XPRT Solutions, Inc. A DSCI Company - PRODUCTS
XPRT's CEST (Comprehensive Edge Solution Technology) Product Line is a cutting-edge technology offering a modular collection of Quality of Service (QoS) and resource management edge functions that are crucial (for both Commercial Applications and Tactical Applications) and can be enabled based on customer needs. CEST products allow fair sharing of network resources and efficient utilization of limited bandwidth, assuring QoS for critical information. CEST-Voice is the first product that is available from the CEST Product Line. The product can be used at the router/switch network interface to mitigate core network performance problems such as severe packet loss or severe bandwidth limitations that can significantly degrade VoIP quality. CEST-Voice has applications in both commercial and tactical markets. For commercial applications, CEST targets bandwidth saving, robustness requirements and advantages of edge technology's statistical multiplexing, filtering, etc. In tactical networks, CEST-Voice has the additional advantage that it can be used at the red-side of the HAIPE encryption device and requires no information from the black side of the network. With packet loss up to 60%, the Warfighters can still communicate with good VoIP quality using this device. CEST-Voice can be configured through a simple PC interface to optimize the amount of VoIP robustness and compression to overcome a high packet loss ratio network path, a low bandwidth network path, or a combination of the two. Each device can handle up to 20 voice calls simultaneously with different configurations to different destinations, based on the subnet address masks and the ability to filter destinations where a compatible product is not deployed. Other CEST products under planning and development include CEST-Data, CEST-Security and CEST-Video. XPRT is proposing a full suite of the CEST Product Line with 20+ modular edge functions for near future availability
CEST (Comprehensive Edge Solution Technology) Product Line
RMSim (Reactive Multi-Layer Simulation Technology)
Reactive Multi-layer Simulation (RMSim) is XPRT's next generation Modeling and Simulation (M&S) commercial tool that provides capabilities far beyond the existing M&S products. RMSim is designed as a fully Integrated Development Environment (IDE) that can interface with any specialized utility or tool as a part of the simulation environment. The most important concept that the tool is built on is that it is a development platform allowing writing of portable software. This shortens the development cycle since the test code is the same as the product code, thus bridging the gap between development and simulation.
IP Test Tool
XPRT's IP Test Tool has been developed to allow the IP user to create and execute complex IPv4/IPv6 test cases. It can evaluate system functionality and performance, and permits faster debugging of intricate problems. It emulates realistic as well as worst-case scenarios and provides benchmark measurements, serving to qualify the system under test during development, quality assurance, and final regression testing. The comprehensive protocol support allows the user to test with a single application and an easy to use GUI, reducing the learning curve. As the IP networks migrate from IPv4 to IPv6, this device will facilitate the migration testing through its dual-stack IPv4 and IPv6 traffic generation.
The IP Test Tool can be used to generate packets with valid and invalid parameter values, create malformed packets, and initiate and respond to various protocols for testing. Some of its salient features are the following:
Packet generation (singly or in bursts) from remote hosts via a web browser GUI.
User modification of protocol headers, including UDP, TCP, IPv4, IPv6, ICMPv4, ICMPv6, and OSPFv3, with default values
provided for unmodified parameters.
Easy selection of the communications protocol for each packet, where the same data may be sent using either UDP or
TCP sent over IPv4 / IPv6.
Emulation of IPv4 / IPv6 gateways for testing tunneling.
Emulation of protocols such as MLDv2, OSPF, BGP, Neighbor Discovery, etc. using user specified or default protocol
exchange values.
Capability to save and retrieve test cases, and run in verbose mode for debugging.
provided for unmodified parameters.
Easy selection of the communications protocol for each packet, where the same data may be sent using either UDP or
TCP sent over IPv4 / IPv6.
Emulation of IPv4 / IPv6 gateways for testing tunneling.
Emulation of protocols such as MLDv2, OSPF, BGP, Neighbor Discovery, etc. using user specified or default protocol
exchange values.
Capability to save and retrieve test cases, and run in verbose mode for debugging.
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The IP Test Tool also allows comprehensive OSPF conformance testing including:
Adjacency establishment, maintenance and deletion
Designated router election
Designated router election
Error handling
Preferred path hierarchical routing
Database exchange
Neighbor State verification
Support for virtual link
LSA operation and support for the various LSA fields
Support for different types of routers, including internal routers, area border routers, backbone routers and
autonomous system boundary routers
Preferred path hierarchical routing
Database exchange
Neighbor State verification
Support for virtual link
LSA operation and support for the various LSA fields
Support for different types of routers, including internal routers, area border routers, backbone routers and
autonomous system boundary routers
Point-to-point, non-broadcast multiple access (NBMA) and broadcast operation
ITL-GW
XPRT's ITL-GW (In-the-Loop Gateway), a modular, software-based device, is specifically designed to interface with network simulations and real hardware in heterogeneous networking environments. It is a critical component that enables seamless routing of both data and protocol packets between real and simulated networks. This unique product enables true real-time in-the-loop simulation for any simulators/emulators and real networks, and provides exclusive features that are not usually available in commercial off-the-shelf (COTS) products.
XPRT has deployed ITL-GW as the core for NITL (Network-In-The-Loop), a real-time large-scale network simulator. NITL provides scalable network emulations designed to interface directly with Live, Virtual, and Constructive (LVC) components, suitable for both military networks and commercial Mobile Ad-hoc NETwork (MANET) simulations. NITL carries live and simulated traffic seamlessly as required in LVC experiments and field events such as developmental and operational tests. An entire Brigade Combat Team (BCT) size network that contains hundreds of nodes can be simulated on the rack-mounted Linux blade servers in real-time.
Another significant application of ITL-GW is with XPRT's next generation Modeling & Simulation tool RMSim (Reactive Multi-layer Simulation) to develop a System In-The Loop (SITL) simulation environment. ITL-GW facilitates protocol and data packet exchanges between the real and the simulated networking components enabling the incorporation of human or hardware in the loop (HITL).
Some of the more noteworthy features of ITL-GW are summarized below:
ITL-GW is a simulation specific gateway router designed to facilitate the exchanges of data packets and protocol pack (such as OSPF advertisements) between simulated networks and real networks.
ITL-GW currently supports OSPF, RIP and BGP, and the future release will also support PIM-DM and PIM-SM protocols. Enhanced with the easy-to-use GUI, it is capable of user-programmable routing configurations and routing rules based on the traffic type and the network addresses.
ITL-GW is based on standard Intel/AMD hardware and uses Open Source Linux OS and software library. Thus, there is no additional third party software license required to deploy ITL-GW.
ITL-GW's architecture is exceptionally flexible and is simulator independent, thereby enabling interconnections between packet-based, real-time, simulator networks as well as real networks.
The System In-The-Loop (SITL) concept is at the core of the technology in RMSim. This allows the incorporation of human or hardware in the loop (HITL). The existing simulation tools were built with virtual (simulated) networks as the goal of the tool. Moving towards SITL had been difficult since there is a clear separation between the virtual (simulated) packets (with no payload) and real packets (coming from real systems) with packet loads. The core design of RMSim bridges this gap by allowing the user to create real packets at the simulated network as well as allowing the simulated network to sink real packets. The RMSim model can be all virtual, all real or a mix of the two.
The RMSim development was undertaken with the emphasis on accuracy, simulation speed, ease of use and support for user interaction in order to make rapid modifications in support of overall analysis and decision making. RMSim supports full cross layer signaling capability between all layers of the protocol stack. The cross layer signaling preservation is achieved through the parent-child state machine hierarchical design. The parent state machine at each layer is unchangeable and behaves like an Operating System to handle all messaging with a 1:1 mapping with the actual hardware, while the concurrent child state machines are flexible for implementation of application/protocol specific functionalities. The flexibility of the concurrent child state machines also allows the building of any interface to any specialized tool.
RMSim has the following main features:
Designed to be a development platform supporting software portability (thus shortening product development cycle)
As an IDE, support for true SITL by allowing virtual and real packets inside models
Separate Parent and concurrent Child State Machines
1:1 mapping with hardware
Cross-layer signaling and layer merging capabilities
Parallel processing between multiprocessors on the same platform as well as across different machines
Rare event simulation
Interface to specialized simulation tools
The technologies developed in RMSim not only have widespread applicability in the commercial marketplace but are also important to the future tactical networks. The mission of RMSim is to encourage all network engineers and scientists to reach new heights and excel in their research by providing them with an innovative integrated umbrella M&S environment. This tool will be invaluable for developing new communication protocols and will allow rapid prototyping and testing of these protocols and concepts in the context of real world networks and systems.