and synthetic entities, a very large number of data packets must be passed between live and synthetic entities. The Distributed LVC prototype project will demonstrate an architecture that establishes models and simulation at the ground node and aircraft node in order to reduce the data volume on a connecting training datalink. The full RFS can be viewed on the TReX website, located at the following link: https://trainingaccelerator.org/2018/05/distributed-lvc-prototype-project/