How Can the DIS Protocol Analyzer Save You Time/Money

OK, you have a problem on your DIS Network that is causing systems to crash. Where do you go from there? Granted, if it happens quickly, you have to only look through several thousand packets to find the problem. If the problem doesn't happen right away, then you may have millions of packets to look through. Using something like Wireshark, you pretty much have to have an idea of what may be happening so you can start filtering the packets to narrow down where the problem is. Your other option is to write debug code in the simulation software in order to find the offending packet and condition.

In most instances, a problem such as this would be caused by someone publishing bad data within a packet. This could be a value that doesn't make any sense (i.e. out of range or NaN (not a number)) or an enumeration value that isn't defined. In the latter, you then have to go to the SISO-REF-010 document and search through the hundreds of pages to find the bad enumeration. Doing this can be very time consuming. If you are lucky it may only take a 30 minutes or so to narrow down the packet and then identify what is happening.

The DIS Protocol Analyzer streamlines this entire process. First of all, it checks every incoming DIS packet to insure that it's a valid DIS packet. This includes checking that all of the information in the header makes sense. Next, it will checks the values contained within the packet to make sure that values are valid including all enumerations contained within the packet. Values of numbers such as floats are checked to make sure that they are not only valid numbers, but in many cases are check to make sure that they are reasonable numbers. Many values are also checked against the DIS Standard itself. For instance, if an entity is declared stationary (DR Algorithm = 1) and it has a velocity. This error is logged. Enumerations are checked against the latest SISO-REF-010 document and if they are not specified within the document, they are identified. If the SISO-REF-010 document is updated, the DIS Protocol Analyzer automatically takes the updated document into account without the need for a new download of the DIS Protocol Analyzer. Any suspect data is both displayed in the GUI and logged to a file.

The default real-time mode of the DIS Protocol Analyzer allows you to look at a given entity in real-time so you can see the most recent values contained within the packet. The DIS Protocol Analyzer allows you to open up a monitor window for a given entity simply by double-clicking on an entity from the current entity list. In this monitor window, all of the pertinent data contained in the packet is displayed. Additionally, for enumerations, not only is the enumeration integer displayed, but also the description contained within the SISO-REF-010 document! This means that, for instance, you don't have to lookup what Entity Type is being transmitted within a packet. You don't have to remember, off the top of your head, that a "1.2.225.1.3.3.0" is an F-16C, this DIS Protocol Analyzer translates this for you in real-time! The monitor window also gives you vital statistics with regards to that entity such as when the last packet was received. This window even displays the current status of any articulated part contained in the packets received!

In some cases, you may want to examine a timeline of data for a given entity. The Record/Replay capability allows you to record all of the packets and examine raw packets. Additionally, when errors (or warnings) are logged in this mode, a packet ID is reported with the error so that you can immediately go to that packet and examine it. The user can easily get a timeline of every packet that was sent regarding that entity during the recording.

Setup for the DIS Protocol Analyzer is simple and initially you could be monitoring data minutes after installing. But to really take advantage of the power of the DIS Protocol Analyzer, the user should really take the time to define their network using the included DIS Network Manager tool. If the network is defined using this tool, then the data the DIS Protocol Analyzer provides becomes even more valuable and time-saving. When the network properly defined, the tool will tell you who on the network is causing the error or not following the standards set for the network/exercise. Defining the network simply entails defining a Site Number, Site Description, and IP Address (or range of addresses) for a given site. Further definition can be accomplished by assigned Application ID and Descriptions for a given site. If you already have this defined for your network, this entire process takes anywhere from a couple of minutes to an hour (depending, of course, on the size of your network).

The first unveiling of the DIS Protocol Analyzer was during the integration phase of I/ITSEC Operation Blended Warrior (OBW) in 2017. This involved 30+companies all contributing a number of entities to a joint exercise. At first, the tool was met with some skepticism at the beginning of the 3 week integration. But when it was found that the DIS Protocol Analyzer was able to identify most problems in less than 1 minute and identifying issues using tools like Wireshark many times took 30 minutes or more, many found that the tool saved a great deal of time and became the "go to" tool for many to quickly identify what was happening on the network.