Development and application of the 188-220 protocol test tool network analyzer (PTTNA) prototype

Abstract

The 188-220 protocol test tool (PTT) suite was developed by the US Army CECOM Software Engineering Center. It combines software and hardware to monitor, decode, display, and analyze MIL-STD-188-220 traffic on the combat net radio (CNR) network. It operates under the Microsoft Windows NT operating system on a Pentium-class personal computer. This paper describes the entire suite of tools, but focuses on the development process, functionality, and application of the network analyzer, the suite's most recent addition. This tool was utilized extensively throughout the force battle command brigade and below (FBCB2) setup and connectivity testing and the FBCB2 limited user test (LUT) during the summer of 1998 to test and troubleshoot CNR networks.