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VComm User`s Manual, V1.54

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1. VComm Version 8 1 0 357 Audio Buffer Size Bytes mg Sample Rate Heart Beat ms Ant Position Threshold m 960 8000 3500 500 gt Terain Server Terain Server IP Terain Server Port Terain Server Bind Address Figure 52 Networked Audio Binding Dropdown If the network adapter you wish to bind to is configured with a known fixed IP address then selecting the IP Address option allows entry of that address as shown in Figure 53 VComm will bind to the adapter with the specified IP address SimPhonics Page 90 of 146 Pakam VComm User s Manual V1 54 Platform Configure 1 0 Drivers dde mt AGT mei Networked Audio Ki e mary DIS Network RN HLA Configuration Bind To Tus Protocol Version HLA Enable IP Address f 192 168 2 101 E 12781431998 v IEEE RA ont Multicast TTL vc e E west om FED Filename e D sgeeeeeeeggf Secondary DIS Network Bind To RID filename Enable Secondary je n Port Multicast TTL VComm Version 8 1 0 357 Audio Buffer Size Bytes Xmit Sample Rate Heart Beat ms Ant Position Threshold m 960 e000 3500 500 Terain Server Figure 53 Networked Audio Binding To IP Address Selecting the Host Name option allows entry of a host name VComm will attempt to resolve the host name to an IP address and will then bind to the adapter with that IP address This is useful when IP addresses are assigned dynamically via DHCP for example VComm may a
2. Radio signals Encoding Class must be of the Encoded Audio enumeration for voice communications radios to be received Data radios may have different Encoding Class restrictions SimPhonics Page 63 of 146 ei VComm User s Manual V1 54 SimPhonics Page 64 of 146 Vakum VComm User s Manual V1 54 9 15 DIS Radio Identifiers IEEE 1278 requires that all radios have a unique radio identifier Figure 35 illustrates the construction of the DIS identifying fields in PDU headers that are used in radio communications Attached Radio Identifier Site Number f Application STALLION Entity Number pel ee Identifier Radio Identifier Entity Number Radio Number Non attached Radio Identifier Site Number Application D Reference Number l en Identifier Radio Identifier Reference Number Radio Number Figure 35 Radio Identifiers IEEE 1278 1 200x Draft 13 defines Entity Identifier as the Site Number Application Number and Entity Number Simulation Address is defined as Site Number and Application Number and Radio Identifier as Entity Identifier combined with Radio Number Radios can be attached contained within or not attached to entities Usually entities have multiple radios A given radio within an exercise is identified with an Entity Identifier and a Radio Number Therefore a given radio is identified by four fields Each field can contain a value from 1 t
3. gt m 17 2 V wave Input Recorder Objects 2012 and 2093 V4 features objects for recording wave input audio to a file objects 2012 and 2093 Both have the means to record audio input under V control Again the Windows Audio Mixer or the SMx Super Mixer if your using the SMx system must be setup to mix the radio output back to a wave input for recording V also has an I O device that can control the Windows Audio Mixer for this purpose under program control Figure 69 Wave Input Recorder Object 2012 and 2093 FILEID RECORDER STOP PAUSE RECORD POS FILEID RECORDER ADV 17 3 Radio Recording using Object 2085 VComm includes radio recording capabilities featuring recording of incoming radio transmissions on a per radio basis Only one recorder may be used per radio A separate SimPhonics Page 114 of 146 VComm User s Manual V1 54 recording file is created for each recorded radio Signals are recorded prior to any signal modeling which means that the recorded signal is always free of noise signal fading etc The VComm Recorder V 2085 object is used to control recording of a single radio To record radios attach the object to the radio as shown in Figure 70 VComm jo ax mm i0 ane jo MES uu T x Static Data 1e 008 eae Path Name C Program Files VPLus VPLus Samples fi Filename Format 0 Figure 70 Object 2085 VComm Recorder A control pin on the Recorder object is used to start pause and stop recor
4. Another important aspect of the VComm audio radio model is the compression and limiting process A compressor limiter normalizes the dynamic range of audio signals so that all signals tend to have the same energy level This is important since the next processing step is the Automatic Gain Control AGC modeling which measures energy over time rather than instantaneous amplitude One of the most important features of the compressor limiter is to normalize the level of the incoming audio Other vendor equipment does not utilize this process and often some incoming radios are too loud while others are not loud enough This does not happen in the real world due to the same processing performed by the radio for that very reason Object 2056 VComm Audio Compressor can be attached to a radio to control and activate the internal VComm compressor limiter The values shown at the pins result in the best overall compression based on audio levels encountered in DIS exercises When object 2055 and object 2056 are used together as shown in Figure 26 a very realistic sounding radio is achieved Pilots know when the incoming audio is not from a radio on other vendor equipment because there is no filtering and no compression These are essential elements for any realistic simulation of a radio pm mem Jemp emm men em 0 em gem mm mm vm mm a e 008 CO _ N Figure 26 Audio Signal Modeling Objects SimPhonics Page 48 of 146 et VCo
5. HAVEQUICK WORD OF DAY TRAINING ONLY CONFUS ALLIED SEGO03 eee oo 000 0000 000 0 o 000 e000 een 99 9 9 9 ce Boso ocu C zs 0 Tx EC SC ee CH14 34 CH15 35 CH16 36 CH17 37 CH18 38 CH19 39 CH20 40 KAL ED REGNO Figure 58 Sample KAL 9200 KEY TAPE 13 3 1 1 HAVE QUICK TODs WODs and MWODs A Multiple WOD MWOD is a complete set of six WODs HQ II radios allow the operator to store an MWOD for each day called the OP Day or Operational Day Up to 31 days may be stored in this manner in the radio The advantage of storing multiple MWODs is that the radio will automatically switch to the next MWOD at midnight Figure 59 provides an example operational diagram of how a TOD helps to determine which MWOD to use SimPhonics Page 98 of 146 ei VComm User s Manual V1 54 FREQ TABLES FREQ TABLES FREQ TABLES 234 252 328 235 212 025 312 025 378 050 212 025 342 025 242 025 4 200 845 322 050 245 025 354 050 322 050 322 050 322 050 336 125 262 000 322 000 232 050 262 000 262 000 372 050 4 200 845 312 025 232 025 312 025 312 025 312 025 312 025 i 328 235 342 025 282 025 342 025 342 025 292 025 342 025 4 210 845 212 000 392 000 298 000 212 025 262 000 362 050 0 30 336 125 04 05 06 07 08 09 K 328 235 NETZ See 301 250 A01 225 374 250 MWOD s allow the radio to automatically switch to the next WOD Transmits Receives when rollover occurs at 2400Z this eliminates Mid Night Madness on Freq 301 250 and allows seamless ope
6. This will activate a window shown in Figure 81 Click the drop down list under Performance Object and select the VComm item This activates the list shown below in the red circle Note V must be running in order for the VComm item to be available in the Performance Object list C Use local computer counters Select counters from computer WSTEPHENJONES Performance object Mi C All counters C Allinstances ee counters from list m Select instances from list DIS Network Usage Bytes Per a Dropped TX packets Incoming Entity State PDUs Incoming ICS Control PDUs Incoming ICS Signal PDUs d Add Explain Figure 81 Performance Monitor Add Counter Window The following counters can be displayed for VComm e Incoming PDUs e Outgoing PDUs e Dropped TX packets e Incoming Transmitter PDUs e Incoming Signal PDUs e Incoming Entity State PDUs e Number of Network Transmitters for First Radio e DIS Network Usage Bytes Per Second 23 1 Number of Network Transmitters for First Radio This is a number used for internal diagnostics and is the number of network transmitters that the first radio execution order in V has in its internal array of radios which it sees on the network 23 2 DIS Network Usage Bytes per Second Counter With regard to the DIS Network Usage Bytes Per Second counter local PDUs being transmitted will also be counted as incoming packets Unless the system is in Entity
7. et VComm User s Manual V1 54 Table 1 Revision History Version Description Date 1 29 Added a RID Filename edit box in the V run time March 8 2009 Configure dialog to override the HLA installed RTI_RID_FILE installation Added a new section 26 4 Known Problems informing users of known issues with VComm These issues are also published in an online database at simphonics com This change is part of the V Build 358 release Added a noise level attenuation adjustment to the registry radioNoiseAtten Changed HLA Enable switch to HLA Join at Startup Switch Added the registry value UseSignalQualityService to the MISC key Added HF model and Radio Recording Added Minimum and Maximum Antenna Range May 9 2009 Minor Document Cleanup 2009 08 05 Added troubleshooting items corrected paragraph numbering 2009 08 19 April 27 2009 1 33 enhanced the radio noise section Enhanced the Crypto Model in VComm Incorporated several waveforms directly into the VComm DLL resource for KY 58 and KYV 5 ANDVT Added PTT hold off for the crypto gear Added crypto gear turn on tones Modified the No Fill tone sequence 1 36 2010 03 29 1 37 2010 04 07 1 38 2010 05 13 1 39 Updated VComm DLL Build 366 which includes a number of 2010 07 24 new V objects and new modulation objects and material 1 40 2010 07 28 1 41 Added the modulation sections Significant cleanup of the 2010 08 07 document added several interoperab
8. 0 001 Where dBm is Decibel milliwatts p is the transmitter power in watts Therefore a 5 watt transmitter has an output of 36 98 37 dBm Typical radio transmitters on military aircraft have transmitter power levels of 5 to 25 watts The airborne AN ARC 164 radio for example has a 10 watt transmitter Typical power levels of general aviation radios fall between 5 and 10 watts Table 4 provides some values in dBm for given wattage levels Table 4 Watts to dBm Watts dBm Set the power level of the transmitter to the power level generated by the actual radio not a value that makes the system work During exercises the exercise management authority may specify a power level This may be due to a limitation of other vendor equipment that does not properly model a radio SimPhonics Page 30 of 146 et VComm User s Manual V1 54 7 4 Receiver Sensitivity VComm radio models include a receiver sensitivity setting which is based on industry standards and is usually published for receiving equipment For example an AN ARC 210 radio receiver is specified as 103 dBm for AM and 108 dBm for FM using 12 dB SINAD 7 4 1 SINAD SINAD is the abbreviation for SIgnal plus Noise and Distortion and is a parameter that provides a quantitative measurement of the quality of an audio signal from a radio receiver The definition of SINAD is simple it s the ratio of the total signal power level wanted Signal Noise Distortion or SND to unwant
9. FM modulated carrier The AM carrier changes in amplitude in proportion to the signal The FM carrier is constant amplitude and the frequency is shifted in proportion to the signal amplitude Figure 22 Modulation 7 7 Modulation Types There are several types of modulation and VComm embraces DIS and HLA RPR_FOM enumerations See IEEE 1278 1 for more information on how the type is expressed as two variables Table 5 Modulation Detail lists the Major and Detail modulation parameters for a given radio Table 5 Modulation Detail Major Modulation Value Detail Modulation Value Other 0 Other 0 Amplitude BA AM Cv DSB ISB LSB SSB Full SSB Reduced USB VSB Amplitude amp Angle 2 AAM Angle 3 Other FSK PM Combination 4 Pulse 5 Hu USB e gt gt Uv O WIN t oje PM Unmodulated BA SimPhonics Page 43 of 146 Vakum VComm User s Manual V1 54 7 8 Configuring Modulation VComm radios default to a modulation scheme specific to the radio object unless specifically overridden by an attachable object such as Object 1095 VComm Radio Model Data Exercise managers may dictate modulation types instead of leaving the simulation of the radio to users This has been done in the past because existing radio systems did not model modulation properly 7 831 Default Modulation for Radios Modulation System Generic 1 Major Modulation FM 3 Detail Modulation FM 1 7 8 2 Default Mod
10. HHTs and web servers VComm can also connect to a VComm Terrain Server VTS The VTS is a stand alone Windows XP radio terrain server designed to seamlessly interface with VComm 8 0 Build 331 and later The software can be installed locally or on any machine of a given simulation network A VComm system can then remotely access VTS via a TCP IP server client protocol Using advanced propagation loss algorithms Fresnel Diffraction WGS84 etc VTS accurately calculates loss gain due to terrain on any part of the earth using DTED or DEM data A graphical interface is also included to plot a single shot solution of a user provided antenna pair RTI V SPECIFIC or VRAD UDP IP VRMS Figure 2 VComm Architecture SimPhonics Page 17 of 146 Vakum VComm User s Manual V1 54 5 1 Interoperability Notes There are only a handful of vendors that offer DIS HLA voice systems Of those only two are significant players in this industry and SimPhonics is one of them Although DIS HLA is pervasive in the DOD simulation community interoperability remains a problem VComm incorporates many features that improve interoperability between vendor systems Listed below are some important interoperability issues 1 16 kHz CVSD Other vendor systems use 16 000 Hz CVSD not 8000 Hz When communicating with these systems that are setup for CVSD remember to set the transmit sample rate to 16 000 Hz when interoperating with these systems usin
11. However it became clear that no one else had so SimPhonics state full intercom was shelved and an intercom using the radio PDUs was embraced However as a result of this chaos some rather hacky intercoms have emerged One of the most prominent intercoms using the radio PDU is the so called Simple Intercom that has been documented by SimPhonics and others in the SISO Radio tiger Team The Simple Intercom breaks some of the established rules of DIS and is also supported in HLA via the RPR_FOM The intercom features a priority scheme For more information on the VComm Simple Intercom refer to section 7 10 10 Beware of the Wildcard A vendor has used wildcards as field values that are not documented in the DIS standard For example a value of 255 all bits set in a byte in the encoding scheme of DIS is an indication of the CECOM CVSD Therefore if you see a value of all bits set in a field beware it may indicate a value that is intended to be a wildcard SimPhonics does not address these wildcard numbers simply because the value was never standardized or documented These vendors has plenty of time to document these values at SISO and incorporate the change into the standard 11 Entity Attach VComm has a mode that allows a radio to obtain its antenna location from an existing network entity This is called entity attach mode 12 Antenna Gain Some vendors use the concept of Antenna Gain in their models even when the antenna is the
12. IP TCP is a connection oriented while UDP is a connectionless In TCP the two ends of the communication link are maintained at all times An application using UDP prepares a packet and broadcasts it using a predefined broadcast mask If there are no recipients with an IP address that conforms to 5 4 5 Special IP Addresses Among the 4 294 967 296 possible unique IPv4 addresses some are reserved for special purposes such as private networks 18 million addresses or multicast addresses 1 million addresses The multicast addresses are in the range 224 0 0 0 through 239 255 255 255 The IPv4 addresses in the range of 127 0 0 0 through 127 255 255 25 are reserved for loopback addresses Loopback is a test mechanism of network adapters Messages sent to 127 0 0 1 do not get delivered to the network Instead the network SimPhonics Page 22 of 146 et VComm User s Manual V1 54 system returns them to the sending application IP applications often use this feature to test the network interface 6 Installation VComm is currently installed with the V Visual Development System See the V installation instructions Future versions may be installed separately 6 1 System Requirements VComm requires Microsoft Windows 7 It is recommended that all critical updates be installed along with all security updates including the latest service packs In order to support networked audio a full duplex sound card with the latest driver that supports
13. such as a Command Post GPS or AWACS When a HAVEQUICK radio is manually synchronized to another HAVEQUICK radio this is called a Mickey which is derived from the two words Mic and Key or a PTT Push To Talk 13 3 1 5 HAVE QUICK Training and Maintenance MWOD There is a standard NET number and MWOD used training and maintenance It is suggested that this be used in exercises since real radios use these data during normal operations Table 21 provides the channel number WOD value and Net number for the Training and Maintenance MWOD Note These data are loaded into the V High Fidelity object by default if the TRAIN pin is set true and the values for this table are in the registry See section 14 2 3 and V object help for more information Table 21 Training and Maintenance MWOD Segment Number WOD Value NET Number SEGMENT 5 CHAN 16 297 600 A30 000 SEGMENT 6 CHAN 15 287 400 A30 000 SEGMENT 4 CHAN 17 314 300 A30 000 14 SINCGARS amp HAVEQUICK radio simulation in DIS HLA exercises The DIS specification IEEE 1278 1a 1998 provided for HAVEQUICK I II and IIA SINCGARS and a CCTT SINCGARS as enumerations The enumeration document for CCTT SINCGARS included a data structure as modulation parameters at the end of the Transmitter PDU including issuance and receipt rules within the enumeration document which was moved to an Annex in DIS 7 The original CCTT SINCGARS modulation parameter record was developed by the ADST project at
14. 4770602 7729 Step Increment 0 1000 Terrain Elev m 0 0000 WGS84 Alt 2600 0000 Geocentric Z 3993953 2557 Open map files 2 Accessing Map File 106_N39 dt0 Alt Elev m 2600 0000 Atten dBm 25 4635 Receiver Figure 17 VTS Single Solution Plot 7 5 8 HF Model The HF model is an optional model that is disabled by default When enabled this model handles the calculation of signal loss for all transmissions with frequencies from 2 to 30 MHz V Object 2086 VComm HF Control is used to enable the HF model and to control modeling parameters HF radios are unique in that their transmissions may reach areas of the earth that would not otherwise be accessible to line of sight radio communications This is largely due to the refraction or bending of these transmissions in the ionosphere While the factors and calculations that affect which areas of the earth can receive an HF transmission are very SimPhonics Page 38 of 146 Pakam VComm User s Manual V1 54 complex there are effects that can be modeled in a simple and predictable fashion maximum usable frequency MUF and skip zones The maximum usable frequency for an HF transmission is defined as the highest frequency where two radios can communicate if they are not within radio line of sight of each other The HF model takes the MUF defined by the VComm HF Control object into account whenever an HF transmission is made Skip zones are areas of the earth which are ina
15. Audo r Primary DIS Network HLA NEM Bind To DIS Protocol Version FARE Defeut z amp IEEE 1278 12 1998 j n rad Pott Multicast TTL Leem HLA Broadcast X E Secondary DIS Network _ RPRFOMFED Bed To VComm Version Ge pes Enable Secondary Send To Broadcast Audio Buffer Size Bytes XMIT Sample Rate Heart Beat ms r Terrain Server Terrain Server IP Terrain Server Pot Terain Server Bind Address 5080 mee iss Figure 31 VComm Version Information SimPhonics Page 58 of 146 Vakum VComm User s Manual V1 54 9 11 DIS Versions DIS has been in use for some time and there are radio systems on the market that were produced before DIS became an IEEE specification If your radios will be interacting with other systems be sure to know which version you will be using There is a means to set this version in the system The versions of DIS are defined in the IEEE specification VComm is compatible with all of these versions see Table 11 Table 11 DIS Versions Version Description 1 DIS PDU version 1 0 May 92 IEEE 1278 1993 DIS PDU version 2 0 third draft May 93 DIS PDU version 2 0 fourth draft revised March 16 1994 IEEE 1278 1 1995 IEEE 1278 1A 1998 IEEE 1278 1 200X In Development To set the DIS version in VComm click on the drop down list as shown in Figure 32 and select the desired version Note that the number
16. CER EE Ey VATER EY EA ERWOV ER ENTE VATEEECE 50 7 9 8 Atmospheric hee ere or EE ee E cR ENEE E EE a E Un ENEE 50 7 10 Signal Quality Gervlce nennen emen mene nnn nnn 51 8 A Word about the VComm Simple Intercom s 52 9 VcComm and A AE 52 9 1 DIS PDUS EE 52 9 2 DIS Heartbeat eec LER 52 9 3 DIS TilfiGOULb iiie eiie voles ver tu y Ir ERR EEERXAR EU xRAN RAM RAM e ERE MU D EAR REPRE EE 53 9 4 PDU SEQUENCING WEE 53 9 5 DIS Heartbeat Related GvmboltcNames cece eee e eee eeeeeeeeeeeeeaeeaeenes 55 9 6 Antenna Position Threshold cccccccce cent 55 9 7 Encoding Type Encoding Gcheme nemen 55 9 8 SCHER El e 57 9 9 Transmit Sample Rates nennen nennen nennen nene nnn nnn nnn 57 9 10 VComm Version Information ccc nennen menn 58 9 11 DIS Ver TEE 59 9 12 DIS Time Stamp eresiaren xin xt rere pu x IR EE IA MPR EXRIR RF AR pa rER XR RE EFE a FERES 61 9 12 1 Configuring Time Stamp Mode 61 9 13 Frequency Selection for Generic Radios sesseeeseen nennen 62 9 14 DIS Radio Entity Type cessessesssssseeeenne nennen nennen menn nean nn nnns 62 9 14 1 Setting DIS Radio Entity Type Data 63 9 14 2 Receiving Behavior for DIS Radio Entity Type Category eese 63 SimPhonics Page 4 of 146 ei VComm User s Manual V1 54 9 14 3 Receiving Behavior for DIS Signal Encoding Class ecceeeeeeeee tenes ee eee 63 9 15 DIS Radio Identifiers NNN ENNEN 65 9 15 1 Setting Static Radio Id
17. DirectX 9 0 or later is required along with a full duplex PCI 100 10 network card 6 2 Supported Hardware Most sound cards will work with VComm including Bluetooth headsets and USB headsets Note that SimPhonics provides a USB headset with built in PTT This headset is especially handy for use with laptops The SimPhonics H261 is shown in Figure 5 The sound card is part of the headset Cage Ge Figure 5 SimPhonics USB PTT Headset SimPhonics manufactures SMx systems which are used on higher end systems such a full flight simulators The SMx provides up to 64 channels of high end 24 bit audio Figure 6 portrays the back of the SMx breakout box For more information of the SMx system see the SMx User s Manual Figure 6 SimPhonics SMx Breakout Box SimPhonics Page 23 of 146 ei VComm User s Manual V1 54 6 3 Hardware Devices and Channels VComm requires an audio device sound card USB headset Bluetooth headset etc to operate An audio device is a mechanism for controlling audio input and output into and out of a computer Traditionally a computer features a single stereo sound card VComm can handle up to 32 such devices Windows regards most sound cards as stereo devices In other words each sound card should have two channels with left being the first and right being the second A channel is an independent audio input or output of an audio device VComm looks at this in a slightly different way It enumerates chann
18. Fidelity HAVE QUICK only uses a single 16 bit field to describe the WODs and TOD while there are a number of WODs in a real HAVE QUICK implementation as well as other significant differences The High Fidelity HAVE QUICK is designed to interoperate with live HAVE QUICK radios The VComm High fidelity HAVE QUICK object is currently under construction SimPhonics Page 105 of 146 Vakum VComm User s Manual V1 54 14 3 SINCGARS SINCGARS Single Channel Ground and Airborne Radio System is a US and allied military Combat Net Radio CNR that handles voice and data It has a frequency hopping capability similar to HAVEQUICK but SINCGARS differs from HAVE QUICK radios in that SINCGARS is a digital radio capable of handling data Voice is handled digitally in the form of 16 KHz CVSD A SINCGARS radio is a VHF FM radio and operates in the frequency range of 30 to 87 975 MHz operating on 25 KHz channel spacing An example of a SINCGARS transceivers is the AN ARC 201 the control head of which is shown in Figure 62 It has a receiver sensitivity of 113 dBm a transmitter output level of 10 watts and a bandwidth of 12 5 KHz Modern digital radios usually feature internal encryption devices Figure 62 AN ARC 201 SINCGARS Radio SimPhonics Page 106 of 146 VComm User s Manual V1 54 14 3 1 VComm and SINCGARS Radios VComm provides SINCGARS radio simulation via V objects which attach to existing VComm radios There are two forms of DIS HLA
19. Lockheed and then adopted by CCTT which carries its name Combat Air force CAF Distributed Mission Operations DMO utilized this structure to represent HAVEQUICK and SINCGARS radios and documented this in their common models standard 14 1 Basic Fidelity and High Fidelity When the information for the SINCGARS in the enumerations document was moved to an Annex in DIS 7 and further documented to include CAF DMO s HAVEQUICK common model standard this was called the Basic Fidelity SINCGARS and HAVEQUICK and is in use today A high fidelity HAVEQUICK and SINCGARS was also developed by the Radio Tiger Team at SISO in order to interoperate with real and simulated radios 14 1 1 High Fidelity SimPhonics Page 102 of 146 Vakum VComm User s Manual V1 54 The Basic Fidelity modulation parameter record in the DIS Transmitter PDU carries information for modeling the radio It is documented in Table 22 CCTT SINCGARS Basic Fidelity Modulation Parameter Record below Table 22 CCTT SINCGARS Basic Fidelity Modulation Parameter Record FH Net ID 16 bit unsigned integer Hop Set ID 16 bit unsigned integer Lockout Set ID 16 bit unsigned integer Start of Message 8 bit enumeration Clear Channel 8 bit enumeration FH Synchronization Time Offset 32 bit signed integer Transmission Security Key 16 bit unsigned integer Padding 16 bit unsigned integer This table corrects several errors 1 CAF DMO Common Model Standard Version 8 0 and earlier ha
20. The purpose of the Open Mike VTP record is to provide a means for applications to request open communications on a simple intercom channel Applications receiving such a request on an intercom channel should immediately enable two way communications on that channel if the request is considered valid by that application An application may consider an open mike request to be invalid for instance if the request is not on a predetermined intercom channel As an example a request to go open mike may be used in emergency situations or as a part of exercise set up or tear down The intercom channel s used for emergencies and or exercise administration would be assigned by the exercise administrator The record specific fields of the Open Mike VTP record are described in Table 16 Table 16 Open Mike VTP Record Field Type Description Open Mike Unsigned 8 This field defines whether the Open Mike request is bit integer active or not When set to zero the Open Mike request is inactive When set to one the Open Mike request is active Other values are invalid VComm provides two objects for setting and getting the status of an Open Mike VTP record associated with a simple intercom As an example these objects are shown in Figure 41 as they might be used to implement an emergency intercom on channel 35 VComm Set Open Mike Request Open Mike Play Open Mike Activated Tone Play Open Mike Deactivated Tone V
21. Xmit Sample Rate Heart Beat ms Ant Position Threshold m 960 8000 3500 500 Terrain Server Figure 54 Networked Audio Send To Dropdown Selecting the IP address option for Send To allows an IP address to be entered VComm will send DIS packets to that IP address The IP address may be a Unicast address to send VComm DIS packets to a specific computer a subnet broadcast address to send DIS packets to a specific subnet or a multicast address If a valid multicast address is entered then VComm will configure for multicast operation and the Multicast TTL Time To Live box will become active In theory time to live is measured in seconds In practice the TTL is reduced by one on every hop That is why this field is named hop limit in IPV6 Selecting the Host Name option for Send To allows a host name to be entered VComm will attempt to resolve the host name to an IP address before proceeding as for the IP Address option The default network port number is 3000 as shown Edit this field if a different port number is required 12 2 Audio Buffer Size The audio buffer is the buffer of audio which is captured in real time from the input of the system and is transmitted once formatted onto the DIS network The audio buffer size dictates the size of the Signal PDU data Also the size of the audio buffer is limited by the SimPhonics Page 92 of 146 Vekan VComm User s Manual V1 54 maximum number of bytes that can be sen
22. a variety of warning tones and error tones For example selection of a Frequency Managed Training FMT NET greater than A01 525 or ending in 50 Or 75 will result in a pulsating tone This can be simulated in VComm by creating a wave player which plays the appropriate tones when the condition exists SimPhonics Page 104 of 146 et VComm User s Manual V1 54 14 2 2 Basic Fidelity HAVE QUICK The Basic Fidelity HAVE QUICK was derived from the SINCGARS structure of data established in the SISO enumeration document This information has been moved to the new IEEE 1278 200X Draft 13 specification as Annex H as of this printing When this mode is enabled transmit and receive frequencies are automatically set to 312 5 MHz note that this is not the way real HAVE QUICK radios work Therefore the value of the frequency pin for the radio is overridden If the mode is turned off the frequency is reset to the last value of the frequency pin for the radio before HAVE QUICK mode was enabled The VComm object for Basic Fidelity HAVE QUICK connects to a radio as shown in Figure 61 For more information refer to the object s on line help within the V Development System object ID 2050 Frequency in Hertz 1e 008 EXERCISE ID 1 Figure 61 VComm Basic Fidelity HAVE QUICK Object 14 2 3 High Fidelity HAVE QUICK The High Fidelity HAVE QUICK is a new implementation designed to work much like the real HAVE QUICK specification The Basic
23. anything while you are transmitting This is the traditional mode for a real world radio This is due to a radio s receiver being deactivated while its transmitter is active This is done to protect the radio s receiver from being damaged by the radio s transmitter during transmission Full duplex communications are those where both parties can speak to and hear each other simultaneously A telephone is a common example of full duplex communication Intercom systems often go into full duplex mode by either VOX or hot mic circuitry see section 20 SimPhonics Page 117 of 146 et VComm User s Manual V1 54 Object 2032 VComm Simple Intercom DIS HLA is capable of full duplex communication By default the VComm radio objects 2021 and 2036 do not allow full duplex communication Object 2041 VComm Set Radio Duplex Mode can be used to force full duplex communication for these radio objects see Figure 72 If you attach this object to a VComm radio and set the DUPLEX pin to 1 the radio will go into full duplex mode VComm Bl WH Keess 1 Frequency in Hertz 1e 008 Set to ge 1 for Full Duplex 0 117188 0 for Half Duplex EXERCISE ID DIS HLA jo Figure 72 Object 2041 VComm Set Radio Duplex Mode 19 Sidetone Sidetone is an audio feedback mechanism for verification of valid transmission within a radio or intercom It is an often misunderstood and underutilized concept For example your own voice is fed back in tele
24. changed 9 17 2 Application Specific Data VTP Record The purpose of the Application Specific Data VTP record is to provide a means for applications to transmit a small amount of data in a Transmitter PDU that is intended to be specific to that application Whereas other types of VTP records are defined for a particular purpose applications may use the Application Specific Data VTP record for any purpose as long as they reserve an identifier and define the use of the data fields in the application documentation The process for reserving an identifier is described in the definition of the Application Specific Data VTP record in the DIS standard Applications that receive records with an unsupported identifier are required to ignore the record The record specific fields of the Application Specific Data VTP record are described in Table 17 Table 17 Application Specific Data VTP Record Field Type Description Identifier Unsigned This field identifies the use of the record Identifiers 32 bit must be reserved integer Data 1 Unsigned The use of this field must be documented in the 32 bit application documentation integer 32 bit application documentation integer 32 bit application documentation integer Data 4 Unsigned The use of this field must be documented in the 32 bit application documentation integer VComm provides two objects for setting and monitoring the data in Application Specific Data VTP records Object 2095 VComm Set A
25. de a FARA dee Ras 35 Figure 15 Fresnel Zone iiec eene nenne echa hin nain eg VEER SEENEN KEN dE Ed rra a FETA deen 36 Figure 16 Example Design Using the VComm Terrain SGenver eene 37 Figure 17 VIS Single Solution Plot oe rien eru lh demde Sexe ee co i lx ue a ia EXER EPOR XR ADEM Ka 38 Figure 18 Skip Zone Geometry SN SSES KEREN NEE RER cease te NENNEN NENNEN ENER NENNEN REESEN needs ARR RRRgU RAN uaa ura 40 Figure 19 VComm Radio Line of Sight Range cc cceeee eee e eee e eee eee eee ee eee eee eens senes 40 Figure 20 Approximate Tuning Response Curve oo cece eect rE Ene n ene ene ener e nnns 42 Figure 21 VComm Tuning Response Curve cece tne nena neta 42 Figure 22 MOCUIATION iii hr BEER 43 Figure 23 Controlling Modulation Barameters cece eect eee eee eee ee eee eee ene nennen nnns 44 Figtire 24 Audio Signal Modeling 5 dritte nna depot ne ENEE dee dE ed ee ERR a da eE ess 46 Figure 25 Object 2055 Frequency Response at an 8K Sampling Rate ssessssrsssrsrrssrerrrsrrnrrnrererenns 47 Figure 26 Audio Signal Modeling Obiects em mene eee ene ee nen nnne nens 48 Fig re 27 Noise Modeling oro pee oe re Ree BE EES EE EE 50 Figure 28 VComm Atmospheric Noise Model 51 Figure 29 DIS Heartbeat Configuration ccccceee cece eee eee eee eee eee eens ee nnn enn nnn 53 Figure 30 Transmitter and Signal PDU Time Sequencing ceceeeee eee eee eee ee eee eee eene 54 Figure 31 VComm Version Information cccce
26. details This key is installed with V installation and turned ON 00000001 by default SimPhonics Page 134 of 146 Pakam VComm User s Manual V1 54 24 1 2 VPLus Key Key name HKEY LOCAL MACHINE Software SimPhonics VPLus Note that this is a different parent key than the previous sections Table 28 Network Registry Key Type Description HlaEnableSwitchDefault DWORD This value determines if the V Run time system starts with the HLA Join at Startup switch active or inactive in the Configure menu Networked Audio tab This does not affect the HLA Join at Startup state when loading a vne file If the value is greater than 0 then the HLA Join at Startup switch will be active otherwise the HLA Join at Startup switch will be inactive This key is not installed with V installation kit To use it the user must create the key and set the value 25 Wavefile PTT Analysis Tool The Wavefile PTT Push To Talk analysis tool is a Windows console command line software program which reads wavefiles that have been recorded with voice systems using PTT The output of the tool is a text file containing data which indicates PTT activity with start time and duration of each transmission within the file This data can be used in systems where PTT information is important such as for research simulators The text file s name matches the input filename with an added txt extension For example if the source file is named REC3 WAV t
27. eee ee nmm 6 D CHE d La BEER 6 1 System Requirements 5 52 eter rre aH ER XE XR ENN gg Eegen 6 2 Supported Hardware seseesseseeeeennn menn 6 3 Hardware Devices and Channels ccccscceeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeneenees 6 4 Hardware Considerations eeseeeeeeeeenn nns 6 4 1 Device order ENEE ENNEN 6 4 2 Volume Controls Linear or Audio Taperd 7 Radio Model Fidelity cece cece eee eee eens 7 1 Radio Spectrim iiie ce cierre eere ANN SE Nee EEN EENS Ed ENN 7 2 VComm Radio Modeling ceceee eect eee e este eee ee teeta eeeneeas 7 3 Transtitter POWER e NetledENEKEN REES SEN ENER NEEN E HEEN RENE d 7 4 Receiver Sensitivity EE 7 4 1 iip 7 4 2 Converting between Micro Volts and dBm 7 5 RF Signal Modeling ceteri eer er sen extr a 7 5 1 Antenna Model keier Edge NEE a 5 5 1 1 Antenna Patterns EE 5 5 1 2 Isotropic Antentia cuc Rat noe doar Re EX Ex PEREE EDEN EAE anes 5 5 1 3 Real World Antennas NENNEN SimPhonics 27 Page 3 of 146 et VComm User s Manual V1 54 7 5 2 Propagation less DIS De facto Standard ccceeeeee eect ee eee eee eee eeeeeeaeaes 33 7 5 3 Antenna Position Threshold sssssessssssrsssssrnrsnnsnnnrrnnnnennnrrnnnnensnrnnnnnenerrnnn 33 7 5 4 Free Space Propagation Loss 34 5 5 1 4 Free Space Propagation Loss Example mnn 35 7 5 5 WGS84 Line of Sig Nti senenn oni exuti Ar nen EE 36 7 5 6 Fresnel Effects idiren a AE RE ERTE A 36 7 5 7 VComrm Terr
28. enumeration of 0 which is a reference antenna Omni directional isotropic An isotropic antenna has a gain of 1 0 by definition in all directions Directional antennas are not used large scale exercises including DMO Therefore the concept of Antenna Gain for unidirectional antennas is meaningless at this point in the DIS world SimPhonics Page 19 of 146 et VComm User s Manual V1 54 5 2 DIS HLA Network Interoperability SimPhonics equipment will automatically convert incoming DIS HLA transmissions in multiple encoding schemes and sample rates during real time This is simply done within VComm since the encoding and sampling information is embedded within the DIS Signal PDU This is a major interoperability benefit when using VComm Figure 3 portrays how VComm dynamically converts the encoding of incoming Signal PDU packets regardless of what the user has configured for outgoing Signal PDU packets Ur RECEIVER USER CONFIGURABLE Figure 3 VComm Encoding Conversion During Real time There are many other important issues that are not mentioned here but are vital to interoperability There is only one other significant vendor of DIS HLA networked audio systems and this vendor has ignored interoperability issues like the one described above and this has caused issues in military exercises SimPhonics is active in the creation of new DIS and HLA networked audio standards to improve interoperability and has played a key role in
29. full quieting and a transmitter sending the signal stops transmitting The AGC then acts to increase the gain in the absence of the signal which causes the noise level to rise This is then followed by the squelch system quieting the receiver In that short period of time the increased noise level is heard before the squelch acts to disable it This is called the squelch tail and is a very short burst of noise at the end of an incoming transmission VComm models the squelch tail based on signal level receiver sensitivity thermal noise level etc The amplitude of the squelch tail can be changed beyond this modeled value by adjusting a registry value This is the value of the attenuation of the default squelch tail amplitude This value is expressed in decibels of attenuation Therefore 100 would indicate that there would be an attenuation of 100 dB which would result in virtually no squelch tail being generated See the registry section for details on this value To increase the amplitude of the squelch tail set this value to a smaller value 0 is the lowest Note Squelch is disabled for most radios types when their frequency is below 100 000 Hz This is by design To add additional realism to squelch modeling VComm will optionally dither the strength of incoming radio signals This optional effect must be turned on using a registry entry see section 24 When signal dithering is enabled weak signals will intermittently break squelch Radi
30. in parenthesis is the actual protocol number used on the network This is saved in the VNE file Note that the DIS version used on the secondary DIS network is the same as the version on the primary DIS network Platform Configure EN VO Drivers Execution Audio Device Order Networked Audo Primary DIS Network Bind To Defaut X Send To Broadcast X PODER i Fre rou FED Bind To RID Filename Default Enable Secondary L Send To Pot Muticast TTL Broadcast S 2000 E Audio Buffer Size Bytes XMIT Sample Rate Heart Beat ms Ant Pos Thresh m DIS Time Stamp be fe000 1500 500 Absolute C Relative r Terain Server I Terain Server IP Terain Server Pot Terain Server Bind Address foso WComm Version 8 1 0 358 Figure 32 Selecting DIS Version in VComm SimPhonics Page 59 of 146 Pakam VComm User s Manual V1 54 SimPhonics is an active participant in the standards process for future versions of DIS at the Simulation Interoperability Standards Organization SISO As part of this process a new version is evolving which will be ratified by IEEE within the next year This will be version 7 and is currently known as IEEE 1278 1a 200X This new version adds important interoperability features For more information go to http www sisostds org While there are significant differences between early versions there are no significant differences where VComm is concerned
31. is called the Fresnel pronounced fre n l Zone The Fresnel zone is an area that is larger in diameter at the center and smaller in diameter at the ends Also the greater the distance between the antennas the larger the diameter of the Fresnel zone in the center Any obstructions that enter into the Fresnel zone will reduce the communication range include buildings vegetation the ground etc As the antennas get farther apart and the diameter of the Fresnel zone increases the ground can begin to obstruct the Fresnel zone In order to keep the entire Fresnel zone free of obstructions it is necessary to raise the antennas To keep the Fresnel zone off the ground the heights of the antennas added together must total more than the diameter of the Fresnel zone at the specific distance The diameter of the Fresnel zone is a function of the frequency and the distance between the antennas Figure 15 Fresnel Zone VComm models signal attenuation due to Fresnel effects and curvature of the earth These signal calculations utilize the World Geodetic System 84 WGS84 which defines a fixed global reference frame for the Earth SimPhonics Page 36 of 146 et VComm User s Manual V1 54 7 5 7 WComm Terrain Server VComm 8 0 Build 331 and later versions include a terrain server interface to the VComm Terrain Server VTS for calculating the effect of terrain Default terrain data is provided in DTED Level 0 format and is installed with the VTS o
32. of crypto equipment types such as the KY 58 DIS Enumeration 2 shown in Figure 65 In addition to providing encryption and decryption of audio for secure communications most crypto gear also generates a number of tones that are used to inform that radio operator of various conditions and warnings Most of these tones are built into VComm and are part of the model Where possible the tones and noise effects used by VComm for crypto simulation are actual recordings of real crypto gear and therefore are very realistic 15 1 Crypto Tone and Effects Waveforms wave files The waveforms tones that are generated by the crypto model are built directly into the software and the user does not have access to these wave files In some cases the effect is an algorithm and there is no associated wave file 15 2 Limitations of Crypto Key modeling in DIS Unfortunately the current DIS standard does not provide for the use of actual secure keys which are loaded into real encryption devices Instead there is a single 16 bit field in the Transmitter PDU Hopefully later versions will more closely model real equipment by providing for all keys SimPhonics Page 108 of 146 Vakum VComm User s Manual V1 54 15 3 Modeling technique A VComm radio with the encryption object attached is shown in Figure 64 There are three pins for this object all of which are input The HANDLE pin attaches to a radio The CRPT SYS pin is used to identify the type of crypto
33. radio stream to simulate an effect such as jamming and test tones are added to the receive side of the audio stream The DIS protocol specifies that all effects are to be added at the receiver and all transmitters send their audio without any effects to improve interoperability In some cases however it may be necessary to send the waveform effect out to the networked audio stream e g jamming HAVEQUICK MICKEY synch etc VComm has the capability to transmit waveforms in the networked audio stream by attaching Object 2057 VComm Radio Transmitter Wave File Player to a VComm radio or intercom see Figure 67 Simply attach the object to a VComm radio or intercom and set the appropriate controls and static data A wave file is used to generate the waveform which is mixed into the outgoing audio stream The microphone s audio stream can be muted if so desired Restrictions for the wave file to be used are as follows 1 The wave file format must be PCM mono or stereo and 16 bits per sample Only the left channel of stereo files is played 2 The sample rate must match what is specified for radio transmission The sample rate for a radio is specified in the V Run Time System s Configure menu Networked Audio Tab Transmit Sample Rate The object will generate an error if the format is incorrect at run time 3 Specific wave file naming conventions are used and described in the object s on line help ANT X ANT Y ANTZ FREQ Hz e 00
34. receiver s antenna data is not specified in the DIS Receiver PDU This does not pose a problem for the model but DIS loggers are not able to determine the receiver s antenna type 5 5 1 1 Antenna Patterns VComm supports an isotropic antenna which radiates uniformly in all directions These antennas are often called Reference Antennas There are no known radio vendors that model directional antennas behavior and therefore use the isotropic antenna which is specifies the enumeration of 0 Omni directional in the Transmitter PDU for Antenna Type Note that if the antennas were directional then the receiving simulation must account for the geometry of the antenna pattern at the transmitter and or receiver and the parent entity orientation In this case antenna gains would be considered SimPhonics Page 32 of 146 ei VComm User s Manual V1 54 5 5 1 2 Isotropic Antenna Isotropic antenna gains are by definition 1 and the transmitter and receiver gains must always be 1 0 since antenna gain is expressed relative to an ideal isotropic radiator in dBi or loss gain relative to an ideal antenna If an antenna has gain it is directional and therefore non unity gain cannot be expressed without directional characteristics 5 5 1 3 Real World Antennas Future versions of VComm will support directional antennas however new enumerations must be added to SISO REF 010 2006 to account for the basic types such as vertical and horizontal VG and
35. s Manual V1 54 11 3 3 Federation Name You can either create a federation or join an existing federation by using the appropriate name A VComm federation name can be entered in the V Run Time System as shown in Figure 47 Note that the default name is VCommHLA You must obtain the federation name from the network administrator of the HLA system If the federation does not exist a new federation with the name will be created For example RPR FOM exercises are usually named RPR FOM For Some RTIs only the first three characters of the federation name are used by the some RTI vendors You must therefore ensure that federate names are unique in the first three characters 11 3 4 Federate Name VComm federate names are VComm Q COMPUTER NAME gt where COMPUTER NAME is the name of the federate machine 11 3 5 RTI Object Identifier Names All radio objects are given a default HLA name by the RTI at initialization All VComm HLA radios will create a name of the form Site Number gt lt Application Number gt lt Entity Number gt lt Radio ID TRANSMITTER This name is provided for a human readable form for ease of debugging For example a radio with a Site Number of 1 an Application Number of 2 an Entity Number of 3 and a Radio ID of 4 will register with the RTI as the name 1 2 3 4 TRANSMITTER Note the character between the numbers and the TRANSMITTER string 11 3 6 RTI Object Identifier Custom Text Names Optionally a
36. terrain server or signal quality server VComm uses different messages from the Remote Message Protocol defined in the VComm Signal Quality Service Specification based on the setting of this key If this value is O or missing from the registry VComm will use terrain server messages If this value is non zero VComm will use signal quality server messages SimPhonics Page 132 of 146 et VComm User s Manual V1 54 Table 26 MISC Registry Key Type Description enableDithering DWORD This key determines whether signal dithering is applied to incoming radio signals If this value is O or missing from the registry signal dithering is disabled This value is not installed by default and must be installed by the user to take effect If this value is 1 signal dithering is enabled SimPhonics Page 133 of 146 et VComm User s Manual V1 54 24 1 1 V Keys that Affect VComm Operations Key name HKEY LOCAL MACHINE Software SimPhonics VPLus Platforms Native Platform Note that this is a different parent key than the previous sections If the row is shaded light green the value is present after installation Table 27 Network Registry Key Type Description enableLogFile DWORD This value determines if the V Run time system logs the message window to a log file If the value is greater than 0 then the log file is created and logged if the value is O then the log file is not created and logged See the V User Manual for
37. the specified entity s location hence the name entity attach or attached to an entity Any radio can be setup this way Entity attach mode is the best way to associate entities with VComm radios if your radios are intended to be part of an entity such as an aircraft with its own entity identifier In V VComm has a special object 2017 VComm DIS HLA entity Attach that connects to the radio handle see Figure 39 Figure 39 Using Entity Attach Entity attach is a mechanism that attaches a radio to an entity by searching the network for an entity ID which matches the one that is setup in the radio static data reads the X Y Z world location of the entity and sets the radio antenna position to that location The location of the entity overrides the location connected to the radio pins If the radio cannot find an entity on the network that matches the specified ID the antenna location will be the location specified on the input pins When the entity attach is specified VComm will begin processing entity state PDUs which may cause an additional load on both the system running VComm but also other systems Note that simply setting the Site Number Application Number and Entity Number the same as an entity on the network will not attach a radio to that entity You must use the entity attach object to attach the radio Note Some DIS network systems feature two separate networks with radios on one network and entities on the other This is do
38. typical HAVE QUICK radio is the AN ARC 164 the control head of which is shown in Figure 57 It has a receiver sensitivity of 106 dBm a transmitter output level of 10 watts and a bandwidth of 12 5 KHz Figure 57 AN ARC 164 Radio Control Head HQ radios may be operated in normal mode which behaves like any other UHF AM radio or in HQ mode The HQ mode of operation provides a jam resistant capability by means of a frequency hopping technique that changes frequency many times per second Automatic frequency changing in an apparently random manner provides the jam resistance of the radio SimPhonics Page 97 of 146 et VComm User s Manual V1 54 13 3 1 HAVE QUICK Detailed Description Three elements are required for successful communication in HQ mode Radios must use the same set of Word Of Day WOD values be time synchronized with each other with a Time Of Day TOD and share a common NET The WODs determines the frequency hopping pattern and rate the TOD synchronizes the hopping the NET provides for multiple radios to operate independently on the same frequencies without interference These values are distributed by a frequency management authority There are a number of methods of inserting these values into a radio which include electronic transfer methods or manually by entering the value via the radio controls The image in Figure 58 is a sample KAL 9200 KEY TAPE that contains the WOD set for training and maintenance
39. value is present after installation Table 26 MISC Registry Key Type Description applyAmInterference DWORD This key determines if AM AM interference will be generated if conditions exist for this effect If this value is O or missing from the registry the effect will not be generated This value is installed but set to zero at installation turning off this effect by default SquelchTailAtten This is the value of the attenuation of the default squelch tail amplitude This value is expressed in dB of attenuation Therefore 100 would indicate that there would be an attenuation of 100 dB which would result in virtually no squelch tail being generated If this variable is missing from the registry a value of 6 is used internally Note that 6 dB will appear to be half volume and is the default value for the entry This value is installed and set to 6 by default cryptoTonesAtten This is the value of the attenuation of the default crypto tones amplitude This value is expressed in dB of attenuation Therefore 100 would indicate that there would be an attenuation of 100 dB which would result in virtually no crypto tones being generated If this variable is missing from the registry a value of 6 is used internally Note that 6 dB will appear to be half volume and is the default value for the entry This value is installed and set to 6 by default SimPhonics Page 130 of 146 Pakam VComm User s Manual V1 54 Table 26 MIS
40. version Some RTIs require the name of the file itself to be RID MTL 11 3 1 Setting up Custom RID Files There is a way to have the RTI read from a different RID file other than the one setup in the HLA RTI installation There is an edit box RID Filename RTI RID FILE in the V run time Configure Networked Audio tab that overrides the RTI RID FILE environment variable This is useful for the remote control system to override the environment variable to set an application specific RID file The RTI RID FILE environment variable is valid only during the V run time process and valid for that process only Once V exits the environment variable returns to the previous RTI RID FILE variable Figure 46 Setting the RID Filename Environment Variable Override Platform Configure x LO Drivers Execution Audio Device Order Networked Audio r Primary DIS Network m HLA Configuration Bind To DIS Protocol Version I Join Fed on Start Def 6 IEEE 1278 1a 1998 m Fedaralion to Join Cresie Send To Port Multicast TTL IVCommHLA Broadcast E 3000 E FED Filename r Secondary DIS Network Bind To RID RTL RID FILE Defaut z CAMAK makRti3 0 1 id mtl Send To Port Multicast TTL A Broadcast 7 Audio Buffer Size Bytes XMIT Sample Rate Heart Beat ms Ant Pos Thresh m pee 960 8000 3500 500 Absolute Relative Terain Server Terain Server IP Terain S
41. 00 Hz The transmitter or outgoing default sample rate is determined by the run time configuration under the Networked Audio tab in the Configure menu This rate will be used for all radios unless object 2051 is attached to a radio which then dictates the transmit sample rate This object provides a means of setting individual transmit sample rates for radios When specifying the Transmit Sample Rate in the configuration of the run time system any positive whole integer sample rate from 4000 Hz to 48000 Hz may be used although some may not work with other vendor equipment IEEE 1278 1a specifies that 8 bit u Law at 8000 hertz sample rate must be supported by all radios at a minimum Therefore this set of values will always work using VComm SimPhonics Page 57 of 146 Pakam VComm User s Manual V1 54 9 10 VComm Version Information VComm is an add on product to V a visual programming environment You can view the version of VComm at any time by selecting the Configure menu in the V4 Run Time System The version information is displayed as shown in Figure 31 There are four numbers that are part of the overall version of VComm The first number is called the REV the second and third numbers are called the major and minor versions and the far right or least significant number is referred to as the Build Number New Builds of VComm are released regularly Platform Configure E VO Drivers Execution Audio Device Order Networked
42. 1 5 VComim HLA Extensioris EE 82 11 5 1 MAK HLA 1 3 Extensions for VComm ccceceeee cece eee een enna teat nnns 82 11 5 2 MAK RTi Installation cece EERE nnns 83 11 6 Problems with HLA Interoperability ccccccceeeeeee eee eee e eee mmm 87 Ee 6 1 HLA is an Architecture Standard and Not a Protocol 87 1 6 2 Irak M 87 TE MAK CAR le 88 12 Network Confguration mmm 88 12 1 Network Addressing ecrire erue euge cx cama d ENNEN SEENEN NENNEN d 89 12 2 Audio Buffer Size esssssssesseeseeseesee nene nennen nna sea sea sea sea sea sea sea nnn nnn 92 12 3 Network Molereien take ee EE EE EXER den tava vlan saa TREE FARINE ERE RE 94 12 4 Terrain Server and Signal Quality Server Conftguration teens 95 C EE 96 13 1 Filter lee TE 96 13 2 What You Cannot Change in Real Time eect eee ee ee ee eee teens eats ea eaeea 96 13 3 HAVE QUICK EE 97 13 3 1 HAVE QUICK Detailed Description 98 14 SINCGARS amp HAVEQUICK radio simulation in DIS HLA exercises102 14 1 Basic Fidelity and High Fidelttw reer eerste teen netstat natant 102 14 1 1 High Fidelity EEN 102 14 2 VComm and HAVE QUICK Radios cceccecceeeeee cree eee eee e nee ee ene enetnntnnnnaens 103 14 2 1 Basic Fidelity Radio Loge 103 SimPhonics Page 5 of 146 et VComm User s Manual V1 54 14 2 2 Basic Fidelity HAVE QUICK cccccccceceee eee ee estes ee nnne nnn 105 14 2 3 High Fidelity HAVE QUICK ccccccecec
43. 2 V wave Input Recorder Objects 2012 and 2003 114 17 3 Radio Recording using Object 208b emm 114 17 3 1 VComm Signal File Converter 115 17 3 2 Conversion to a WAV le 115 17 3 3 Conversion to a Transmission Event le 115 18 Duplex ModeS icis Age EE pO px ERI GE AA EE ARE Eau di dd 117 1D Sidetone EEN 118 IIS ee e TETTE 119 21 Converting Legacy Radios to Version 8 eseese 120 21 1 The Legacy Radlos sss ette Ei era REC ee dE AER EEE EE 120 21 2 The New and Easy to Use VComm Radios seesseeeeeeen nennen 121 21 2 1 Specific Pin CHANGES i i ies eet Eege See ASSEN AVR IHRE E ee ae RE EE EEN LI Era 121 21 2 2 Static Data Changes sciri x ebe EENS EE EIN uUa 121 21 3 The Legacy Intercoms uox tere n eR tee Exe nr a eU ANEN RERO RE WERE RYE ZO a EVE APA 122 21 4 The New and Easy to Use VComm Intercom 123 21 4 1 Static Data c Rm 123 22 VCoOmm Monito EEN 123 22 1 VComm Monitor Refresh ssssssssssssrrrsrnssssrrrnnnesnerrnnnnsuensrrnanaesnerrnnnnennns 124 23 Instr mentallofit 2522 9 1k ERROR AR ob s ORO ORO GS GEOP RE QR E RC 124 23 1 Number of Network Transmitters for First Radio 126 23 2 DIS Network Usage Bytes per Second Counter ssssssssssssssrrrrrssrrrrrrreserns 126 23 3 Latency Performance seen tenet EE pode tilt E ue e a 127 SimPhonics Page 6 of 146 Vakum VComm User s Manual V1 54 24 Registry SettiNgS iussisse vost adeb i9 e Dod rb vade 1rd ipd dips adea 127 24 1 Changing Reg
44. 8 VOLUME SQLCH EX ID ON OFF PTT PathName C Program Files PLus PLus Samples Wavefiles VComm Jammer Radio Static Data 3 0 4 N Site ID D Host ID Entity ID D Radio ID D Encoding 4 Channel I O 1 Figure 67 Object 2057 VComm Radio Transmitter Wave File Player This object is very handy for generating Jamming audio chatter Test Tones HAVE QUICK mickeys and the like For more information on how to use it refer to the on line object help SimPhonics Page 113 of 146 Vakum VComm User s Manual V1 54 17 Recording There are a number of ways to record incoming radio signals using VComm each with pros and cons depending on what is being recorded for what purpose and if the recording must be automated by V etc One of the most straight forward means to recording 17 1 Windows Built in Recorder Windows has a recorder that is shipped with Windows and can be found in the menu system at Start Menu Programs Accessories Entertainment Sound Recorder This recorder uses DirectSound to record any sound device input into a wave file The advantage to this method is that recorded files can be set to a host of formats to minimize the file size However V cannot control the sound recorder application to turn it off and on etc To setup a recording the Windows Audio Mixer controls must be adjusted properly Figure 68 Windows Sound Recorder BER File Edit Effects Help eo dmm ce d gt
45. ARS Objet 107 Figure 64 VComm Crypto System Object ssssssssssssssssssssese semen eee nemen mesesese nennen enne 109 Figure 65 KY 58 Encryption Panel ve vd SE SE ENEESENESNSKSENERRG seine ntu rena gn ARMAR RA A SAGA GA A debe deen EE SES E Ra aaa 111 Figure 66 Example KY 58 Reception of Secure Trapnsmtsslon eene 111 Figure 67 Object 2057 VComm Radio Transmitter Wave File Player 113 Figure 68 Windows Sound Recorder 5 ek SR RE NENNEN ENNEN iirinn tank sna sa na aka ia Senna nau ni ha gap ana Ni 114 Figure 69 Wave Input Recorder Object 2012 and 2003 114 Figure 70 Object 2085 VComm Recorder oe SKSKNENENNENK NEES KEESSIER saa s43aga aie ENER na aa Ra da SEENEN 115 Figure 71 Transmission Event File Example e ceieesee ener nene nane n RaP iau ku nga aa SEENEN NN 117 Figure 72 Object 2041 VComm Set Radio Duplex Mode eee 118 Figure 73 VComm Software Sidetone e SENERESENRNNK ENNER RE nasa una na RR AX AR RAE GERA SERERE RR ARRA YR gan aaa na 119 Fig re gellen EAR KEE 119 Figure 75 LEGACY RAGIO 2 u89d eege seven da e enl pr NENNEN I s IA A RAT MIR EE RC DNERA RR RII Deh 120 Figure 76 VComm GENERIC Radio V8 DIS HLA nemen meme nnne nennen 121 Figure 77 Legacy InIterCONl EE 122 Figure 78 VComm Simple Intercom Objet 123 Figure 79 VComm len EE 124 Fig re 80 Performance MohltOr weiss iced gue dE SNE ENEE SNE dee dad n ead ae exa ed saa P alode Par eva 125 Figure 81 Performance Monitor Add Counter Window een
46. Attach Mode entity state PDUs will not be counted even though they may be present on the network SimPhonics Page 126 of 146 Vakum VComm User s Manual V1 54 23 3 Latency Performance One of the most important DIS HLA voice communications equipment performance criteria is audio transport delay This is the delay over a network from a given voice input such as a microphone to an output such as a headset over a network Typical VComm transport delays for an ordinary computer network card and network is 65ms The screen shot in Figure 82 portrays a recording of a microphone on one computer followed by the headset output on another The audio stream parameters for this test were as follows Encoding 16 bit PCM Sample Rate 8 000 Hz Buffer Size 480 Samples transport delay test wav Adobe Audition Ele Edit View Effects Generate Analyze Favorites Options Window Help DSS CSE sr spo s T8 I Fan S ZARRA n s zs mm eent mee Edt View TREK m CDiPraject view Bes Effects Favorites ck qs qr aT pa E BSG app ba 0 00 000 DET a E 341dB amp 0 00015 44100 16bt Mono 8K 6232GBfree 7 Figure 82 VComm Latency Performance 24 Registry Settings A variety of run time information can be setup for VComm in the system registry and in a configuration file as well as the normal methods of using V objects The same is true for a number of VComm objects as well as other data such as DIS IDs and n
47. C Registry Key Type Description radioNoiseAtten WORD This is the value of the attenuation of the simulated radio background noise This value is expressed in dB of attenuation Therefore 100 would indicate that there would be an attenuation of 100 dB which would result in virtually no background noise generated If this variable is missing from the registry a value of 0 is used internally Note that 6 dB will appear to be half volume and is the default value for the entry The radio background noise level is computed by a model and changes as a function of many variables Be sure that you understand the model before reducing the background noise level Note that ICS objects do not have simulated background noise at all This value is installed and set to 6 by default be set to Big Endian format This is the default setting after installation freqFilter WORD This key determines if VComm will filter out incoming radios whose frequency falls outside of any radios bandwidth in VComm If this value is 1 or missing from the registry frequency filtering is active This is the default setting after installation If the value is zero the frequency filter is not used RxSignalJitter DWORD This key is the amount of jitter compensation expressed in milliseconds D PCM16isBigEndian DWORD Determines whether the 16 bit PCM compression scheme 4 uses Big or Little Endian byte order for audio in the signal PDU The key is install
48. Configuration DIS is a UDP connectionless networking technology while HLA can be either UDP or TCP IP connection oriented technology VComm has network configuration for DIS only HLA networking configuration is managed by the RTI The V Run Time System Networked Audio configuration dialog is shown in Figure 51 This is where most user configurable network settings are located SimPhonics Page 88 of 146 Vakum VComm User s Manual V1 54 12 1 Network Addressing VComm supports DIS over a primary and a secondary network By default only the primary network is enabled Enabling the secondary network is accomplished by clicking the Enable Secondary checkbox as shown in Figure 51 The network settings for the primary and secondary networks are configured on the V Run Time System Networked Audio configuration dialog In general configuration of the secondary network works the same way as for the primary network Note that the DIS Protocol version specified for the primary DIS network is inherited by the secondary DIS network i e it is not possible to have a different version on each network Platform Configure x 1 0 Drivers Execution Audio Device Order Networked Audio r Primary DIS Network m HLA Configuration Bind To DIS Protocol Version HLA Enable Friendly Name z Jon Board Ethemet o IEEE 1278 12 200k Draft 14 sl ae ana a SS Send To Port Multicast TTL VCommHLA Broadcast 3000 j FED Hi
49. DIS Network Bind To DIS Protocol Version Default 6 IEEE 1278 1a 1998 m Federalionto Join Creal Send To Port Multicast TTL ommha Broadcast ha 2000 E FED Fil r Secondary DIS Network RPR FOM FED Bind To RID Filename Defaut z Enable Secondary m1 Send To Port Multicast TTL Broadcast y 2000 E Audio Buffer Size Bytes XMIT Sample Rate Heart Beat ms Ant Pos Thresh m CDs Time Simo 960 Er 3500 500 Absolute C Relative Terrain Server Terain Server IP Temain Server Port Terain Server Bind Address rei Figure 33 DIS HLA Time Stamp SimPhonics Page 61 of 146 et VComm User s Manual V1 54 9 13 Frequency Selection for Generic Radios Some VComm legacy radio objects utilize frequency input pins that expect frequencies in megahertz MHz Since V uses strictly floating point data on all its object and port pins round off errors can occur Therefore these radios have a frequency resolution of 1000 Hz That is any input frequency must be a multiple of 1000 Hz or the radio will force the value to fall within a 1000 Hz range Newer VComm 8 0 and later radios do not suffer from this problem since their frequency pins are specified in Hertz Some vendors require exact matches for frequency for a valid reception The next version of DIS will require the radio model to consider the bandwidth in the tuner model 9 14 DIS Radio Entity Type The Transmit PDU contains a DIS Entity T
50. Eo dee ANEN ENER ACEN EEN EN DANN 143 SimPhonics Page 8 of 146 et VComm User s Manual V1 54 List of Figures Figure 1 V VComm objects EE 15 Figure 2 VComm Architekte sde de peores dad Ee aka re REA x Dua YA iia pA SEENEN NEEN ENEE 17 Figure 3 VComm Encoding Conversion During Real time eene 20 Figure 4 Remote Desktop Potential Problem cccceeeee cent eee e eee e mene nennen nennen nnns 21 Figure 5 SimPhonics USB PTT Headset sienne enamel iain Rua E EES IR EEN Sa GREG Ege ufa daas 23 Figure 6 SimPhonics SMx Breakout BOX sssssssssseseseseseesenememesesemenihie eene me mesese seni nnne nnns 23 Figure 7 V Audio Device Order Copnfiguration nemen nennen 25 Figure 8 VComm Force Stereo RX Object s ssresssrnssnserunsnerausranonanrursnnonnnansunsennnansansrnenansnnennnna 26 Figure 9 the Radio Frequency Spectrum es SENERNNEN NEE ES EENS n RAS ERR AR RANG ARR RASA ENNER RA Ya ga Kaka gi aan 28 Figure 10 VComm Radio Modeling Functional Flow eesssssesnmenmememm eee 29 Figure 11 VComm RF Signal Modeling vE SN EE EENERNEKSNN EENS EES a ta ia Raga ga aig sa a KEREN NEEN aa aaa 32 Figure 12 Horizontal Dipole Pattern EE NEREREN ENNER KEEN he nnn nasa u NENNEN ENER SNE GG AR RR RR Ga SNE EEN na 33 Fig re 13 Free Space Propagation Loss eror eerta tenent hne EENS Rr KEES SEAEN NEEN E ENEE oe nee 35 Figure 14 AN PRC 117F Radio 2 reete senec ra adea ZE aaa aa dx Rer dE Pala SR de
51. HLA seemed to be the answer for the M amp S community as DIS began to grow old and become obsolete as a networking paradigm However HLA is perhaps the most misunderstood thing that can tie M amp S applications together DIS included a networking protocol that was very simple using PDUs to transfer the data in broadcast mode HLA improved the networking since it is a publish and subscribe architecture 11 6 1 HLA is an Architecture Standard and Not a Protocol The problem however is that there is no standard beyond the software API that connects your M amp S application to the RTI Only the HLA software at the API level will interoperate with others and that was never the problem The software that your HLA software talks to is vendor specific and is not compatible with any other RTI vendor be design Worse noting is compatible on the wire Even worse the data model is so wildly extensible that vendors are encouraged to carve out niches for themselves in order to monopolize a portion of the market where they excel HLA is clearly not the future since it only helps to ensure that applications will interoperate without prior agreements and the use of the same vendor software 11 6 2 The Future It is time for industry and military leaders to step up and admit the failure to embrace a vision that looked past the API There is a better way force interoperability and create a wire level standard SimPhonics is actively involved in pursuing better
52. LA 1 3 Extensions for VComm installs the MAK RTI and configures VComm for MAK 1 3 HLA operation Do not install the RTI software separately When the MAK HLA 1 3 Extensions for VComm is installed a registry value is created and set to 1 This forces VComm to use MAK HLA 1 3 extensions The name of this value is HKEY LOCAL MACHINE SOFTWARE SimPhonics VPLus MAK13ExtInstalled If the value is set to 0 the MAK HLA 1 3 extensions are not used Page 82 of 146 SimPhonics Vakum VComm User s Manual V1 54 11 5 2 MAK RTi Installation You must have full administrative privileges in order to install this software First un install any previous VComm HLA 1 3 extensions If the RTI software has been installed separately uninstall this also Remove any folders that remain e C MAK once the un installation process is completed Be sure to save any valid license files RID files etc Next any firewall such as the Windows Firewall must be disabled on all computers running the MAK RTi This ensures that the RTi and license manager software will work properly To turn the firewall off you must access the Window Firewall dialog box as shown in Figure 48 windows Firewall x General Exceptions Advanced T X Your PC is not protected tum on Windows Firewall Windows Firewall helps protect your computer by preventing unauthorized users from gaining access to your computer through the Intemet or a network
53. Microsoft Foundation Classes Megahertz Megabits Per Second Milliseconds Maximum Usable Frequency MONO Monographic Multiple Word Of Da Network Interface Card Next Generation Communications System Narrow Spectrum Secure Voice Pulse Code Modulation Protocol Data Unit Plain Old Telephone System Push To Talk Radio Frequency RTI Initialization Data HLA Specific File RT Root Mean Square RPR Real time Platform Reference RT Run Time Infrastructure Sidetone Sidetone in a radio or intercom is the effect of sound being picked up by a headset s microphone and reproduced in the headphones of the same headset acting as feedback indicating ioi itting Signal to Noise and Distortion Single Channel Ground and Airborne Radio System SINCGARS Integrated Communications Securit Simulation Interoperability Standards Organization Signal to Noise Distortion Signal to Noise Ratio SimPhonics Page 144 of 146 Vekan VComm User s Manual V1 54 Table 30 Definition of Terms Term Description es Microseconds 1 1 1 1 1 y O Of D L Wide Spectrum Secure Voice SimPhonics Page 145 of 146 Vakum VComm User s Manual V1 54 28 Index nico 48 49 145 Atmospheric NOISE cccc eee eee eee eeeeeeenes 51 Audio Emulation Filter 47 bandwidth 18 28 41 42 50 52 62 97 106 125 133 Big Endian arei i na 18 56 133 CCIT CVS Dinand ornaman oioi iora 57 CCIT SINCGARS esse cra vers ex 107 CECOM CVSD ie
54. Msgs 0 This must be set to 0 to avoid popup error windows requiring a user mouse click to continue 26 4 Known Problems SimPhonics continuously strives to provide trouble free software During the course of software development new features are being added and reported problems are being corrected in each build VComm is constantly being improved which means that as of this writing VComm has been released many times The following section lists known problems Contact SimPhonics if you are experiencing a problem and SimPhonics engineering will assist in determining if this is a real issue requiring the generation of a problem report Table 29 shows the known problems Table 29 Known Problem Problem Report Description of Problem Number VCOMMPR 358 001 Problem Radio or ICS will not transmit after the Exercise ID or Frequency is set to zero and back to valid value while PTT is active Detailed Description The exercise ID or frequency of radios or ICS objects cannot be set to zero and back to a valid value when the PTT is active or the radio or ICS will not transmit While in this mode the PTT has to be cycled off and back on in order for the transmitter to become active again This is a known problem Workaround The workaround is to not allow the exercise or frequency pins to go to zero or not allow the PTT to be active when this occurs SimPhonics Page 142 of 146 et VComm User s Manual V1 54 Example F
55. N NENNEN exa Ran R Rx Rak ERE ede EENS NENNEN NENNEN 62 Table 13 Category Enumerations cece enne nemen nemen seen 62 Table 14 Doriain Enumerations 2 2 eet dead dad We ANNE durar irati e dd ap papi Res ra cb e dE NSA 63 Table 15 Automatic Radio Identifier Generation 67 Table 16 Open Mike VTP Record 72 Table 17 Application Specific Data VTP Record 73 Table 18 VComm Network Modes nennen nene se se sis sis resina suas sessi ssa snas 94 Table 19 VComm Entity Filter Modes cic tete bnt SRESRE EE dE EAR dd SR Rad Ya Ye EE See 96 Table 20 Ee un EE 101 Table 21 Training and Maintenance MWOD nemen emen nemen enne nnns 102 Table 22 CCTT SINCGARS Basic Fidelity Modulation Parameter Record 103 Table 23 VComm Crypto SySterm Sege dERE SEENEN SEENEN RASSEL gU Y See 109 Table 24 Clear Versus Encrypted Voice Reception nennen 110 Table 25 VComm Crypto System e isse eia enean cusa pua ese axe ENNER ERENNERT ENNER Ea Ya eds 110 Table 26 MISC Registry KGy sage erra NEEN EN kn nn ened ced REENEN EE Ee x na EES EE EN anatoesenma tains 130 Table 27 Network Registry Key cien re NEEN iei rx re Rack oup ER BEE Se RENE ENEE dE EE 134 Table 28 Network Registry Key ges NS RENE rni nne san nat sk gu n n tea aden Rage sini ass dE EENEG ee Eege 135 Table 29 Known PEODIGFm iuisusc gg dei Zeg tette tate suben rete SC v nta xh eot d tt FED Dos aa i Tt Urn i RUE 142 Table 30 Definition Of Terms ieu co san serere enitn n drank Ne
56. OL 1 SHOT VOL 1 SHOT KEE Ea ges jo e EE Spee am EN EN Kei Figure 41 Open Mike VTP Record Objects Object 2099 VComm Set Open Mike is used to attach an Open Mike VTP record to a simple intercom When this object is connected to a Simple Intercom object via the Handle pin and the Enable pin is set to one it will cause an Open Mike VTP record to be sent with every SimPhonics Page 72 of 146 et VComm User s Manual V1 54 Transmitter PDU for that intercom The Open Mike pin is then used to control the contents of the Open Mike field in the VTP record Object 2100 VComm Get Open Mike is used to monitor incoming Open Mike VTP records When this object is connected to a Simple Intercom object via the Handle pin the Valid pin will be set to one whenever at least one Open Mike VTP record is being received The Open Mike pin is set to one whenever one or more Open Mike VTP records are being received with the Open Mike field set to one The example shows how the output of object 2100 can be connected back to the volume and PTT input pins of the Simple Intercom object so that two way communications on the intercom channel are enabled whenever a request to go open mike is being received It also shows how tones can be automatically played upon the activation and deactivation of the channel This is recommended to alert the operator by an audible cue that the status of his communications channels has
57. Q on tecommended This setting blocks all outside sources from computer with the exception of those selected on the ie F Don t allow exceptions Select this when you connect to public networks in less secure locations such as airports You will not be notified when Windows Firewall blocks programs Selections on the Exceptions tab will be ignored Avoid using this setting Turing of res Frenal may make ths computer more vulnerable to viruses and intruders Windows Firewall is using your domain settings What else should know about Windows Firewall Figure 48 Windows Firewall Dialog To access this window do the following your computer may vary slightly Select Start Settings Control Panel At the Control Panel double click Network Connections Right click Local Area Connection and select Properties Click the Advanced tab Click the Settings button Disable the Firewall by selecting the Off radio button followed by clicking OK Close all the windows which were opened to perform this exercise SOO ULA dg ub ed The most important issue relating to the MAK installation is the licensing Review the license issues before installation Ensure that you have the proper license for the computer that serves the license s Most problems associated with the MAK RTI operation are related to SimPhonics Page 83 of 146 Vekan VComm User s Manual V1 54 licensing issues and are difficult at best to resolve and mai
58. SINCGARS radios Basic Fidelity and High Fidelity The Basic Fidelity SINCGARS functionality also called CCTT SINCGARS is a de facto standard established by CAF DMO while the High Fidelity SINCGARS is a new standard that SimPhonics and other vendors helped to establish for DIS HLA systems and is currently in draft form in IEEE 1278 1a 200X The CAF DMO organization is currently specifying the use of the Basic Fidelity version in their exercises The High Fidelity version requires that the Basic Fidelity version be implemented also in order to maintain compatibility The default encoding scheme for VComm SINCGARS objects is 16 KHz CVSD since this is the same as the real radio An example of object 2058 VComm Basic Fidelity SINCGARS is shown in Figure 63 The VComm High Fidelity SINCGARS object is currently under construction EE mier E SS 1e 008 FREQ Hz eet Se PTT r Radio Static Data Site ID 0 Host ID 0 Entity ID 0 Radio ID 0 Encoding 4 1 Channel I O Send To Network 1 DIS only Figure 63 VComm Basic Fidelity SINCGARS Object SimPhonics Page 107 of 146 et VComm User s Manual V1 54 15 Cryptographic Modeling VComm provides secure voice simulation for radios for the most common types of encryption devices For example Object 2040 VComm Crypto System attaches to VComm radio or intercom objects via the Radio Handle output pin and provides simulated radio encryption There are a number
59. Split Audio device to allocate a channel of a sound card for input and output This is now part of the static data for the new GENERIC radios Also note that the DIS HLA radio has a Send To Network element which used to be a pin on some of the legacy radios You would normally want this to be set to a value of 1 for sending it to the Primary DIS Socket If a value of 0 is entered the radio will not transmit over the network SimPhonics Page 121 of 146 et VComm User s Manual V1 54 21 3 The Legacy Intercoms The legacy intercoms also needed Split Audio Device and Stereo Connection objects much like the legacy radios see Figure 77 Again these objects are not needed as their capabilities have been incorporated in the new intercom Legacy Intercom Network Device Audio Device Figure 77 Legacy Intercom SimPhonics Page 122 of 146 Veka VComm User s Manual V1 54 21 4 The New and Easy to Use VComm Intercom The new intercom simplifies V designs by removing the Split Audio Device and Stereo Connection objects Use the VComm Simple Intercom DIS HLA 2032 shown in Figure 78 Figure 78 VComm Simple Intercom Object The Simple Intercom object is essentially a VComm GENERIC Radio with the following fixed attributes It is always positioned at the geocentric center of the Earth 0 0 0 It is always full duplex It ignores bandwidth It does not model Wave Loss Propagation Tuner Effects Fresnel Effects Ter
60. The primary difference came in version 6 which introduced intercom PDUs VComm dropped support for these PDUs in VComm version 8 0 They are not in use by any other known DIS radio vendor Important Note In some military exercises the version is important since there have been cases where various sites have filtered out PDUs that did not have a specific version This is why VComm has the version setting and is backward compatible with all versions SimPhonics Page 60 of 146 Vakum VComm User s Manual V1 54 9 12 DIS Time Stamp VComm stamps each PDU according to the DIS standard This time stamp may be relative or absolute There are radio buttons in the run time system networked audio window that establish which type of time stamp is generated 9 12 1 Configuring Time Stamp Mode The absolute time stamp is the default but this can be changed to relative This setting is saved in the VNE file and applies to all PDUs that are issued by VComm Most large exercises use absolute time stamps for DIS PDUs In either mode it is always a good idea to synchronize the system to a time server to ensure that all systems are synchronized to a time source For more information see the Windows operating system help for information on how to setup a time server and synchronize clients to that server Platform Configure E x 1 0 Drivers Execution Audio Device Order Networked Audio r Primary
61. VComm Users Manual STATUS E EK HE MAIN Bu OFF AC SimPhonics Copyright 2014 SimPhonics Incorporated all rights reserved www simphonics com et VComm User s Manual V1 54 INFORMATION IN THIS DOCUMENT IS PROVIDED IN CONNECTION WITH SIMPHONICS PRODUCTS NO LICENSE EXPRESS OR IMPLIED BY ESTOPPEL OR OTHERWISE TO ANY INTELLECTUAL PROPERTY RIGHTS IS GRANTED BY THIS DOCUMENT EXCEPT AS PROVIDED IN SIMPHONICS TERMS AND CONDITIONS OF SALE FOR SUCH PRODUCTS SIMPHONICS ASSUMES NO LIABILITY WHATSOEVER AND SIMPHONICS DISCLAIMS ANY EXPRESS OR IMPLIED WARRANTY RELATING TO SALE AND OR USE OF SIMPHONICS PRODUCTS INCLUDING LIABILITY OR WARRANTIES RELATING TO FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE MERCHANTABILITY OR INFRINGEMENT OF ANY PATENT COPYRIGHT OR OTHER INTELLECTUAL PROPERTY RIGHT SIMPHONICS PRODUCTS ARE NOT INTENDED FOR USE IN MEDICAL LIFE SAVING OR LIFE SUSTAINING APPLICATIONS SimPhonics Incorporated may have patents or pending patent applications trademarks copyrights or other intellectual property rights that relate to the presented subject matter The furnishing of documents and other materials and information does not provide any license express or implied by estoppel or otherwise to any such patents trademarks copyrights or other intellectual property rights SimPhonics may make changes to specifications and product descriptions at any time without notice Users must not rely on the absence or characterist
62. ackets going out on the network Tools that rely on reading network PDUs will not record any activity in this mode including the VComm Monitor tool DIS and HLA modes will cause the radio to operate in only that mode VComm DIS modes are always available while HLA mode will work only if the HLA system has been enabled and is initialized DIS radios will not function at all without a valid network connection when in DIS mode If local radio communications are necessary then set the mode to DIS LOOP BACK mode when there is no valid network connection or when it is necessary to remove any DIS traffic from the network The network specification is defined on a per radio basis which means each radio can have an independent network mode This is how a DIS radio can be bridged to an HLA radio Note The Send To Network mask cannot be changed during run time V must be stopped and restarted for a change to take effect SimPhonics Page 94 of 146 et VComm User s Manual V1 54 12 4 Terrain Server and Signal Quality Server Configuration The Networked Audio configuration page is also used to configure VComm to work with the VComm Terrain Server VTS or a 3 party Signal Quality Server as shown in Figure 55 There are three fields on this page which can be edited for this configuration 1 Terrain Server IP 2 Terrain Server Port 3 Terrain Server Bind Address Note that while these fields are labeled Terrain Server they perform the
63. ain Server eerte voca ve vss voa VERA VOR Y URS VOS cesar WDR Y VER WEN COENA YOxd 37 7 5 8 HP ele e UH B 38 5 5 1 5 HF Model Signal Loss Calculations ccccceeeee eect ee eee ee eens eens eens ta eeeaeaes 39 7 5 9 Minimum and Maximum Antenna Range cececeeeeeee ee eee ee eats eens eaeeeeaeaes 40 5 5 1 6 Overriding Minimum Range cere eee teeter eee eater ene eaten 41 5 5 1 7 Overriding Maximum Range c cc eceee eee e reenter eee nee ene ete eaten 41 7 5 10 Receiver Tuning Model Eege Dee EE E Feu RR EENS 41 5 5 1 8 Receiver Signal Selectivity ve recie eter tenera ker rte RN NENNEN EE NEES ENER 41 5 5 1 9 Receiver TURING RespOTse EE 42 7 6 Modulation ec irELe ret et R RR XO EE EE EE 43 7 7 Modulation TYPES nennen nnne nnne nnns nnn nnn nnn 43 7 8 Configuring Modulation sessssssssssessssesse senem men emen eene 44 7 8 1 Default Modulation for Radios 44 7 8 2 Default Modulation for Simple Intercom 44 7 8 3 Modulation Effect 44 7 8 4 Modulation Usage Guide SN nter RA RH NER RRERR RR A RR ARE KR aces 45 7 9 Audio Signal Modeling EE 46 7 9 1 Band pass Filter ucc euo ou aevo RUE uy Cua eva ECL YR WR VETAT VETE 47 7 9 2 Compressor Limiter ue isr nee REESE oE REEE ERREEN 48 7 9 3 Audio EffeCES EE 49 7 9 4 Squelch and EE 49 7 9 5 Received Signal Packet jitter nennen nnn 49 7 9 6 Noise Modeling NENNEN 50 7 9 7 Thermal NO Se ioco coi cete vcn cwev euo vvv vu as eY
64. ainment Sound recorder Before you can use VComm you must be able to record and playback an audio file using your intended headset and microphone Most problems are with the settings of the microphone in the recording section of the Windows Audio Mixer If the audio is OK then check the network With VComm running with your radios active run the VComm Monitor program and verify that it can see your radios on the network Be sure to run VComm Monitor on all computers where the trouble is experienced 2 Radio Identifiers Not Unique a One common error is to assign two radios the same Radio Identifier Site Number Application Number Entity Number and Radio ID on two different computers which will result in neither radio working Do not assign IDs unless you have to since these will be generated automatically if left at zero Often in large exercises radios from many independent sites are operating and in these cases multiple radios sometimes have the same Radio Identifier 3 Setup Common Settings a Setthe encoding scheme to mu law 1 and a sample rate to 8000 Hz if you re having problems with incoming or outgoing audio being noisy or distorted Some vendor applications do not covert sample rates properly or simply ignore the compression scheme and interpret the audio in the way the equipment is setup In these cases you have to experimentally determine the best encoding scheme 4 Try talking to Yourself a If you can t communi
65. and gains are easier to express in dBm rather than watts so rearranging and eliminating the antenna gains for isotropic radiators gives the following l I0Log 174 l loss in dBm Further combining constants and using frequency in MHz and distance in kilometers results in the following classic free space propagation loss equation often called the Lee form For the derivation see http www mike willis com Tutorial PF4 htm Note that the loss is expressed in dBm simplifying path calculations VComm uses this free space propagation loss algorithm 1 32 4 20Log f 20Log d f frequency in MHz d distance in kilometers Figure 13 shows a graph of free space propagation loss using real world numbers SimPhonics Page 34 of 146 et VComm User s Manual V1 54 Frequency 250 MHz Distance 10000 m Figure 13 Free Space Propagation Loss 5 5 1 4 Free Space Propagation Loss Example An AN PRC 117F radio is advertised that it has a receiver sensitivity of 116dBm for FM for a 10db SINAD This means that it can receive a signal level of 116 dBm and still break the squelch How far can the transmitter antenna be placed in free space and still be heard Using a frequency of 250 MHz and a distance of 5 000 000 meters 3 106 miles the loss is 154 37 dBm If the transmitter power is 42 dBm 15 watts then the signal level arriving at the receiving antenna would still be 112 dBm still within the squelch range In other words co
66. ariable See the MAK documentation for more information The MAK RTI RID file defaults to use lightweight mode You must set RTI useRtiExec to 1 in order to bypass lightweight mode This file is located in the MAK installation folder and is titled RID MTL Open the file using Notepad locate the line containing this variable and ensure that it is set to 1 as shown below setqb RTI useRtiExec 1 See the MAK documentation for more information on lightweight mode since this may be the intended mode for your configuration After the installation add the system environment variable RTI CONFIG and set it to the following string value C program files VPLus HLA RPRFOM10 The VComm installation process copies the RPR FOM version 1 0 to this location This file is necessary for RPR FOM version 1 0 operation In order to run the MAK RTIspy LRC GUI you must change the following variable From setqb RTI enableLrcGUI 0 To setqb RTI enableLrcGUI 1 The GUI will only launch on the machine with the RID file set as shown and only when a federate from that machine is joined to the federation You must also set the RTI destAddrString to a valid address with the last octet set to a subnet For example setqb RTI destAddrString 192 168 1 255 if your machines address is 192 168 1 1 This completes the MAK RTi installation SimPhonics Page 86 of 146 et VComm User s Manual V1 54 11 6 Problems with HLA Interoperability
67. at VComm uses over a TCP IP connection to query a third party signal quality server When use of the Signal Quality Service is enabled the third party signal quality server is responsible for responding to queries from VComm for signal strength and noise strength between radio transmitters and receivers VComm uses the returned signal strength as input to its Tuner Model VComm considers the returned noise strength as the SimPhonics Page 51 of 146 Vakum VComm User s Manual V1 54 total antenna input noise level Both this feature and the terrain server interface are implemented using the same remote message protocol although they use different parts of the protocol These two features are mutually exclusive i e only one or the other can be used at the same time 8 A Word about the VComm Simple Intercom The DIS Simple Intercom radio is a de facto standard based on the proposed draft changes to IEEE 1278 as of July 2006 Simple Intercom is essentially a VComm radio with the following fixed attributes It is always positioned at the geocentric center of the Earth x y z 0 0 0 It is always full duplex It ignores bandwidth It does not model Wave Loss Propagation Tuner Effects Fresnel Effects Terrain Occulting Curvature of the Earth Thermal and Atmospheric Noise Squelch and Automatic Gain Control 5 The CHAN pin is analogous to the FREQ pin on the VComm GENERIC Radios with valid values from 1 to 100 000 Since bandwidth i
68. ates may be sent to the system and all will be received properly This issue is being addressed by the new DIS version that should be out soon currently referred to as IEEE 1278 1a 200X Audio Buffer Size VComm will allow an audio buffer to be as small as 80 bytes and as large as 1232 bytes This does not always work with other vendors whose minimum is 960 due to their sampling rate Frequency Tuning Model Some systems do not consider the effect of bandwidth or receiver selectivity beyond one Hz If the transmitter is not set to exactly the same frequency as the receiver it will not receive the signal Squelch Some vendors do not model squelch properly Do not rely on other systems to accurately generate squelch Modulation Some systems have no modulation model and will transmit arbitrary modulation enumeration types that should be ignored For example a transmission may come in that is intended to be AM when in fact it is FM since the receiver model on that side has no modulation model and will receive any modulation or even system type Simple Intercom Most vendors do not and did not use the DIS Intercom Control PDU and Intercom Signal PDU and used the Transmitter PDU and Signal PDU instead SimPhonics Page 18 of 146 Pakam VComm User s Manual V1 54 for an intercom function The intercom PDU system provided for state full modes of operation and SimPhonics had developed an intercom system that used these PDUs in early 1996
69. can utilize virtually any sound card or sound input output mechanism such as Bluetooth USB headsets sound cards etc since VComm audio I O is wrapped around the latest Microsoft DirectSound Application Programming Interface API VComm extends DirectSound and underlying structures by adding additional CODECs improved sample rate conversion and support for additional hardware such as SimPhonics multi channel SMx system At the simplest level if a laptop computer is equipped with VComm a sound card and a network card is all you need to communicate over a DIS or HLA network DIS plays a critical role in military simulation interoperation VComm provides the networked audio portion of DIS HLA systems This networked audio usually is in the form of intercoms and simulated radios SimPhonics Page 16 of 146 et VComm User s Manual V1 54 5 Overview VComm is a 32 bit Dynamic Link Library DLL exposing an API for use by a client application see Figure 2 The DLL API is utilized by V and VRAD products and is loaded at run time In addition to the API and the DIS HLA network sockets VComm exposes additional interfaces described below The VComm Remote Management Interface VCRMI shown in blue is a TCP IP server interface for use by networked clients to monitor and control VComm Once the DLL is loaded VCRMI clients have the ability to create and destroy radios on their own without the need for the API Typical clients are Hand Held Terminals
70. cate with another application or computer try talking to yourself using two radios on the same computer The SimPhonics web site has a number of VComm samples that will work in this case If you can talk to yourself but not to another computer then there may be a network problem 5 Need at Least One Audio Device a VComm requires at least one audio device to operate If no audio devices are found during pre execution of V the system will not start and issue an error that the device number does not exist SimPhonics Page 139 of 146 et VComm User s Manual V1 54 6 One Ethernet Connection is Required a In order to VComm to send and receive networked audio there must be a network attached to a Network Interface Card on the computer In cases where there is no network cable to connect to the computer and your using the computer to test VComm components you must have an active network connection Setting up a loopback IP address will not work The NIC must be active with a valid IP address 7 More than one Ethernet Connect can be a Problem a If VComm receives two identical packets an echo or other problem may occur Two Ethernet cards can cause this 8 Automatic Radio Identifier a If you notice that radio identifiers are large numbers i e around 65000 then these are most likely automatically generated by VComm 9 An Echo is heard a If an echo is present it is likely a radio is receiving your own transmission The
71. cation for VComm radios are specified in either geocentric or global coordinates Legacy VComm radios prior to VComm version 8 0 used global coordinates while VComm radios after 8 0 use geocentric coordinates Since global coordinates are most often used in simulation and easier to understand there are objects to translate global to geocentric coordinates Object 2029 ALT LAT LONG to Geocentric conversion converts global coordinates to geocentric coordinates see Figure 44 The de facto standard for DIS radio antenna locations is 0 0 0 geocentric Since the antenna is effectively located at the center of the earth at this location the radio is intended to not have any electromagnetic propagation loss for any reception regardless of where the transmitting antenna is located In other words any DIS radio with 0 0 0 geocentric means that a transmitting radio s antenna is always at the same location as other receiving radio antennas in a given simulation exercise The new IEEE 1278 1a 200X will show this in the standard as a requirement The V design below shows object 2029 connected to constants with inputs of 0 An altitude of O will cause an X value in geocentric coordinates to be 6378137 since this is the distance from the center of the earth to the surface of the earth in meters 5378137 000000 0 000000 Figure 44 Object 2029 ALT LAT LONG to Geocentric Conversion SimPhonics Page 75 of 146 et VComm User s Manua
72. ccessible to an HF radio If an HF transmission is made from a transmitting radio to a radio located within the skip zone then those transmissions will not be received unless the receiving radio is within line of sight or the receiving radio is on the edges of the skip zone in which case the strength of the transmission will be reduced The HF model calculates the location of skip zones relative to the location of each transmitting radio Two skip zones per radio are supported The relative distance and the size of each skip zone are defined by the VComm HF Control object 5 5 1 5 HF Model Signal Loss Calculations This section describes the method used by the HF model to determine signal loss for HF transmissions First of all the HF model ignores free space propagation losses HF transmission paths are affected by numerous factors which are beyond the scope of this model In addition HF transmissions may experience signal enhancement due to factors such as multipath and ducting To keep things simple therefore free space propagation loss is assumed to be zero by the HF model The HF model first determines whether there is a clear radio line of sight between the transmitting and the receiving radio If this is the case then signal loss is deemed to be zero This means that when the HF model is enabled all radios in the HF band of 2 to 30 MHz that have clear line of sight with each other will experience no signal loss If there is not a c
73. components of the radio identifier can be set for this radio Each of the values can be manually adjusted by the user Unless you are required to setup specific IDs you may leave the ID fields at zero and VComm will automatically generate an ID at runtime All VComm radio objects have static data in their V object which can be used to define the ID in this manner Static Data for VComm GENERIC Radio V8 DIS X List of Static Data for this Object e Single Precision Flo Enti ty ID LT cati Single Precision Flo iti Single Precision Flo Radio Identifier Single Precision Flo Encoding Single Precision Flo Ra d i Oo N um be r Channel Input Output Single Precision Flo ES lt m ces Figure 36 Setting DIS Radio Identifiers via Static Data When manually setting IDs each component of a radio identifier must be assigned a number from 1 to 65534 Setting a component to 0 or to 65535 will initiate automatic radio identifier assignment for that component In many cases the entity identifier of a radio should be assigned according to the entity i e aircraft tank etc to which the radio is attached However radios may not be attached to any entity or physical entities may not even exist in a particular application In these cases radio identifiers may be assigned arbitrarily It is very important in all cases however that each radio is assigned a radio identifier that is unique within the entire exercise includin
74. d in the VSF file 17 3 3 Conversion to a Transmission Event file SimPhonics Page 115 of 146 et VComm User s Manual V1 54 To convert a VSF file into a transmission event file use the command vsfc source filename destination filename txevent The resulting text file will contain a list of records that describe the transmission events recorded in the VSF file Each record is divided into fields that are delimited by commas The general format of each record is XType Site App Entity Radio lt Datel gt lt Timel gt lt Date2 gt lt Time2 gt Duration Note The Type field determines the interpretation of the remaining fields and is a string identifier The possible record types are 1 START This record is always the first record in the file and contains the time when recording started 2 END This record is always the last record in the file and contains the time when recording ended TX This record represents a transmission 3 4 PAUSE This record contains the time when recording was paused 5 RESUME This record contains the time when recording was resumed 1 The Site App Entity and Radio fields are integers that together define the DIS ID of a radio e g the transmitting radio These fields are set to zero when they do not apply to the record type The Date1 and Date2 fields are in the format yyyy mm dd The Timel1 and lt Time2
75. d on the distance between the transmitter and receiver antennas Line of Sight LOS or Slant Range Figure 19 VComm Radio Line of Sight Range SimPhonics Page 40 of 146 Vekan VComm User s Manual V1 54 The default minimum and maximum ranges are Default Minimum Range is 1 meter Signals closer than 1 meter are considered connected directly to the receiver antenna amp Default Maximum Range is 1 000 000 000 meters Signals farther away than that will not be received 5 5 1 6 Overriding Minimum Range The minimum range can be overridden to extend the range that all signals are received at maximum strength by using object 2087 VComm Min Range See the object help for details 5 5 1 7 Overriding Maximum Range The maximum range can be overridden to limit the reception range by using object 2091 VComm Max Range See the object help for details 7 5 10 Receiver Tuning Model The receiver tuning model is composed of two parts signal selectivity and tuning response 5 5 1 8 Receiver Signal Selectivity The selectivity of the receiver is its ability to receive a signal and reject unwanted signals in adjacent channels frequencies The characteristic important to selectivity is receiver bandwidth Within the Transmitter PDU a bandwidth parameter exists The DIS specification defines bandwidth in the Transmitter PDU as Bandwidth of the particular transmitter measured between the half power 3 dB point
76. delity Radio Logic The NET ID WOD and TOD values must match in order for valid communications A NET ID of zero is invalid 14 2 1 1 HAVE QUICK Simulated Audio Effects The audio effects of HAVE QUICK communications is a distinct clicking in the received audio Each click represents the radio changing to the next hop frequency and is a function of the hopping rate determined by WOD segment 1 Otherwise the audio characteristics are the same as any other radio This clicking effect is provided by VComm for both High and Low Fidelity versions SimPhonics Page 103 of 146 et VComm User s Manual V1 54 Slightly garbled communications indicate a slight difference in the TOD between radios Real world radio TOD clocks will drift over time VComm simulates this effect by garbling incoming audio which becomes worse until the timing difference is 100ms Values greater than 100ms disable communications altogether To simulate the effect a small portion of the received audio buffer is replaced with silence which is proportional to this time difference The VComm High Fidelity HAVE QUICK object provides a pin for TOD clock drift which can be set to any value See section 14 2 3 and V object help for more information Note The Basic Fidelity HAVE QUICK does not allow for clock drift in the TOD Therefore simulated garbled audio is not performed in the V Basic Fidelity HAVE QUICK object Entering invalid data for WOD or NET numbers can result in
77. details and are maintained there for 45 seconds This is called the monitor s heartbeat interval Therefore ensure that the radio systems being monitored have at least a 45 second heart beat interval or the radio will be removed from the list after 45 seconds By selecting View Refresh the information will be cleared and updated when new data arrives The F5 function key can also be used for this purpose S YComm Monitor 192 168 1 3 25954 25648 49716 5 nj xj CL File Edit View Log Window Help 8 x jg ess Eb ix 6 Padding 2 00 Exercise ID 1 Antenna X 0 00 RD DisCommMonitor PDU Type 25 Antenna Y 0 00 ZE DIS Port 3000 Protocol Family 4 Antenna Z 0 00 192 168 1 2 Timestamp 2967327496 Ant Relative x 0 00 5 889 29966 21372 16249 2 PDU Length 120 Ant Relative y 0 00 6 888 46560 12413 9738 1 Padding 2 0 0 Ant Relative z 0 00 Site ID 25954 Ant Pattern Type 0 55178 20918 39103 3 pplication ID 25648 Ant Pattern Length 0 192 168 1 3 Entity ID 49716 Frequency 100200000 GR 1155 44996 24073 2 Radio ID 5 Bandwidth 25000 00 ET 20185 45692 18997 3 Abt Kind H DM abd E omain pread Spectrum E 25954 25648 49716 5 Country 0 Major Modulation 3 freq 100 200 MHz Category 0 Detail Modulation 1 modulation 3 1 Nomen Version 0 Modulation System 1 xmits 35 Nomenclature 0 Crypto System 0 r Transmit Stat
78. ding of the attached radio The filename for the recording is specified using static data The recording is stored in the VComm Signal File VSF format This format was developed by SimPhonics to improve streaming performance allowing recordings to be stored efficiently with minimal performance impact The VSF file contains all the decoded audio that is received by the attached radio and also other data such as a pause and resume event All audio data and events are time stamped It is necessary to post process a VSF file in order to play back the recording The VSF Converter utility is used for converting the VSF file into a WAV file that can be played back by audio players 17 3 1 VComm Signal File Converter The VSF converter utility can be found in the V installation directory It is a command line tool that is invoked with the command vsfc source filename destination filename mode The source filename is the name of the VSF file the destination filename is the name of the output file to create The mode is optional and specifies the type of conversion The utility can convert a VSF file into either a WAV file or a text file containing a list of transmission events If no mode is specified then a WAV file is created 17 3 2 Conversion to a WAV file To convert a VSF file into a WAV file use the command vsfc source filename destination filename wav The resulting wav file will contain all the transmissions recorde
79. dio Devices control panel If your default sound device is one of the SMx devices make sure that the SMx Audio System is enabled in the V Run Time System configuration page Otherwise Signal PDUs will not be transmitted For more information on VNE files see the V Visual Programming System User Manual SimPhonics Page 25 of 146 Vakum VComm User s Manual V1 54 In order to provide audio into both speakers of monaural headphones use Object 2047 VComm Force Stereo RX the rightmost object in Figure 8 This will connect the even numbered channel to the odd numbered channel if the radio intercom designated the odd number channel and the odd numbered channel even if vice versa For example let s say you have a stereo sound card which you ve configured as device 2 in the Audio Device Order In addition your VComm application has a radio with a channel designation of 3 If you attach object 2047 and enable it the audio will be heard in channels 3 and 4 which is the same thing as saying Device 2 Left and Right It works the same way if you have designated channel 4 to your radio Force Stereo Mode Figure 8 VComm Force Stereo RX Object This object will also work if you have a microphone input connected to one side of a stereo sound card However most microphones with stereo plugs actually route the input signal to both sides of the plug USB headsets are typically like that The SimPhonics PTT Headset Adapter s microphone s
80. e SimPhonics Page 39 of 146 et VComm User s Manual V1 54 to the edges of the zone where the HF model ensures a smooth increase in signal loss as the location of the receiver proceeds further into the zone The transition from no signal loss at the boundary of the skip zone to maximum signal loss occurs over a distance equal to 5 of the skip zone size Figure 18 illustrates the geometry of a skip zone in VComm The transmitter is located at the point marked with the x The skip zone boundaries are defined relative to the location of the transmitter The start of the skip zone is the radial distance from the transmitter that is equal to the skip zone distance set in the VComm HF Control object The end of the skip zone is that radial distance with the skip zone size added The actual skip zone only exists in the area shaded in black since it does not include areas where line of sight exists The HF model provides the V designer with a simple and predictable model for adding HF effects to the radio simulation lonosphere Skip Zone SZ Distance Figure 18 Skip Zone Geometry 7 5 9 Minimum and Maximum Antenna Range The range distance between antennas is measured as shown in the figure below and is referred to as Line of Sight LOS or slant range VComm provides a minimum range and a maximum range which can be changed on a per radio basis These variables provide a means to force reception or reject reception of a signal base
81. e All user programmable fields not set by the user are set to zero by default SimPhonics Page 62 of 146 et VComm User s Manual V1 54 9 14 1 Setting DIS Radio Entity Type Data V object 2089 VComm Radio Entity Type see Figure 34 can be used to set the Radio Entity Type data as described above Each radio may have a different set of Radio Entity Type data by using an object for each radio in the system For more information on values for these values see the SISO enumerations document and PCR172A which proposes a change to the DIS standard for using JETDS values Radio Entity Type data Figure 34 VComm Radio Entity Type Object The first six Domain enumerations are shown in Table 14 In the example above the VComm Radio Entity Type object is setting the Domain to Land Table 14 Domain Enumerations 0 Other 1 Land 2 Air 3 Surface 4 Subsurface 5 Space 9 14 2 Receiving Behavior for DIS Radio Entity Type Category Some systems do not properly set the category type field in exercises Therefore VComm will receive all types unless the RadioEntityCatagoryTypeFilter variable in the registry is set to 1 which is off or zero by default If this variable is on or 1 radios must have a category of 1 or 3 in order to be received in VComm For DIS this is contained in the Radio Entity Type of the Transmitter PDU as described earlier 9 14 3 Receiving Behavior for DIS Signal Encoding Class
82. e 126 Figure 82 VComm Latency Performance 127 Fig re 83 VCorrim Registry Key iisissiececumexe ANERE NENNEN SER ERE ERDOMR SRSUTMDN EET EN ES 128 Figure 84 Run Dialog e EE 129 Figure 85 Wavefile PTT Analysis Tool 136 Figure 86 Wavefile e e EE 137 Figure 87 Wavefile PTT Analysis Tool Output File 137 1 Preface This document was authored using Microsoft Word 2007 and is maintained at the SimPhonics web site in docx format 1 1 Trademarks and Copyrights Any trademarks shown throughout this document are the property of their respective owners V and SMx are trademarks of SimPhonics Incorporated Copyright 2014 SimPhonics Incorporated All rights reserved SimPhonics Page 10 of 146 Vekan VComm User s Manual V1 54 1 2 Revision History Ensure you have the latest release of this document before relying on this information Versions less than 1 0 are unreleased unofficial versions Table 1 provides the revision history of this document Version 1 0 1 1 1 2 1 3 1 20 Updated HLA section July 25 2007 1 21 Added Registry key for heart beat October 4 2007 1 22 Embellished the Free Space Propagation Loss section Updated January 8 2008 1 23 1 24 July 8 2008 1 25 Added new objects and Radio Entity Type Discussion as well as November 23 2008 the receiving behavior of the DIS Signal Encoding class Release 1 27 February 25 2009 1 28 Change DIS timestamp control from regis
83. e 2 Crypto Key 0 H Wll 26691 43815 54057 4 Input Source 0 Mod Parms Length 16 52686 28529 48630 1 Padding 3 000 Mod Parameters 0100000000000000 Protocol Version 6 Site ID 25954 Exercise ID 1 Application ID 25648 PDU Type 26 Entity ID 49716 Protocol Family 4 Radio ID 5 Timestamp 2967178496 Encoding 4 Length 992 TDL Type 0 Padding 2 00 Sample Rate 8000 Samples 480 Data Length 7680 Data 00 00 6C 38 4C 5B 4C 5B 6D 38 01 00 95 C7 B5 A4 B4 A4 92 C7 00 00 6C 38 4C 5B 4C 5B 6D 38 01 00 Figure 79 VComm Monitor 23 Instrumentation A number of Performance Counter data is available in VComm which can be monitored using the systems performance monitor The performance monitor can be launched from the Windows XP control panel under Administrative Tools by selecting Performance It can also be started clicking Start Run typing perfmon and clicking OK All data collected is from all exercises that are arriving on the port established in the VComm configuration Figure 80 is a snapshot of the Performance Monitor tool Minn SimPhonics Page 124 of 146 Pakam VComm User s Manual V1 54 i3 Performance or o Z i Performance Logs and Alerts VComm STEPHENJ VComm STEPHENJ Figure 80 Performance Monitor SimPhonics Page 125 of 146 et VComm User s Manual V1 54 To use the VComm counters in Perfmon open the Perfmon application as shown above right click on the display area and select Add Counters
84. e cece eset eens eee ee nemen nemen nennen enn 105 14 3 SINGGARS i 106 14 3 1 VComm and SINCGARS Radios cccicceceeee eee erent nent neta tenets 107 15 Cryptographic Modeling 95 KEESSIER KEES ENEE veers 108 15 1 Crypto Tone and Effects Waveforms wave files eese 108 15 2 Limitations of Crypto Key modeling in DIS eee 108 15 3 Modeling technique cie error eire e I obra xr iro eee Xr xa a Ced REY ia 109 15 4 VComm Crypto System Types ssssssssssssseees esee emen nnns 109 15 5 Clear Versus Encrypted Voice Reception nennen 110 15 6 Audio Encrypted Effect ssssssssssssesseeeeeee nennen nennen nennen nen nnn nnn 110 15 7 ec 111 15 7 1 Preamble TREK e 111 15 7 2 Crypto Circuit On and Crypto Circuit off Clicks eeeeeeeeeennnn nn 112 15 7 3 Squlelch Tall C O 112 15 7 4 KY 58 NO FILE TONE eege Eege truco Y enun ete ber etr Re dr OR e de tele e 112 15 7 5 Practical Considerations Simulating Crypto Gear 112 15 7 6 KY 58 Transmitter Hold Off BITTEN 112 15 7 7 Received Encrypted Audio is Realistic esee 112 15 8 NA EE DM E 112 15 8 1 Encrypted Audio 1 ctr ercerkrec kb eR Ra P VAR Y X V RV WV RA WIR VIETEIS 112 16 Waveform Audio Transmission in VComm esee 113 INE ell EEN 114 17 1 Windows Built in Recorder sesseesseeseeene nemen nnn 114 17
85. ed and set to 1 by default If the value of the key is O or missing from the registry the byte order will be set to Little Endian format If the value of the key is 1 the byte order will D SimPhonics Page 131 of 146 et VComm User s Manual V1 54 Table 26 MISC Registry Key Type Description FilterOwnEntityPDUs DWORD This key determines if VComm will prevent radio communication between radios on the same entity i e the entity identifiers are the same If this value is O or missing from the registry then communication is enabled between radios on the same entity assuming the radios are otherwise configured correctly This is the default setting If this value is non zero then communication is not possible between radios on the same entity Note that this setting has no effect on simple intercoms Communication between simple intercoms on the same entity is always enabled RadioEntityCatagoryTypeFilter This key determines if VComm will filter incoming radios based on the content of the Radio Entity Type category field If this value is O or missing from the registry then no filtering is performed on the Radio Entity Type category field This is the default setting If this value is non zero then filtering is performed on the Radio Entity Type category field Only radios with a Radio Entity Type categ of 1 or 3 will be received UseSignalQualityService This key determines which type of server VComm will use
86. ed signal power Noise Distortion or ND Receiver sensitivities are usually expressed as a dBm value for a given SINAD 7 4 2 Converting between Micro Volts and dBm Often the receiver gain is expressed in micro volts uV To convert uV to dBm use the following formula uV EE 253897 Therefore a 1uV signal is equal to 106 99 dBm A generic VComm radio class has a default setting of 117 dBm for 12 dB SINAD The various classes of radios in VComm have different sensitivities See the registry section for setting different default sensitivity settings Notes When the incoming power level drops below 269 dBm for an incoming transmitter VComm will no longer process the signal PDU In addition VComm will not process Signal PDUs when the Transmitter PDU indicates that it is not transmitting even though some vendor equipment continues to send Signal PDUs SimPhonics Page 31 of 146 et VComm User s Manual V1 54 7 RF Signal Modeling The following sections describe how the RF signal modeling is processed within VComm as shown in Figure 11 AUDIO AUDIO SIGNAL MODELING AUDIO OUTPUT NOISE MODELING Figure 11 VComm RF Signal Modeling 7 5 1 Antenna Model A transceiver transmitter receiver usually has one antenna that the transmitter and receiver share but it is possible for them each to have a separate antenna The DIS Transmitter PDU contains antenna data the transmitter s antenna only However the
87. eee eee eee nee eee eee senes 58 Figure 32 Selecting DIS Version in VComm cccceeeee eee eee eee eee eme mene mememese sinere nnns 59 Figure 33 DIS HLA Time Stamp s ete eek ge aaner ZENS NENNEN ER EES geg dE NR 61 Figure 34 VComm Radio Entity Type Obiect en eene nene mememese sinere nnns 63 Figure 35 Radio Tdentiflers dei bio ian gad sd tdsld sa ERRARE BEE EES 65 Figure 36 Setting DIS Radio Identifiers via Static Data 66 Figure 37 Setting DIS Radio Identifiers Dynamically s ssesssssssrsssrssresrrrrrssrnrerurnnsrurnnsrnnerurenernnnn 68 Figure 38 Using an External Interface to set a Radio Identifier eens ee eeee tees ee eeeeeeeeeaees 69 Figure 39 Using Entity Attach weiss cost de Ve ege ep SE enean e eee pi PR ceed dE R g A E e ER Eed Ehe EE EE AANER 70 Figure 40 MAK VR Forces Tee iiec Een t dent HR OPI ROAD ex ERE IE EE EENS ENEE 71 Figure 41 Open Mike VTP Record Objects ceceee cece e eee eee eene memesese senes 72 Figure 42 Geodetic Coordinate System ccccccseeeseseesesececesaccaeaeesaseseseneceauaeseseaegeneceesaenenenenanaceess 74 Figure 43 Geocentric Coordinate System eseescs siens EE usa nE r ARR RR RYRR ARI Y XR ARR ENER EE SNE NEEN aas 74 Figure 44 Object 2029 ALT LAT LONG to Geocentric Copnverelon sees 75 Figure 45 Setting Position to Geocentric 0 001 76 Figure 46 Setting the RID Filename Environment Variable Override sssssssrsssrsrrssrurrrsrrsrrernrernens 78 Figu
88. efault and will cause the sound resources to be exposed on the machine that is starting the remote desktop session and not on the remote computer Figure 4 Remote Desktop Potential Problem 5 Remote Desktop Connection r Remote Desktop 7 Connection General Display Local Resources Programs Experience Advanced Logon settings Hw Enterthe name of the remote computer ur The computer name field is blank Enter a full remote computer name M Connection settings Save the current connection settings to an RDP file or open a saved connection Save Saye As Open 5 3 2 Sleep mode via system idle timer VComm will not allow the computer to enter sleep mode when the system idle timer expires SimPhonics Page 21 of 146 et VComm User s Manual V1 54 5 4 Networking If you are not familiar with networking terms such as UDP IP TCP IP BROADCAST UNICAST and MULTICAST then you may to read this section before reading further sections on VComm networking Traditional network applications involve communication between two computers However VComm using DIS HLA networks require simultaneous communication between groups of computers This process is known generically as multipoint communications Most host interfaces to V are point to point and use I O Drivers such as the UDP IP driver that ships with V In this circumstance a host application communicates directly with a V app
89. egin encrypting This results in Signal PDUs not going out until after the preamble Students are trained to wait for this tone to complete before talking because before the preamble is done the transmitter is not active This is an important training effect that VComm supports that no other vendors provide 15 7 7 Received Encrypted Audio is Realistic The received audio is very realistic for receiving cipher on plain since the incoming audio is distorted in the same way it would be with the real system This is also true when the incoming audio is encrypted and the keys are matching Other vendors merely play a noise wave file while the voice is coming in which is very unrealistic since the operator can still hear the voice under the noise 15 8 KYV 5 ANDVT The KYV 5 is simulated with the same precision as the KY 58 and operates similar to the KY 58 The preamble tone is different than the KY 58 for example This is a new model for VComm so more information will follow in a later version of this manual For more information contact SimPhonics info simphonics com 15 8 1 Encrypted Audio SimPhonics Page 112 of 146 Vakum VComm User s Manual V1 54 In order to model the audio as realistic as possible VComm will automatically switch the transmitter to 16 bit 16 KHz CVSD encoding which sounds very close to the actual encrypted audio of the real KYV 5 16 Waveform Audio Transmission in VComm Most audio effects that are added to the
90. elow 100 000 Hertz are considered Simple Intercom devices instead of radios and the frequency becomes a channel number rather than a frequency Therefore tuner models are simply integer compares for these channels and bandwidth is ignored This is based on de facto and the latest draft DIS standard SimPhonics Page 28 of 146 Vekan VComm User s Manual V1 54 7 2 VComm Radio Modeling VComm addresses this problem by modeling the radio system itself and modifying the received audio signal based on many parameters and effects to present audio to the user that actually sounds like a radio transmission VComm calculates signal strength and noise using the simplified model diagram shown in Figure 10 for incoming radio data DIS specifies that the effects of the simulation be applied at the receiver Each element in the diagram is an important part of the overall receiver model The sections that follow explain each of these models in detail nd AUDIO INPUT RF SIGNAL MODELING AUDIO SIGNAL MODELING AUDIO OUTPUT NOISE MODELING Figure 10 VComm Radio Modeling Functional Flow SimPhonics Page 29 of 146 Vekan VComm User s Manual V1 54 7 3 Transmitter Power Transmitter power input pins for VComm radio objects expect power to be expressed in decibel milliwatts dBm Transmitter power levels are often expressed in watts V objects 2025 uses the following calculation to convert watts to dBm as shown dBm 10log GZ
91. els starting with the first device on through the list of devices as specified by the Audio Device Order within V more about Audio Device Order below Table 3 presents an example of a system configured with a USB PTT Headset Adapter an onboard Sigma Tel Audio device and an 8 channel SMx device In the left most column we see the device numbering as regarded by Windows In the right most column we see how VComm numbers these channels The shaded channels 2 and 4 are essentially unavailable to VComm since VComm deals with audio in a monaural manner All SMx channels can be used by VComm due to the nature of SMx that of dealing with audio on a single channel basis Note that SMx must still adhere to the Windows convention of devices in order to work with the DirectSound API but internally it does not deal with audio in a stereo device manner Table 3 Device and Channel Allocations Device Device Name VComm Number Chan Num Left PTT Headset Adapter Right Sigma Tel Audio t SMx 01 02 t SMx 03 04 t SMx 05 06 Right Left SMx 07 08 Rig Rig Left h Left Righ Left h Left h SimPhonics Page 24 of 146 et VComm User s Manual V1 54 If a multiple sound card PC architecture is being used care must be taken to determine the enumerated order of these devices for a given VComm application In the configuration section of the V Run Time System is a page called Audio Device Order see Figure 7 Use this page to co
92. ent variable MAKLMGRD LICENSE FILE and set it to server name where server name is the name of the machine where the license server is located Do not set this variable in the User variables section see Figure 49 Environment Variables 21 xl C Program Files Microsoft Visual Studio C Program Files Microsoft Visual Studio LICENSE_PATH C PROGRAM FILES HLA Lab Works OM RTI_BUILD_TYPE Win2000 VC6 Value INCLUDE C Program Files Microsoft Visual INTEL_LICENSE_FILE C Program Files Common Files I LIB C Program Files Microsoft Visual Figure 49 Setting the MAKLMGRD LICENSE FILE Environment Variable The installation software will require you to reboot your computer Once this is complete you can verify proper operation of the VComm extensions by starting the V run time system and inspecting the message window If the last message in the window is Using MAK HLA 1 3 VComm extensions the software has been installed properly SimPhonics Page 85 of 146 Vekan VComm User s Manual V1 54 The MAK RTi can operate in lightweight mode in which federates can communicate without an RTi running This mode is often used and is usually the case with VComm systems that are communicating within themselves and don t need to operate in a large scale HLA exercise If you use the lightweight mode do not set the following variable If you need a central RTi set the following v
93. entifiers s ssssssssrsssrnssrrnssrrnnsrrnnrrnnnernnnrrnnnrnnnnrnnns 66 7 15 1 1 Automatic Radio Identifier Aesignment sess 67 9 15 2 Setting Dynamic Radio Identifiers cceeceeeee eect eee eens eee e neta nena eeneees 68 9 15 3 Radio Identifier Confltcts cere nennen menm nnns 69 9 15 4 Entity Attach zeg euegets etstere M 70 9 16 Computer Generated Forces Tools for Identifying Entities ss 71 9 17 Variable Transmitter Parameters Record 71 9 17 1 Open Mike VTP Record eot eg eg Ee ER RR XXe Kk Ae ERECTA E NEES DUET TRUE 72 9 17 2 Application Specific Data VTP Record 73 10 Coordinate S E EEN 74 10 1 DIS World Coordinate System NENNEN 74 10 2 Radio Antenna Location 75 11 VComm and HLA ge 77 11 1 Federate Object Model NEKSK SNE REN einiino nana d ad nas 77 11 2 uPRJ rcc e c 77 11 3 RID File Pf EN EEN 78 11 3 1 Setting up Custom RID Eiles nmm 78 11 3 2 RID File Parameters NENNEN NENNEN 79 11 3 3 Federation Name oce per Seege Ee DEE wx n D e c DEE ee e 80 11 3 4 Federate Name 80 11 3 5 RTI Object Identifier Names ssessssssssssessssemen en mene mentemenie enne 80 11 3 6 RTI Object Identifier Custom Text Names ssssssseeemememene 80 11 3 7 Exercise ID use Ip HLA ironiseen me eek heme en mex Exe Ri Rm Ea EEN RR Rune x 80 11 4 HLA Tnitialization t tas tert sx ex EXER A a RXEMEV E RATE ERR weenie 82 1
94. er power receiver sensitivity and locations of the antennas the signal may not be readable RECEIVER A A DTH HALF POWER POINTS 70 7 VOLTAGE OUTPUT FREQUENCY Figure 20 Approximate Tuning Response Curve The actual response curve that VComm uses for generic radios is shown in Figure 21 RECEIVER BANDWIDTH VOLTAGE OUTPUT HALF POWER POINTS FREQUENCY Figure 21 VComm Tuning Response Curve Bandwidth is irrelevant for frequencies below 100 KHz since these radios are considered ICS radios and have no concept of bandwidth Frequencies are considered channels below 30 KHz The FAA s Next Generation Communications System NEXTCOM specifies an 8 33 KHz channel spacing for VHF general aviation radios This means that radio transmitter bandwidths must be about 8 KHz in order to support this channel spacing SimPhonics Page 42 of 146 Veka VComm User s Manual V1 54 7 6 Modulation Modulation is the process of varying one or more properties of a high frequency periodic waveform i m called the carrier signal with respect to a modulating signal In the case of an AM oe T broadcast transmitter the audio or signal is conveyed on a radio frequency RF carrier signal to the receiver using Amplitude Modulation AM a common radio modulation scheme Figure 22 i Modulation shows three waveforms the signal at TIT d i Raine the top and two carrier signals the AM E EE a modulated carrier and frequency modulation
95. erver Port Terrain Server Bind Address 5080 E VComm Version 8 1 368 1 SimPhonics Page 78 of 146 et VComm User s Manual V1 54 11 3 2 RID File Parameters A RID file contains parameters that are application of machine specific The following file is an example of a RID file used in a system Each of the parameters listed is not the default value Note the use of the parameter RTI processUnknownUpdatesForDiscovery Also the variable RTI enablePopUpErrorMsgs should be set to 0 or off to avoid popup windows with error conditions that require the user to click OK in order to proceed setqb setqb setqb setqb setqb setqb setqb RTI processUnknownUpdatesForDiscovery RTI checkFlag RTI destAddrString RTI useRtiExec RTI udpPort RTI tcpForwarderAddr RTI enablePopUpErrorMsgs OPTIONAL setqb setqb setqb setqb setqb RTI enableRtiexecGUI RTI enableRtiexecGUIConsoleLog RTI enableLrcGUI RTI enableNetworkMonitoring RTI logNetworkMonitorStatistics Diagnostic Configuration setqb setqb setqb setqb RTI notifyLevel RTI logFileName RTI reuseLogFile RTI dumpFed 1 1 192 168 1 255 1 4000 127 0 0 1 0 1 0 1 1 0 2 makLRCRti log 1 0 Note that these parameters are for best effort multicast delivery using port 4000 Other applications may use different communications parameters SimPhonics Page 79 of 146 et VComm User
96. et VComm User s Manual V1 54 4 Introduction VComm is a network based DIS HLA VoIP radio communications simulation software application available in various modes 1 LVCcom Standalone software application a LVCcom is a software application for applications needing DIS HLA based voice communication on a PC or laptop This application uses onboard sound cards SimPhonics USB ATC Style Jack Box or USB PTT Headsets ee TENE 20 2 SimPhone Also called VBridge in system form bridges VoIP and DIS HLA a SimPhone is a complete VoIP phone with its functionality exposed to V for manipulation by VComm 3 V Software add on for the V Visual Programming System a V is a powerful and flexible Visual Programming Language VPL development environment V can utilize any of the audio devices above as well as the SimPhonics SMx audio system gg gg sg eg SimPhonics Page 14 of 146 et VComm User s Manual V1 54 41 V V deserves a special section here as most systems use V for developing systems for flight simulation and even workstation based systems V utilizes all of VComm s functionality through V objects The following figure lists the current V objects Figure 1 V VComm objects w File Project Edit Design Platform View Window Help l lel x Dg iS ROAD D gt BO ton u ei GM p HUH For Help press F1 XY 1200 25 Spare Time 100 00 Exec
97. etwork settings The base registry location for these settings is located at the following see Figure 83 SimPhonics Page 127 of 146 et VComm User s Manual V1 54 HKEY CURRENT USER Software SimPhonics VCOMM Registry Editor File Edit View Favorites Help 3 Policies Z3 Quantum Rift Software j Remote Viewer 58H Computer Systems Inc CC Sammsoft zy shockwave com LC SimPhonics Di GE 3 misc zy Network d VPLus SiLabs Smith Micro zy SONIC Z Sony Corporation 3 Synaptics LC Thingamahoochie zy TrendMicro zy Ulead xi My Computer HKEY CURRENT USER Software SimPhonics VCOMM A lai x V Development System V Run Time System S C VComm Monitor Figure 83 VComm Registry Key REG SZ The installation software for V does not setup any registry data for VComm to date This may change in the future Therefore you will find that this area of the registry contains no data after installation However when V is run for the first time there will be several default folders as shown below although these folders will contain no data If you intend to edit the registry for VComm be sure to run V at least once to put these folders in for you There are additional k
98. eumee Secondary DIS Network RPR FOM FED Bind To BE ee ee eee PS RID Filename CM se e Defaut z e Enable Secondary M si S l E Send To S Jott Multicast TTL e Broadcast E 3000 P Audio Buffer Size Bytes XMIT Sample Rate Heart Beat ms Ant Pos Thresh m D Relative 960 8000 3500 500 Absolute C Terain Server Terain Server IP Terain Server Port Terrain Server Bind Address 5080 VComm Version 8 1 0 358 Figure 51 Networked Audio Secondary Network Activation For each DIS network primary and secondary it is possible to specify how VComm should bind to a network adapter The method of binding to a network adapter is specified using the Bind To dropdown list as shown in Figure 52 If there is only one network adapter in your system then it is simplest to select the Default option Under this option VComm will automatically bind to that single adapter SimPhonics Page 89 of 146 Vakum VComm User s Manual V1 54 If there are multiple network adapters in your system and the Default option is selected then VComm may attempt to use all the adapters This may result in distorted or broken audio streams To bind to a specific network adapter select one of the other options Platform Configure 1 0 Drivers Execution Audio Device Order Networked Audio DIS Protocol Version e IEEE 1278 1a 1998 D Port Multicast TTL
99. eys folders that will appear in the registry when certain objects are executed in V for the first time as well Check with SimPhonics before using this information since it could change at any time Note V will have to be restarted for any registry key modifications to take effect SimPhonics Page 128 of 146 Vekan VComm User s Manual V1 54 24 1 Changing Registry Settings When editing the registry use extreme caution since you can easily render your computer useless by changing the wrong data To access the registry click Start Run which will open the Run dialog box as shown in Figure 84 Enter the command regedit and click OK This will start the Registry Editor Type the name of a program folder document or Internet resource and Windows will open it for you oc Cem Coe Figure 84 Run Dialog Box When editing registry values navigate to the base registry key shown earlier Be sure to enter the new key name before adding a new value entry if it does not already exist Also make sure to use the correct data type Note that the key and entry name must match exactly The following sections identify and describe the VComm keys and their associated entries values SimPhonics Page 129 of 146 Vekan VComm User s Manual V1 54 MISC Key Key name HKEY CURRENT USER Software SimPhonics VCOMM MISC These values have miscellaneous purposes as explained in Table 26 If the row is shaded light green the
100. flict but leaves the other radio disabled until it is provided with a new radio identifier While normally a radio identifier conflict report will indicate an issue with the radio identifier assignment scheme it is possible that the conflict will resolve itself automatically This can happen when dynamic radio identifiers are being set using an external interface and several radio identifiers are changed simultaneously i e within one V frame execution An example is the best way to illustrate how this can happen Let s say that Radio A has an id of 1 1 1 1 and Radio B has an id of 2 2 2 2 Then if Radio A s id is changed to 2 2 2 2 at the same time that Radio B s id is changed to 3 3 3 3 this may result in a radio identifier conflict report if the change to Radio A is processed by VComm first In this case VComm will disable Radio B issue a warning and set Radio A s id to 2 2 2 2 VComm will then set Radio B s id to 3 3 3 3 and re enable Radio B The result is that the conflict will resolve itself and the warning may be ignored SimPhonics Page 69 of 146 Pakam VComm User s Manual V1 54 To summarize it is essential that an appropriate scheme for assigning radio identifiers is used to ensure that within any exercise radio identifiers are unique across your entire application 9 15 4 Entity Attach Entity attach mode is a mode each radio can be independently set to use which will force the radios antenna position to that of
101. g CVSD even though the vendor equipment may indicate 8 000 Hz Big Endian PCM 16 SimPhonics implementation of the 16 bit PCM compression scheme outlined in the SISO enumeration document as enumeration 4 has been implemented in Little Endian byte order in the past This has been changed to Big Endian byte order for future systems Some of the vendor systems use Big Endian byte order and some use little endian byte order When using 16 bit PCM and there is loud noise and the audio is unintelligible try the other mode by setting the appropriate value in the registry See section 0 for more information Non Standard CVSD Enumeration Some systems can be configured to represent various CVSD types at enumeration of 255 This is not compliant with the DIS enumerations but often used VComm supports 255 as the CVSD MIL STD 188 113 version which is the same as the enumeration of 2 for signal encoding type Sample Rates Other vendor systems may not dynamically convert sample rate and compression schemes from what the user has selected This is especially true of older systems Therefore if an incoming packet contains sample rates of 16 000 Hz and the system is set to 8000 Hz the incoming voice will be pitch shifted resulting in the Donald Duck sound effect This is also true of compression schemes The same is true in reverse All VComm systems perform dynamic sample rate and compression scheme conversion on all streams so that multiple sample r
102. g those radios that are defined on remote machines Note All VComm radios which have static data to set DIS IDs must be restarted when any of these IDs are modified in order for the change to take effect When using an attachable object that sets the IDs it is not necessary to restart the change will be immediate SimPhonics Page 66 of 146 et VComm User s Manual V1 54 7 15 1 1 Automatic Radio Identifier Assignment VComm can automatically generate all or parts of a static radio identifier The generation occurs when V is initially executed and once generated the radio identifier cannot be changed without stopping and restarting execution To generate one or more components of a radio identifier set the static data for the radio according to Table 15 Note that setting either the application number or the site number to 0 or 65535 will cause both components to be auto generated it is not possible to auto generate the application number and site number independently The range of possible auto generated values is also specified in the table Table 15 Automatic Radio Identifier Generation Setting To The Value Will Generate In the Range Radio Number 0 or 65535 Radio Number Entity Number 0 or 65535 Entity Number 65534 Application Number 0 or 65535 Simulation Address 61439 to 65534 Site Number 0 or 65535 Simulation Address 61439 to 65534 For the radio number VComm uses the following formula Radio Number 65535 Radio Ha
103. gt fields are in the format hh mm ss The Duration field is in seconds with one decimal place Finally the Note field contains keywords that provide further amplifying information related to the record The format of the START record is START 0 0 0 O Start Date Start Time The format of the END record is END 0 0 0 0 End Date End Time The format of the PAUSE record is PAUSE 0 0 0 0 Date Paused Time Paused The format of the RESUME record is RESUME 0 0 0 0 Date Resumed Time Resumed gt Note that these four records all follow the same pattern that is they only require a single date and time and do not include the additional fields at the end of the record Each TX record represents a single transmission The format is as follows SimPhonics Page 116 of 146 et VComm User s Manual V1 54 TX Site App Entity Radio Start Date Start Time End Date End Time Duration Note In most cases the Note field will contain a minus sign to indicate that there is no amplifying information This indicates that the record represents a normal transmission event Abnormal transmission events occur and are noted as follows 1 Recording was paused during an active transmission Note PAUSED 2 Recording was ended during an active transmission Note ENDED 3 An active transmission timed out Note DELETED Abnormal transmissio
104. he output text file will be REC3 WAV TXT The command line syntax is simple The name of the tool WAVTOPTT is followed by the complete pathname of the wav file as shown in Figure 85 SimPhonics Page 135 of 146 Vakum VComm User s Manual V1 54 cx CAWINDOWS System32 cmd exe C UPL WAU TO PTT Release gt wavtoptt c wavefiles recordplayback rec3 wavy Source file sample rate 160880 hertz PTT sample Rate 88 000888 hertz C UPL WAU TO PTT Release gt Figure 85 Wavefile PTT Analysis Tool There are a number of error checks before the processing begins First the file must have been recorded in 16 bit PCM MONO format Other formats will cause an error Page 136 of 146 SimPhonics et VComm User s Manual V1 54 The wavefile shown in Figure 86 will produce a text output file shown in Figure 87 The first column in the text file is the start time of a transmission The second column is the length of the transmission The units for both of these columns are in seconds sl File EX View Effects Generate Analyze Favorites Options Window Help Drum EPRA dodo PERRA e aS la ole inf dB 0 28 733 16000 1 amp bit Mono 904K 6 78GB free Figure 86 Wavefile Input B rec3 wav txt Notepad lol x File Edit Format View Help 2 562500 2 900000 1 462500 4 425000 Figure 87 Wavefile PTT Analysis Tool Output File SimPhonics Page 137 of 146 et VComm User s Manual V1 54 26 Miscellaneous Note
105. his can be done with the onboard mixer of off the shelf sound cards or via the SMx AI to WI mixer SimPhonics Page 140 of 146 Vekan VComm User s Manual V1 54 12 Cannot Communicate with via HLA a The most common cause of HLA problems are RID file parameters being set wrong See section 26 3 1 Sample HLA MAK RID File and use that file for your initial testing b Read the V Run time system message window or see the log file Most errors are reported here if possible The following error is an object that did not register with the RTI due to the ID being the same as another radio 17 2009 10 30 18 16 45 746 VComm Timed out waiting for HLA to register Radio 1 2 3 1 TRANSMITTER F a 18 2009 10 30 18 16 45 746 YComm Could Not Register a Radio with HLA Properly 19 2008 10 30 18 16 45 746 V Comm Error Timed out waiting for HLA manager to register transmitter object 13 A Short Burst of noise is heard at the beginning of the reception a This is caused by the timing difference between receiving a Transmitter PDU indicating that the Transmitter is on and transmitting and the reception of a Signal PDU audio stream If this time delay is great than 60ms a burst of noise will be heard at the onset of a signal coming in If the source cannot correct the problem a newer version of VComm Build 368 has a new feature that will correct this A potential problem exists however If the incoming signal is a simulated noisy signal
106. ics of any instructions marked reserved or undefined SimPhonics reserves these for future definition and shall have no responsibility whatsoever for conflicts or incompatibilities arising from future changes to them SimPhonics SMx systems may contain design defects or errors known as errata which may cause the product to deviate from published specifications Current characterized errata are available on request Contact SimPhonics to obtain the latest specifications before placing any product order SimPhonics Page 2 of 146 et VComm User s Manual V1 54 Table of Contents Mui EE 1 1 Trademarks and Copyrights cccceeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeaeeaeenees 1 2 Revision HISCOFY re iet tenente e HIR ERR ER NUR RR RR ERROR XX 2 Before Reading This Document s s 3 Referenced Documents a Introd cEIOH sucus iure a aes x Ud a os aon d Ld ewe 4 1 VE 4 2 Mol LT ME 4 3 VComm Evolution eccesso ceat te aoc noa nna nex ha n n cy v aun 4 4 Use Any Sound Device NENNEN EU I A I AE crc Tm 5 1 Interoperability Notes 5 2 DIS HLA Network Interoperability lessen 5 3 General Cautionary Notes ssssesseeeeenn nnns 5 3 1 Remote Desktop 5 3 2 Sleep mode via system idle mer 5 4 Networking ice hones er hx de eR ER PARERE ege RE RENE E 5 4 1 affer mE 5 4 2 BiOaCd Cast eee EE 5 4 3 MUItICASE e 5 4 4 TCP and UDP PT 5 4 5 Special IP Addresses ccceceeeeeee eee eee eee
107. ignal is sent to both the left and right channels of the sound device SimPhonics Page 26 of 146 ei VComm User s Manual V1 54 6 4 Hardware Considerations Most sound cards will work with VComm directly with no modifications The device sound card must support full duplex operation and 16000 and 8000 sample rates which are submultiples of 48000 Most devices support these features 6 4 1 Device order Changing the device order in the Windows control panel once you have established a working system may cause problems within VComm This Windows XP problem may manifest itself as audio being produced on the wrong channel The network cards that are used with VComm must support full duplex operation at 100 Mbps megabits per second or 1000 Mbps speeds Network interface cards that do not support full duplex will cause problems and possibly audio breakups with only a few radios in the design Sometimes it is difficult to determine if the card supports full duplex operation In these cases it is best to replace the card or use another card with gigabit speeds at full duplex If your computer is configured with more than one network card make sure you specifically configure one of them for VComm operation Otherwise VComm will transmit and receive on all of the network cards available This may result in distorted or broken audio See sections 12 1 for more information on how to select a specific network card for VComm 6 4 2 Volume Controls Li
108. ility notes Clarified the HlaEnableSwitchDefault registry entry Stephen Jones Modifications to Transmit Wavefile Player description and Automatic Radio Id item in Troubleshooting RF Add VTP record section RF 2009 08 24 2009 10 07 1 35 2010 09 24 1 42 2010 09 27 2010 10 16 2010 10 24 1 44 1 45 Modified the RID Filename RTI RID FILE user interface Updated the recording sections to show all of the current means to record radios Added Index 2012 28 2012 Added sleep Mode Information SWJ 2013 03 13 Update VTP record description RF 2013 04 25 Updated propagationless mode and entity attach having no 2013 06 06 relationship SWJ Removed legacy radio sections major cleanup MG 2013 06 08 Added sections in the introduction SWJ 2013 06 20 2010 12 31 1 47 2011 11 11 1 51 1 53 Updated registry section adding a few entries and clarifying 2013 07 31 which ones are installed by default 1 54 Document cleanup fonts changed SWJ 2013 09 05 SimPhonics Page 12 of 146 et VComm User s Manual V1 54 2 Before Reading This Document The reader should be familiar with the Department of Defense Distributed Interactive Simulation DIS and High Level Architecture HLA specifications A basic understanding of networking principles is important as well as a good understanding of the V Visual Programming System It i
109. ion to the Do not use zero for any fields in the Transmitter PDU in DIS or in the appropriate attributes of HLA RPR_FOM rule Table 7 VHF Civil Aviation Radio AM Bandwidth 8 33 KHz Frequency Range 108 to 136 MHz System Generic 1 Major Modulation Amplitude 1 Detail Modulation AM 2 Transmitter Power 38 5 dBm Receiver Sensitivity 10 dB SINAD 113 0 dBm Table 8 UHF Military Aviation Radio FM Bandwidth 16 KHz Frequency Range 225 to 399 975 MHz System Generic 1 Major Modulation Angle 3 Detail Modulation FM 1 Transmitter Power 44 0 dBm Receiver Sensitivity 10 dB SINAD 102 dBm SimPhonics Page 45 of 146 Vakum VComm User s Manual V1 54 7 9 Audio Signal Modeling There is a common misunderstanding within the radio simulation community is that CVSD encoding sounds like a real radio compared to other encoding schemes such as PCM This is not true While it is true that CVSD introduces significant distortion thereby sounding more like a radio than simple digitized audio most real radios do not sound this way unless they are using CVSD for their encoding Even in this case simply using CVSD is not enough to convey the sound of a real radio There are many other issues to consider Real radios sound different due to other audio effects Other DIS HLA voice equipment vendors simply ignore these important modeling aspects SimPhonics radios incorporate ba
110. istry Settings ssssssrssserrssrrrsrrrrsrrrnnrnrnurinnnrrrnurunnnrrnnnrnnns 129 MISC Key 130 24 1 1 V Keys that Affect VComm Operations nnnm 134 24 1 2 PRI S DU E 135 25 Wavefile PTT Analysis Tool ee ENTENTE ENNER n 135 26 Miscellaneous NoteS retener c eer eed ed eade eds 138 26 1 Radio Handle cox uet ise Ede eect eR YUxbUe erate RU I EC C ARE 138 26 2 Transmitter PDU Padding EE 138 26 3 Troubleshooting EE 139 26 3 1 Sample HLA MAK RID File NENNEN 141 26 4 Known Problems 1 rr RI I I I I I UI I nennen neas nnns 142 27 Definition of Terms 40 d EEN ENNEN AT REENEN EN tran ewes d RE 143 VOV ue e EE 146 SimPhonics Page 7 of 146 et VComm User s Manual V1 54 List of Tables Table 1 Eisen M dea 11 Table 2 Referenced Docurmnents i ssi cecildeideeenesaeicliiwsdaccderasaaa SEENEN NEES NEE NEEN 13 Table 3 Device and Channel Allocations cccccccceece eee eens eeeeeeeeeeeaeeaeeaeeaetaseeseeeeeaesaneeetaneaneages 24 Table 4 Watts to OPEN E 20 Table ER Modulation DGC UE 43 Table 6 Modulation Interoperability esses meme nee memememese senis 45 Table 7 VAF Civil Aviation Radio AM eg ENEE denen na GENEE ENEE RATE Ra NEEN Ke 45 Table 8 UHF Military Aviation Radio EM 45 Table 9 DIS Symbolic Names within VComm 20 ccc nemen mnnera 55 Table 10 Encoding EE 56 Table CR e 59 Table 12 Radio Entity Type Record eel NENNE
111. ity can be adjusted in real time via the SENSE pin A static data value called off delay specifies the amount of time it takes to deactivate the circuit after the audio input has dropped below the sensitivity level This keeps the circuit from turning off during short pauses in speech Object 2097 VComm S W VOX with Activity implements the same functionality and it also provides an output pin to indicate when the VOX circuit is active 21 Converting Legacy Radios to Version 8 VComm legacy radios and intercoms have been discontinued In their place a new generation of radios and intercoms has been introduced and is actively in use within VComm The following sections describe how to convert legacy radio designs to use current VComm radio and intercom objects For more detailed information on the specifics of the new radios and intercom refer to the VPLus Release Notes and the VPLus On line Object Help System 21 1 The Legacy Radios The legacy radios needed Split Audio Device and Stereo Connection objects to select a sound card channel and connect the wave in and wave out streams to the network see Figure 75 These objects have been discontinued because they are just not needed as their capabilities have been incorporated into the new radios Legacy Network Device Audio Device Figure 75 Legacy Radio SimPhonics Page 120 of 146 Vakum VComm User s Manual V1 54 21 2 The New and Easy to Use VComm Radios The new radio
112. l V1 54 To set a radio for propagation less mode set the antenna location to 0 0 0 Geocentric If your inputs are in geodetic coordinates set the altitude to 6378137 meters as shown in Figure 45 wem m m 53781463008 a Figure 45 Setting Position to Geocentric 0 0 0 The position of the antenna may be attached to an entity or controlled via manual means A new Transmitter PDU will be issued when the antenna position changes more than the default threshold value of 500 meters This value can also be changed in the registry since the standard requires that this value must be modifiable by the user For more information see TRANS POS THRSH DFLT in section 0 SimPhonics Page 76 of 146 et VComm User s Manual V1 54 11 VComm and HLA In addition to the DIS protocol VComm supports HLA In fact VComm can support both at the same time That is one or more radios could be using DIS while others are using HLA DIS is provided by default in VComm while HLA capability is provided by a separate installation add on This add on is based on the RTI vendor Etc The original version of HLA is referred to as DMSO Version 1 3 which is now being replaced by the IEEE standard as IEEE 1516 This new standard is not API compliant with the old DMSO 1 3 version Further there are problems with the IEEE 1516 API While MAK and DMSO RTT s are link compatible they are not compatible at run time or on the network Therefore all federate
113. larger buffer size will cause a longer delay The smallest definable capture buffer size in VComm is 80 bytes If set to this value the latency of the sidetone is not noticeable However if the value is set to the default of 960 bytes there is a noticeable delay This value is the default for interoperability with other vendor systems Other vendors may not be able to operate properly at a smaller than 960 bytes buffer size If you use this object you will want to tune the amount of sidetone volume by adjusting the SST VOL pin Different headsets have different microphone sensitivities and headphone performance characteristics Normally a value of approximately 0 5 should be sufficient Sidetone levels should be 6dBv below the level of the received audio from other stations This is a standard for intercom and radio systems 20 VOX Hot Mic operations are normally performed via a Voice Operated Switch otherwise known as VOX This can be accomplished in VComm without the need for special hardware Object 2045 VComm S W VOX can be attached to an intercom as shown in Figure 74 This object can also be attached to a VComm radio although in the real world it is most commonly used with intercoms Figure 74 VComm S W VOX SimPhonics Page 119 of 146 et VComm User s Manual V1 54 This object is very handy for voice transmission without having to use an intercom or radio s PTT When activated it will in fact disable the PTT Sensitiv
114. le which describes what is received between two radios using Crypto System objects This table assumes all other things are equal e g Frequency Exercise ID within range etc Table 24 Clear Versus Encrypted Voice Reception Transmitting Radio Receiving Radio Receiving Radio Audio Crypto System Disabled Crypto System Enabled Voice heard Crypto Key X Crypto System Enabled Crypto Key Y Crypto System Enabled Crypto Key X Crypto System Disabled 15 6 Audio Encrypted Effect The Audio Encrypted Effect sound is heard when receiving an encrypted signal and the audio is not deciphered properly This will occur if the transmitter and receiver keys do not match if the encryption equipment is not interoperable of the receiver is in plain and the transmitted signal is encrypted Each crypto equipment type may have a different type of effect Crypto System Enabled Audio Encrypted Effect Crypto Key X Crypto System Enabled Crypto Key X Crypto System Enabled Crypto Key X Voice heard Audio Encrypted Effect Table 25 lists the effects for each crypto type For example the KYV 5 ANDVT effect is an actual recording of the effect of receiving cipher on plain or when the keys do not match when both the transmitter and receiver are encrypted Table 25 VComm Crypto System Crypto System Audio Effect 1 KY 28 Incoming Signal Multiplied by Random Noise 2 KY 58 Actual Wavef
115. lear line of sight between the transmitting and receiving radio the HF model computes the signal loss that would be present for a direct transmission i e as if the transmission was not an HF transmission This loss accounts for round earth Fresnel zone effects and terrain effects from the optional terrain server The HF model then computes the signal loss resulting from MUF effects and skip zones These two signal losses are compared and the one which results in the least signal loss is used This ensures that there is a smooth progression of signal strength as a receiving radio moves below the horizon Signal loss due to the MUF is calculated by comparing the frequency of the radio transmission with the MUF setting of the VComm HF Control object Radio transmissions at a frequency above the MUF are assigned maximum signal loss while those up to 85 of the MUF are assigned no signal loss There is a smooth increase in signal loss from 85 of the MUF up to 100 of the MUF Thus HF radio transmissions degrade in signal quality as the frequency of the transmission approaches the MUF setting The signal loss due to skip zones is added to the signal loss due to the MUF The HF model determines whether a radio receiver is located in the radio transmitters skip zone Signal loss due to skip zones is zero if the receiver is not located within a skip zone Maximum signal loss is assigned to radio receivers located within the skip zone unless they are clos
116. lication in a specific manner VComm on the other hand uses the standard DIS HLA protocols to communicate with many other systems The following sections describe multipoint configurations and network protocols in more detail 5 4 1 Unicast With a unicast design applications can send one copy of each packet to a single IP address This technique ensures that the packet goes only to the intended endpoint 5 4 2 Broadcast In a broadcast design applications can send one copy of each packet and address it to a broadcast address This technique is even simpler than unicast for the application to implement However if this technique is used the network must either stop broadcasts at the LAN boundary a technique that is frequently used to prevent broadcast storms or send the broadcast everywhere Sending the broadcast everywhere is a significant usage of network resources if only a small group actually needed to see the packets 5 43 Multicast With a multicast design applications can send one copy of each packet and address it to the group of computers that want to receive it This technique addresses packets to a group of receivers rather than to a single receiver and it depends on the network to forward the packets to only the networks that need to receive them 5 4 4 TCP and UDP Transmission Control Protocol TCP or TCP IP and User Datagram Protocol UDP or UDP IP are both transport protocols layered on top of the Internet Protocol
117. lso bind to the adapter using its device name or friendly name Selecting these options enables a dropdown list of available names A name not in the list may also be entered directly Note that adapters that are disconnected will not appear in the list of available names For each DIS network it is also possible to specify where VComm should send DIS packets VComm can be configured to use broadcast to send to a specific IP address or to send to a host name This selection is made using the Send To dropdown list as shown in Figure 54 The default selection for Send To is broadcast In this case VComm sends to the IP address 255 255 255 255 Note that when both the primary and secondary networks are enabled selecting broadcast may result in DIS packets intended for one network to be sent to both networks regardless of the binding of the networks to specific network adapters Instead broadcasting on specific subnets is accomplished by sending to the subnet broadcast address SimPhonics Page 91 of 146 Veka VComm User s Manual V1 54 Platform Configure 1 0 Drivers Execution Audio Device Order Networked Audio Primary DIS Network Bind To DIS Protocol Version Di ten el 6 IEEE 1278 1a 1998 e ew Send To Port Multicast TTL Broadcast v 3000 Broadcast CN Host Name ut t TETT Enable Secondary ES Send To Port Multicast TTL z VComm Version 8 1 0 357 Audio Buffer Size Bytes
118. me Description Default VComm Reference HBT PDU TRANSMITTER Transmitter Associated 3 5 sec Configuration with a Moving Entity 10 see section 9 2 TRANS_POS_THRSH Antenna position 500 meters Configuration threshold see section 9 6 9 7 Encoding Type Encoding Scheme VComm supports all of the IEEE 1278 1a encoding types provided in Table 10 with the exception of VQ 6 and currently the GSM schemes 8 and 9 which are in development Use the number in the ENUM column to specify a scheme in a VComm radio If the value for an encoding scheme received by VComm during run time is not listed then VComm will not process the signal If the user configures a VComm radio with a value not in the table VComm will not start and produce an error in the run time system window If zero is specified default value for new objects then eight bit mu law will be used Each VComm radio may have a unique encoding scheme Each radio can also process any incoming scheme and different schemes from various transmitters simultaneously In fact each signal PDU may contain a different encoding scheme SimPhonics Page 55 of 146 VComm User s Manual V1 54 Table 10 Encoding Types ENUM Description Compression Standard Rates 1 8 Bit U Law All applications are 8 000 Hz required to support this encoding scheme 16 000 Hz 2 CVSD per MIL STD 188 113 16 1 16000 Hz 3 ADPCM per CCITT G 721 8 000 Hz 16 000 Hz 16 bit Linear PCM Big 1 1 Endian Network Byte Orde
119. microphone signal is being routed back to the system headset or speaker via the network b Two identical network packets arriving at the computer can cause an echo or other problems Two identical packets could be caused by multiple network cards multi homed computer transmitting or receiving on the network could cause echoes 10 Audio is pitch shifted up or down Donald Duck or Mickey Mouse Sound a This is caused by some vendor equipment that does not properly convert incoming digital audio correctly Some vendors do not correctly convert the incoming digital audio sample rate from VComm and attempt to decode the audio with the sample rate set on their GUI rather than what the signal is telling their system This is a known problem with some vendor equipment You must change VComm to send them a sample rate that their equipment can receive A sample rate of 8 000 Hz and using Mu law is a sample rate and encoding scheme that all systems must support according to the DIS IEEE 1278 1 standard 11 Our transmissions are much louder than others to some receivers a This is a common problem that is caused by some vendor equipment setting their audio levels too low for transmission This problem will not occur with VComm incoming audio since VComm levels the audio automatically Other vendor equipment may not level the audio correctly When this occurs decrease the transmitter audio level by reducing the gain of the microphone audio input T
120. mm User s Manual V1 54 7 93 Audio Effects Other audio effects such as noise and squelch tail are imbedded wavefiles within VComm These wavefiles are pre processed prior to imbedding them Noise generation for example has a 300 to 3000 hertz spectrum and therefore sounds like radio static 7 9 4 Squelch and AGC Squelch is a function that acts to suppress the audio output of a receiver in the absence of a sufficiently strong desired input signal in order to exclude undesired lower power input signals and noise that may be present at or near the frequency of the desired signal If there were no squelch there would be objectionable noise during those times when the signal is not present The generic base class of VComm radios provides a squelch which behaves the same as real radios VComm radio objects expect a squelch input of 0 to 1 To turn squelch on for a particular radio the squelch input must be set to 0 2 or greater When squelch is turned on the audio output of the receiver will be silenced when the receiver noise level is 6dB above the strongest incoming signal level i e neither noise nor signal will be heard and the signal is considered too weak to be received The receiver noise level is the greater of the receiver noise floor and the total antenna input noise level where the receiver noise floor is 12dB below the receiver sensitivity Another effect of squelch is the so called squelch tail heard when the squelch is above
121. mmunicating from New York to Paris which is obviously an unrealistic scenario What s wrong here Remember this equation is free space If all we simulated was communications in space this equation would work For radios on or near the earth terrestrial propagation effects must be considered for any realistic range simulation Cow w o o magesch 6 L es 8 j Pim ACCESSORY jj yow ha HCO jb Figure 14 AN PRC 117F Radio SimPhonics Page 35 of 146 et VComm User s Manual V1 54 7 5 5 WGS84 Line of Sight The round earth limits radio range for frequencies above 30 MHz due to radio horizon VComm computes the radio horizon and applies statistical models to the signal loss to account for the horizon and smooth earth A terrain server can enhance this calculation 7 5 6 Fresnel Effects It makes sense that obstructions between a transmitter and receiver will reduce the communication range In order to obtain the absolute maximum communication range possible a radio must be installed such that true RF Line of Sight LOS conditions exist between the transmitting and receiving antennas RF LOS is different from visual LOS Visual LOS is present when one can directly view the other antenna RF LOS requires not only a visual sight line between the antennas but it also requires that a football shaped area between the two antennas be free of obstructions including the earth see Figure 15 This football shaped area
122. n additional name string can be tagged onto this name via an attachable object in V Object 2059 VComm Set Radio ICS Name will tag an additional string of text onto the RTI Object Name defined in the above section For example adding the string HH60 OFT UHF Radio changes 1 2 3 4 TRANSMITTER to 1 2 3 4 TRANSMITTER HH60 OFT UHF Radio Currently this object has no purpose for the DIS protocol 11 3 7 Exercise ID use in HLA HLA radios do not use the exercise ID pin and therefore this pin has no affect on HLA radios The HLA equivalent of the DIS Exercise ID is the Federation to Join name set globally in the V run time system configuration Networked Audio window SimPhonics Page 80 of 146 et VComm User s Manual V1 54 Platform Configure Figure 47 Setting the Federation Name SimPhonics Page 81 of 146 Vakum VComm User s Manual V1 54 11 4 HLA Initialization If the HLA RTI does not respond within 10 seconds V will stop during initialization and indicate an error in the Run Time System window message area Cannot Initialize HLA 11 5 VComm HLA Extensions In order to use HLA radios or intercoms with VComm an HLA version and vendor specific extension must be added to VComm If a VComm object is set to use the HLA network and HLA is not installed the HLA object will do nothing A warning is not generated at run time for this condition 11 5 1 MAKHLA 1 3 Extensions for VComm The MAK H
123. n events simply indicate that the duration of the transmission may not be accurate because the information is not available in the VSF file This may be the result of recording being paused or ended or it may be the result of a simulation computer going off line without issuing the proper end of transmission notifications A simple example of a transmission event file is provided below Notice that the last transmission has a note indicating that it was terminated because recording ended while the transmission was active Therefore the duration of that transmission may have been greater than the reported 9 6 seconds START 0 0 0 0 2010 07 26 22 29 58 TX 5 8 3 9 2010 07 26 22 30 06 2010 07 26 22 30 09 3 2 TX 5 8 3 9 2010 07 26 22 30 14 2010 07 26 22 30 19 4 5 TX 5 8 3 3 2010 07 26 22 30 36 2010 07 26 22 30 44 8 2 TX 5 8 3 3 2010 07 26 22 31 14 2010 07 26 22 31 17 3 3 TX 5 8 3 3 2010 07 26 22 31 23 2010 07 26 22 31 32 8 6 TX 5 8 3 9 2010 07 26 22 31 37 2010 07 26 22 31 43 6 0 TX 5 8 3 5 2010 07 26 22 31 59 2010 07 26 22 32 09 9 6 ENDED END 0 0 0 0 2010 07 26 22 32 09 Figure 71 Transmission Event File Example 18 Duplex Modes Voice communications can be categorized as either full or half duplex Half duplex communication causes reception and transmission to be mutually exclusive only one can happen at a time In other words you cannot receive
124. nd pass filters along with other effects as shown in Figure 24 to simulate real radio sounds so that VComm radios sound like the real thing The following sections describe the audio modeling process in detail AUDIO INPUT M RF SIGNAL MODELING AUDIO OUTPUT NOISE MODELING Figure 24 Audio Signal Modeling SimPhonics Page 46 of 146 et VComm User s Manual V1 54 7 94 Band pass Filter Real radios limit the transmission of audio to a spectrum of roughly 300 to 3000 hertz since most voice frequencies are in only that range Frequencies outside that range are filtered out in order to improve modulation performance and intelligibility at the receiver This is a significant effect and is the most noticeable radio effect compared to for example an intercom or telephone VComm incorporates an efficient digital filter for this effect Object 2055 VComm Radio Audio Emulation Filter removes audio below 300 hertz and above 3000 hertz in real time The filter s frequency response characteristics for an 8000 Hz sampling rate are shown in Figure 25 This effect alone changes the sound of a voice significantly and is the effect used by Hollywood when simulating radio and telephone effects The green area shows the pass band of the filter dB Frequency Response 17 9 Figure 25 Object 2055 Frequency Response at an 8K Sampling Rate SimPhonics Page 47 of 146 et VComm User s Manual V1 54 7 9 2 Compressor Limiter
125. ndle Since radio handles are generated sequentially starting at 1 the radio numbers generated by VComm are a decreasing sequence starting at 65534 If all radios on a single computer have auto generated radio numbers then each of those radios will have a unique radio number and consequently a unique radio identifier When auto generated the entity number is always set to 65534 VComm will display a warning message if this value is used as a manually assigned entity number This is not necessarily an error it is valid to use this value when manually assigning an entity number but not doing so avoids possible conflicts with auto generated entity numbers The computer s default IP address is used by VComm to generate the application number and the site number A computer IP address is divided into four fields called octets Each octet is an 8 bit value VComm uses three of these octets to create the generated simulation address as follows Octet2 second octet of IP address Octet3 third octet of IP address Octet4High upper four bits of fourth octet of IP address Octet4Low lower four bits of fourth octet of IP address Site Number Octet2 16 Octet4High 61439 Application Number Octet3 16 Octet4Low 61439 The resulting site number and application number will be in the range 61439 to 65534 VComm will display a warning message if a value in this range is used as a manually SimPhonics Page 67 of 146 et VComm User s Man
126. ne to minimize the network loading however this will not work in entity attach mode since the radio will not be able to find the associated entity Note Setting the radio antenna location to 0 0 0 will override the entity attach mode and cause the radio to enter the propagationless mode Once the 0 0 0 condition is removed the antenna location will re attach to the its commanded entity A Transmitter PDU is issued when the antenna location changes in this regard SimPhonics Page 70 of 146 Vakum VComm User s Manual V1 54 9 16 Computer Generated Forces Tools for Identifying Entities There are a number of tools on the market to verify entity attach MAK Technologies provides VR Forces which will produce entities and has examples that can be used to view entity activity see Figure 40 Simply determine the ID of an entity being displayed and set up the ID of the radio to match that of the entity Use VComm Monitor or VR Forces to verify the antenna location does in fact track the entity location These types of tools are also useful for testing radio propagation models Graphics Courtesy of MAK Technologies VR Forces 1 C mak vrf3 8 data scenarios berkeley berkeleydemo scn Ele View Navigation Simulation Create Objects Task Set Entities Stealth Intervisiblity Options Help RIAI AINS d Jer p LE y a sb Entity 1 3001 3 Els A 01 3001 8 Last Clicked L
127. near or Audio Taper VComm radios expect their volume inputs to be in linear format since it is converted internally to log format or audio taper for proper logarithmic volume control response for the human ear Most existing volume control potentiometers are logarithmic and are referred to as audio taper controls as opposed to linear taper controls If the system is reading from an actual volume control in a simulator for example and the control is an audio taper control the control must linearized V can perform this operation or the host computer can Contact SimPhonics for a suitable algorithm SimPhonics Page 27 of 146 Vakum VComm User s Manual V1 54 7 Radio Model Fidelity One of the primary design philosophies of VComm is realism Therefore in order to understand VComm it is important to understand the fundamentals of radio The following sections describe radio model fidelity of VComm It should be noted here that the modeling described in this section applies to the VComm GENERIC Radios objects and not to the VComm Simple Intercom For more information on the VComm Simple Intercom refer to section 7 10 7 1 Radio Spectrum The radio spectrum extends from 3 KHz to 300 GHz and is divided into sections as shown in Figure 9 3 x 10 m 30 000 m 3 000 m 100 kHz 1 MHz 10 MHz 100 MHz 1 GHz THE RADIO SPECTRUM Figure 9 the Radio Frequency Spectrum An important note about spectrum use for DIS radios Frequencies b
128. nfigure the order of multiple sound cards in your application remember to save this configuration in the VNE file When USB headset devices are used in conjunction with a PCI device such as an on board sound card the input devices might be listed in reverse order compared to the output devices You ll need to ensure that the input devices line up with the output devices in the Audio Device Order page Platform Configure 1 0 Drivers Execution Audio Device Order Networked Audio Output Device s Input Device s Device 1 PTT Headset Adapter Device 1 PTT Headset Adapter Device 2 SigmaTel Audio Device 2 SigmaTel Audio Device 3 Logitech USB Headset Device 3 Logitech USB Headset Figure 7 V Audio Device Order Configuration If you plug a monaural headset into a stereo sound card one of the channels of this device will be unused VComm associates a radio or intercom with a single channel of a sound card since most radio and intercom communications are monaural Most commercial sound cards are stereo devices This can cause problems within a VComm application in that a headset designated as device 1 in the V Run Time System will actually have two channels associated with it VComm radios can only use one of these channels which may result in audio heard only in one side of the headphones VComm has a solution for this Note The first device to appear in the list is the default sound device as configured in the Windows Sounds and Au
129. ntain HLA is difficult enough without licensing issues that do not necessarily provide any type of help as to where or what the problem is For example the license is tied to the NIC card so changing this on the machine or license server will break the system Install the MAK HLA 1 3 Extensions for VComm software by running the setup exe on the supplied CD This installation will start the MAK RTI installation automatically Once started install the MAK RTI using the default settings with the exception of the following e Select the Custom Setup Type if all you need is the RTi and support DLLs which will normally be the case e Next select the following components nay MAK RTI 3 0 1 win32 msvc 7 1 setup Select Components Choose the components Installation Wizard will install r Description The base 1 3 installation D RTI 1516 Plugins O FLEXLM 3rd Party Includes Release Notes O ClassDoc O Examples Space required on your hard disk 24359 KB www mak com lt Back Cancel e Itis not necessary to install or use the Flexlm92 software unless this machine is the license server e When prompted for the installation of environment variables check only the following boxes Set the RTI RID FILE variable for all users Add the RTI to the system PATH for all users SimPhonics Page 84 of 146 et VComm User s Manual V1 54 Once the installation is complete add a new system environm
130. o 65 534 DIS requires that no radio be allowed on the network with a zero ID or an ID of 65 535 and VComm will not allow a radio to be created with these values Each radio is normally associated with an entity on the network and is attached to that entity However it is common for a radio to be stand alone with its own Radio Identifier When a transmitter is a stand alone entity there is no entity state PDU generated for it and the radio is said to be non attached This is a de facto standard and the names for the fields are changed for non attached radios as shown in Figure 35 Each radio must have a unique Radio Identifier 64 bit value for a given exercise If more than one radio has the same Radio Identifier the radio may behave unpredictably or not work at all and the audio may be broken and indecipherable Radio identifiers may be set either statically or dynamically Static radio identifiers are assigned when execution is started and cannot be changed during execution To set a static radio identifier it is necessary to set the appropriate static data in a radio object at development time Dynamic radio identifiers may be changed anytime during execution To set a dynamic radio identifier it is necessary to use an attachable object SimPhonics Page 65 of 146 Vakum VComm User s Manual V1 54 9 15 1 Setting Static Radio Identifiers The V worksheet in Figure 36 shows a typical DIS radio By double clicking the radio object all
131. o operators are trained to recognize this effect and disable squelch to listen to the incoming signal 7 9 5 Received Signal Packet Jitter Signal PDUs do not always arrive in sequence and at the correct time that they were transmitted at the receiver As in modern VoIP protocols there is also no sequence number SimPhonics Page 49 of 146 et VComm User s Manual V1 54 of the arriving packets only a time stamp While it can be argued that the time stamp is adequate mode vendors do not provide an accurate time stamp SimPhonics has proposed that a sequence number be inserted into the Signal PDU Receive jitter compensation is computed for all incoming signal PDUs but the adjustment is in the registry in the current version While this value can be changed the topic is beyond the scope of this manual 7 9 6 Noise Modeling Noise limits the range in which a signal can be received since it masks the signal at some level Figure 27 shows the VComm noise model section Each section is discussed below E M AUDIO INPUT RF SIGNAL MODELING ERRAIN AUDIO SIGNAL MODELING AUDIO OUTPUT Figure 27 Noise Modeling 7 9 7 Thermal Noise Thermal noise is the noise level present in all conductors and forms the basis of noise levels in radio receivers VComm computes this noise level based on bandwidth If bandwidth is increased noise levels will increase as in real radio receivers The noise level for a 1 Hz bandwidth i
132. ocation State Information Attributes Transmitters Resources Coordinate System Database E Geocentric Y Frozen Yes X m 2694473 03 Location m 3111 20 20581 39 1800 00 Y m 425681 1 87 Speed m s 00 Z m 3901335 04 Velocity m s 0 00 0 00 0 00 Acceleration m s 2 0 00 0 00 0 00 Orientation deg 180 00 0 00 0 00 Sol Type Rot Vel deg s 000 000 om DR Algorithm DrDimRvw Grass Entity Identifier 1 3001 3 Entity Type LE ior 1 2 225 1 3 1 0 Te S EZE Icon Scale SQ GENES Ze Checkpointing disabled Figure 40 MAK VR Forces Tool 9 17 Variable Transmitter Parameters Record A Variable Transmitter Parameters VTP record is a data structure defined in the DIS standard It is identified by a record type The record type determines the structure and use of the record VTP records are transmitted as part of the Transmitter PDU One or more records may be associated with a radio and the same record may be associated with multiple radios The format of a VTP record consists of a record type a record length and a set of record specific fields The record specific fields are defined in the DIS standard for each record type SimPhonics Page 71 of 146 Vakum VComm User s Manual V1 54 VComm provides access to the functionality associated with VTP records through objects associated with those records This section describes VComm support for the different types of VTP records 9 17 1 Open Mike VTP Record
133. of the V Run Time System as shown in Figure 29 The value provided is in milliseconds SimPhonics Page 52 of 146 et VComm User s Manual V1 54 Platform Configure x LO Drivers Execution Audio Device Order Networked Audio r Primary DIS Network r HLA Configuration Bind To DIS Protocol Version HLA Enable Default m 6 IEEE 1278 1a 1998 Y SEH Send To Multicast TTL VcommHLA Broadcast 3000 E FED Fi ea ae RRFOMFED Bind To RID Filename Defaut z Enable Secondary IEEE Send To Port Multicast TTL Broadcast s 2000 E oo ge ge XMIT S CL Pos Thresh m DIS Time Stamp be 500 Absolut Relative r Terrain Server Terain Server IP Temain Server Port Terrain Server Bind Address iQ em VComm Version 8 1 0 358 Cancel Apply Figure 29 DIS Heartbeat Configuration 9 3 DIS Timeout DIS also specifies a timeout value that determines when a radio is considered to no longer exist on the network and is equal to 2 4 times the Transmitter PDU heart beat interval 9 4 PDU Sequencing VComm ensures that multiple PDUs are not generated unnecessarily State changes or antenna position changes can take the place of a heartbeat PDU Multiple radios start at different times so that heartbeats do not occur simultaneously and are spread evenly across the interval IEEE 1278 1 200X Draft 13 calls for separate stati
134. omponent locates the FED file by first searching in the working directory the directory where the run time system is started and then the path specified by the environment variable RTI CONFIG If the local RTI components cannot find the FED file VComm will not start When VComm is installed the environment variable RTI CONFIG is created which contains the folder location of the FED file and is set to the following string value C program files VPLus HLA RPRFOM10 VComm uses a default FED filename of RPR FOM fed Users can change this name in the run time configuration window for networked audio under FED Filename The FED filename and extension is forced to lower case by VComm since some RTI implementations will not start with an uppercase FED extension SimPhonics Page 77 of 146 et VComm User s Manual V1 54 11 3 RID File The RTI Initialization Data RID file contains configuration parameters used by the RTI Variables in the file can configure or tune the RTI for your application The system obtains the location of the RID file by using the environment variable RTI RID FILE If you install MAK software the environment variable RTI RID FILE will be automatically set If you re using the DMSO RTI you will need to change t this to the location of your RID file This environment variable must be defined for both the user and the system The MAK RTI sets this variable to C MAK makRtixX X X rid mtl by default where X X X is the RTI
135. onary and moving heartbeat intervals this draft is not yet finalized Specific exercises may require different heart beat rates for radios Users can control the heart beat rate and antenna update range threshold value in the run time system configuration Figure 30 presents a typical section of network time and shows a single radio transmission SimPhonics Page 53 of 146 VComm User s Manual V1 54 UNNECESSARY TRANMSITTER PDU TRANSMITTER l STATE CAHNGE TRANSMITTER PDU SIGNAL PDU HEARTBEAT HEARTBEAT PDU Network Time MISC STATE CHANGE TRANSMITTER ON TRANSMITTER OFF r TRANSMITTER PDU HEARTBEAT INTERVAL Figure 30 Transmitter and Signal PDU Time Sequencing Www SimPhonics Page 54 of 146 et VComm User s Manual V1 54 9 5 DIS Heartbeat Related Symbolic Names Internally VComm uses the DIS Symbolic Names in Table 9 as defined in the DIS specification These values can be modified within VComm for a given exercise The VComm Reference column describes how to make a change for the value and provides a reference to the appropriate section of this document 9 6 Antenna Position Threshold This symbolic name is adjusted in the V Runtime system configuration window Networked Audio tab under the edit box labeled Ant Pos Thresh ms This is the distance that the antenna must move before a new Transmitter PDU is issues in DIS or a new attribute is sent out in HLA Table 9 DIS Symbolic Names within VComm DIS Symbolic Na
136. or example this problem is most obvious when ICS objects are used between two operators and one of the operators is switching between channels that are being monitored by the other operator The physical switch allows a zero when switching from one channel to another while the operator microphone is in hot mic mode In this situation the ICS object for the operator with the switch will stop transmitting until the PTT is cycled when switching between channels 1 A Short Burst of noise is heard at the beginning of the reception a This is caused by the timing difference between receiving a Transmitter PDU indicating that the Transmitter is on and transmitting and the reception of a Signal PDU audio stream If this time delay is great than 60ms a burst of noise will be heard at the onset of a signal coming in If the source cannot correct the problem a newer version of VComm Build 368 has a new feature that will correct this A potential problem exists however If the incoming signal is a simulated noisy signal the first part of the incoming signal will be muted even though it should be noisy 27 Definition of Terms Table 30 provides a list of terms used in this document and describes their meaning Some of the descriptions are hyperlinks to web sites that have complete descriptions and are printed in color as a light blue Table 30 Definition of Terms Term Description Adaptive Differential Pulse Code Modulation Automatic Gain Con
137. orm From KY 58 3 NSVE Incoming Signal Multiplied by Random Noise 4 WSVE Incoming Signal Multiplied by Random Noise 5 SINCGARS ICOM Incoming Signal Multiplied by Random Noise 100 KYV 5 ANDVT Actual Waveform From KYV 5 SimPhonics Page 110 of 146 Vakum VComm User s Manual V1 54 15 7 KY 58 This device encrypts the audio before it is applied to the radio audio input A set of six keys are loaded into the unit with a key loading device Once the unit is keyed it can be used to encrypt audio Both the transmitter and receiver must be keyed identically in order to communicate DELAY Las 2 NI k 5 je NE POWER Figure 65 KY 58 Encryption Panel Figure 66 depicts the waveform of an actual recorded transmission from a secure KY 58 radio VU Preamble Squelch Tail adi Crypto Circuit On Encrypted Audio Crypto Circuit Off Figure 66 Example KY 58 Reception of Secure Transmission 15 7 1 Preamble Tone A preamble tone is generated by the crypto gear in order to inform the operator not to try to speak until after the preamble tone There are two types of preamble tones one heard when starting a transmission and one that is heard at the receiver during the beginning of the incoming transmission VComm simulates each crypto type preamble appropriately For SimPhonics Page 111 of 146 et VComm User s Manual V1 54 example the KY 58 and the KYV 5 generate the actual recorded preamble wavef
138. orms The radio will not begin to transmit until after the preamble tone is generated 15 7 2 Crypto Circuit On and Crypto Circuit off Clicks The KY 58 crypto system generates a sharp click when a secure transmission starts and ends This click is the crypto circuitry turning on and off 15 7 3 Squelch Tail The squelch tail in this case is the same as any other transmission 15 7 4 KY 58 NO FILL Tone A continuous beeping sound with noise in the background will be heard if no key is loaded e CRPT KEY 0 and the Crypto System object is enabled by setting the CRPT SYS pin This is a KY 58 No Fill alarm which indicates that keys have not been loaded To stop the tone set the PTT to 1 and then back to O This tone can also be stopped if a key value other than 0 is provided 15 7 5 Practical Considerations Simulating Crypto Gear The VComm simulation of the KY 58 is a high fidelity model Other venders do not model the various modes and only mix audio tones into the audio stream VComm includes the tones within the object and the user is not required to manipulate waveforms when simulating crypto operations In the case where there is no enumeration for the crypto gear being simulated tones may have to be simulated to triggering waveforms at certain points in the transmission 15 7 6 KY 58 Transmitter Hold off PTT The KY 58 VComm model delays the PTT to the radio just as the real KY 58 so that the simulated KY 58 has time to b
139. phones to the handset s earpiece when you pick up the receiver There are two good reasons for sidetone in radios and intercoms First sidetone verifies that you are actually transmitting If the transmitter fails or the PTT is not actuated properly you will not hear sidetone Second sidetone can be used to adjust your own transmit speaking level If you talk louder then the sidetone will be louder and this feedback tends to cause the speaker to talk with less volume In VComm sidetone can usually be achieved by mixing a microphone input to a headphone output This can be accomplished through either the V Windows Audio Mixer driver used for on board or off the shelf audio cards or the SMx driver With some sound cards there are no controls to mix the microphone to the headphones That s where the VComm Software Sidetone object comes in handy see Figure 73 Adjusting the volume of this object controls the microphone level fed to the headphone The microphone headphone audio device is defined by the radio or intercom object to which this object is attached SimPhonics Page 118 of 146 et VComm User s Manual V1 54 Figure 73 VComm Software Sidetone This object should only be used when a sound card is not capable of mixing its microphone input to its headphone output The reason for this is that a slight delay can be experienced due to the capture buffer size configured in the Networked Audio page of the V Run Time system A
140. pplication Specific Data and object 2096 VComm Get Application Specific Data The use of these objects is described in V Object Help SimPhonics Page 73 of 146 Pakam VComm User s Manual V1 54 10 Coordinate Systems The most commonly used coordinate system today is the geodetic system represented by latitude and longitude and elevation above sea level DIS and the HLA RPR FOM use the DIS World Coordinate System Objects are provided to convert coordinate systems o ct ET 2 Ki Figure 42 Geodetic Coordinate System 10 1 DIS World Coordinate System Locations in the simulated DIS world are identified using a right handed Geocentric Cartesian coordinate system called the world coordinate system in the DIS specification This Geocentric coordinate system is sometimes called ECEF or Earth Centered Fixed Cartesian The origin of the coordinate system is the centroid of the earth The axes of this system are labeled X Y and Z with the positive X axis passing through the prime meridian at the Equator the positive Y axis passing through 90 east longitude at the Equator and the positive Z axis passing through the North Pole as shown in Figure 43 A distance of one unit measured in world coordinates corresponds to a distance of 1 meter in the simulated world north pole Figure 43 Geocentric Coordinate System SimPhonics Page 74 of 146 Vekan VComm User s Manual V1 54 10 2 Radio Antenna Location The antenna lo
141. ption for the entire earth Users can elect to insert higher resolution DTED or DEM data The VTS is a separately licensed software product which can be purchased from SimPhonics It is a standalone TCP IP server which can run on the same computer as V or a separate computer VComm queries the VTS as a TCP IP client through a remote message protocol The protocol is defined in the VComm Signal Quality Service Specification The VTS is described in the VComm Terrain Server User Manual Figure 16 presents an example design with two radios where VComm has been configured to run the VTS In this example Radio 2 is transmitting and Radio 1 is receiving Note the 25 4 dBm attenuation due to terrain shown in Radio 1 s Radio Data Monitor object Two DIS HLA Radios Channel 1 VTS Test Radio 1 mn 1 dia EN Figure 16 Example Design Using the VComm Terrain Server At the bottom right of this example is a VComm Terrain Server Status object It s output pin indicates a round trip latency of 0 001477 seconds 1 477 milliseconds from the time VComm sent the request to the time VComm received the attenuation value to and from the VTS Note This example is available in the VPLus Samples folder of V Build 331 and higher SimPhonics Page 37 of 146 et VComm User s Manual V1 54 Figure 17 is a screen shot from the VTS which plots the same coordinates and frequency as in the figure above The bottom part of the screen shows two antennas
142. r Can be programmed via the registry for either byte order See section 0 for more details 5 8 bit Linear PCM 8 000 Hz 16 000 Hz d 16 1 16 000 Hz 0 7 bit GSM Half Rate 06 20 Variable 16 000 Hz 100 16 bit Linear PCM Little Endian 1 1 8 000 Hz byte order 16 000 Hz 22 050 Hz 32 000 Hz 44 100 Hz 48 000 Hz Not Supported In Development at the time of this writing This enumeration is reserved not to be used Info Only Note Enumerations of 8 9 and 100 are newly added schemes not yet published in the official release of the SISO enumeration document Enumerations 7 and 255 are not currently in the enumeration document SimPhonics Page 56 of 146 et VComm User s Manual V1 54 98 CVSD Variants There are several de facto flavors of CVSD that are in use in legacy systems in DIS networks These are referred to as CECOM CVSD and CCTT CVSD CCTT CVSD is not compatible with the standard enumerated version since the bits are in reverse order from the MIL STD 188 113 version Note that when using CVSD the signal PDU will contain the same number of samples as the data length since each bit is actually a sample when using CVSD Note also that a vendor uses 255 for CVSD which can be programmed on their systems to represent either flavor of CVSD 9 9 Transmit Sample Rates The input signal sample to a radio is dictated by the other transmitter VComm can process any sample rate on the input side from 1000 Hz to 960
143. rain loss Curvature of the Earth Thermal and Atmospheric Noise Squelch and Automatic Gain Control DU 2 cn The CHAN pin is analogous to the FREQ pin on the VComm GENERIC Radios Since bandwidth is ignored the channel used between two or more intercoms must match exactly for communication to work The PTT pin is new and is Boolean in nature with O representing the OFF state and 1 the ON state 21 4 1 Static Data Static data remained pretty much the same With the legacy intercoms you would use a Split Audio device to allocate a channel of a sound card for input and output This is now part of the static data for the new Simple Intercom Also note that there s a Send To Network element which used to be a pin on some of the legacy intercoms You would normally want this to be set to a value of 1 for sending it to the Primary DIS Socket If a value of 0 is entered the radio will not transmit over the network 22 VComm Monitor The VComm monitor is a means of monitoring DIS and HLA activity on the network There is an upper limit to the number of radios that can be handled by the system This has been measured at approximately 500 with a 3 0 GHz processor SimPhonics Page 123 of 146 VComm User s Manual V1 54 22 1 VComm Monitor Refresh Figure 79 is a snapshot of the VComm Monitor The information in the left pane is refreshed as often as data arrives Radios that are detected on the network are placed into the pane for viewing
144. ration throughout a mission for specified time Figure 59 HAVE QUICK Operational Diagram Example 13 3 1 2 HAVE QUICK NET Number The net number is used in the anti jamming mode in the same fashion as a radio frequency in the normal mode of in the normal mode of operation The net number enables multiple users to operate with other users while sharing a common WOD and TOD The format of the NET Number is shown in Figure 60 Ana SimPhonics Page 99 of 146 VComm User s Manual V1 54 NET Determines the order in which the radio will hop among the frequencies has the following form AXX XYY In Combat Mode Xx x 00 0 99 9 1000 Nets frequency tables used are AXX X00 HQ I AXX X25 HQ Il NATO Europe AXX X50 HQ Il Non NATO Non Europe War Reserve AXX X75 Reserved for HQ Ila Saturn n Training Mode T Net AXX X00 HQ I XX X 00 0 00 4 5 T Nets 5 FMT specified by the training WOD AXX X25 HQ Il XX X 00 0 01 5 16 T Nets 16 FMT Table used Figure 60 HAVE QUICK NET Number Format There is more than one format of NET Number notation depending on the HAVE QUICK system being used The format shown in Figure 60Error Reference source not found is he most common SimPhonics Page 100 of 146 et VComm User s Manual V1 54 13 3 1 3 HAVE QUICK WOD Frequencies hopping pattern and hopping rate are determined by the WOD There are six WOD segments that together form what is called
145. re 47 Setting the Federation Name es e EEKESNEKSENEENEN SNE SERA exa ER ea saa n3 RSR ENEE AER dadas 81 Figure 48 Windows Firewall Dialog i ennt etur nnns ny eoa tenuia Ryan EEN EAR ENER EEN RR GTP EENS NES 83 Figure 49 Setting the MAKLMGRD LICENSE FILE Environment variable 85 Fig re 50 TR EE 88 Figure 51 Networked Audio Secondary Network Activation cesssssssssee eene 89 Figure 52 Networked Audio Binding Dropdown nennen nennen nnns 90 Figure 53 Networked Audio Binding To IP Address 91 Figure 54 Networked Audio Send To Dropdown ennemis nnne eene 92 Figure 55 Terrain Signal Quality Server Network Configuration cccceeeeeeeeeeee eens ee eeeeeeeaeeeaeaees 95 Figure 56 VComm Entity Filter ODject iiiccesese ees one chen nae EENS EEEN eain ERR RR A A3 Ga TRIN RR RAN e ga agir Saas 96 SimPhonics Page 9 of 146 et VComm User s Manual V1 54 List of Figures Figure 57 AN ARC 164 Radio Control H d i ccccccccscscesestcecesansceaecensesesesecenaneheaeseseaeeeesecniaeneranaceess 97 Figure 58 Sample KAL 9200 KEY TAPE NKRE RER RNERENERKN ENEE RNNENEN NENNEN ENER NNN NENNEN SEN RENE ana r 98 Figure 59 HAVE QUICK Operational Diagram Example sss memes 99 Figure 60 HAVE QUICK NET Number Format 100 Figure 61 VComm Basic Fidelity HAVE QUICK Object ssssssssssseeeenenenmememneeeen ene 105 Figure 62 AN ARC 201 SINCGARS Radio 106 Figure 63 VComm Basic Fidelity SINCG
146. rum cccccece cece eeeeeeeeeeneeaes 28 receiver sensitivity 31 35 42 49 97 106 Recording 12 114 116 118 Registry 11 129 130 131 132 136 137 RID File coiere bey res 78 79 143 RTI 12 77 78 79 80 82 83 84 86 87 88 143 144 146 sample rate 16 18 57 113 141 142 SelecHvitw NEEN 18 41 Sidetone ceeeeeeeee 119 120 146 Signal File Converter 116 Signal Quality Service 12 13 37 51 134 signal strength 29 39 51 Simple Intercom 19 28 52 119 SINAD teet edt ete ts 31 35 45 146 SINCGARS 11 97 105 106 107 109 110 146 SMx 2 10 13 16 21 23 24 25 114 120 141 142 Squelch 18 49 52 112 123 125 squelch tail NENNEN 49 terrain server 17 36 37 39 52 134 Thermal noise eene 50 Troubleshooting ss 12 141 UDP ee ig Ces ege 16 22 69 88 93 147 inte EE ER USB 16 23 24 25 26 43 147 MEI i E ERES 41 42 45 106 VOIP scores eere ot ege 14 16 49 147 VOX 11 119 120 121 147 Al 116 117 118 147 Page 146 of 146
147. s 26 1 Radio Handle The RADIO HANDLE output on most VComm radios is an internally generated number and is unique for each radio Objects that require a radio handle input should be connected to this output The value present on the pin at run time is not the same as radio ID 26 2 Transmitter PDU Padding Padding fields are always set to zero by VComm Other vendors may fill these values and should be ignored For example on vendor inserts the ASCII values of AST or PCV in the last three padding bytes of the transmitter PDU depending on the equipment just before the modulation parameters Padding fields should be set to zero according to the DIS standard VComm sets padding fields to zero on transmit and ignore the padding fields on receipt SimPhonics Page 138 of 146 et VComm User s Manual V1 54 26 3 Troubleshooting Be sure to have the latest version of VComm There have been many problems corrected in VComm over time To view the problems that have been corrected interoperability issues and new features that have been added see the V Release Notes clicking Start Programs V Docs V Release Notes 1 Sound Card Settings a If VComm is not being used with SimPhonics SMx system and you re using a sound card most problems are associated with the settings of the sound card Ensure that you can record and playback your microphone audio by using the Windows recorder click Start Programs Accessories Entert
148. s This value represents total bandwidth not the deviation from the center frequency This parameter is transmitter bandwidth not receiver bandwidth Do not confuse these VComm receivers have their own independent bandwidth settings Typically a VHF receiver has a bandwidth of 25 KHz Receiver selectivity is normally quoted by means of a graph showing the output of the receiver in dB relative to the maximum output plotted against the number of KHz off tune or by quoting some points on this graph For example the selectivity of a HF receiver may be quoted as 6 dB at 3 KHz bandwidth and 60 dB at 12 KHz bandwidth Typically an AM receiver has a 3 dB bandwidth of about 9 KHz an SSB receiver approximately 3 KHz and an FM receiver s bandwidth is about 200 KHz SimPhonics Page 41 of 146 et VComm User s Manual V1 54 5 5 1 9 Receiver Tuning Response VComm base class generic radios use a tuning curve response with a simple Gaussian calculation for tuning response The calculation is scaled to produce a 3 dB power point equal to the bandwidth of the receiver The result is an approximation of actual receiver response to incoming frequencies that are on or near the frequency of the receiver see Figure 20 For example given an incoming transmission on 10 MHz with the receiver tuned to 10 01 MHz and the receiver bandwidth set to 25 KHz the signal will be received but at a reduced level Depending on other criteria such as transmitt
149. s Leere eren Frente RE 57 COmpresSSOF iiec esitare ha ce 11 48 CVSD 18 19 46 56 57 106 107 113 145 DIS Network 94 128 Duplex Mode sesse 119 Event File eege ee lume Lat od et 118 gzippepe m 77 146 FM wicca 18 31 35 41 43 44 45 106 Free space propagation loss 34 Fresnel 17 36 39 52 125 GeoOcentriC cece e eee eee eees 74 75 76 123 Heartbeat 11 52 53 55 niger 12 38 39 40 41 HLA11 12 13 14 16 17 18 19 20 22 33 43 45 46 55 61 70 77 78 80 82 83 84 85 86 87 88 94 103 107 119 123 125 129 137 143 146 Intercom 18 28 44 45 52 72 73 119 124 125 Isotropic antenna cece eeee eee eee eee ees 33 itte EE 50 133 LATENCY EE 129 ll lte 11 48 Little Endian ssss 18 56 133 Maximum Range eeenm e 41 microphone 26 113 120 129 141 142 145 146 minimum range eese 40 41 modulation 12 18 43 44 45 47 140 MUP c Ee 39 146 multicast eee cece eee teat eaeenees 22 79 92 SimPhonics Noise 31 49 50 51 52 110 125 146 Padding fields ccsececeeeeeeeeeeee es 140 PCM 11 18 46 56 113 129 133 138 146 Performance Monitor 126 127 128 Position Threshold 33 55 PTT 12 23 24 26 52 73 102 112 119 121 123 125 137 138 139 144 145 146 radio spect
150. s approximately 175 dBm At a typical bandwidth of 25 KHz the thermal noise level is approximately 131 dBm 7 9 8 Atmospheric Noise SimPhonics Page 50 of 146 et VComm User s Manual V1 54 Atmospheric noise is added to thermal noise to form the level of noise in the receiver before other receiver specific noises are taken into account VComm generates atmospheric noise by combining the various types into a single noise level in dBm This is added to the thermal noise value noted in Figure 28 to arrive at the total antenna input noise level The red dashed line approximates the value used in the VComm noise model This is a combination of averaged man made noise and Galactic noise Note The noise level becomes constant below 1 MHz and is zero below 100 KHz since frequencies below 100 KHz are considered intercom frequencies in DIS GL Atmos pheric dB above kT b L E Business E d Residentiai M Quiet Rural r 7 Galactic D 0 1 1 10 100 1000 Frequency MHz Figure 28 VComm Atmospheric Noise Model 7 10 Signal Quality Service Using the VComm Signal Quality Service remote message protocol VComm allows its signal and noise modeling to be bypassed This feature is enabled via a registry setting and allows any user to develop custom signal strength and noise strength models The VComm Signal Quality Service Specification defines the remote message protocol and specifies the messages th
151. s assumed that the reader also has Administrator privileges and knows basic Windows system administration 3 Referenced Documents Table 2 provides a list of publications referenced within this document Version IEEE Std 1516 1 2000 IEEE Std 1278 1 1995 R2002 IEEE Std 1278 1a 1998 IEEE P1278 1 200X SISO REF 010 2006 Latest version is installed with V Latest version is installed with SMx Latest version is installed with V Latest version is installed with V Latest version is installed with VTS Latest version is installed with V Table 2 Referenced Documents Description IEEE Standard for Modeling and Simulation M amp S High Level Architecture HLA Federate Interface Specification IEEE Standard for Distributed Interactive Simulation Application Protocols IEEE Standard for Distributed Interactive Simulation Application Protocols Supplement to IEEE Std 1278 1 1995 IEEE Standard for Distributed Interactive Simulation Application Protocols Enumeration and Bit Encoded Values for Use with Protocols for Distributed Interactive Simulation Applications AN ARA to AN ARC Equipment Listing http www designation systems net usmilav jetds an ara2arc html Radio Propagation Modeling Tutorial http www mike willis com Tutorial PF4 htm Date September 21 2000 September 21 1995 Reaffirmed December 10 2002 August 19 1998 Subject to change May 12 2006 SimPhonics Page 13 of 146
152. s can be changed in real time with immediate effects on the network The following are static data that you CANNOT change in real time and the system must be stopped and restarted in order to affect the change e Channel Audio Channel number e Network or Send To number This variable is a static constant in most radios It selects the network to use and cannot be changed at run time SimPhonics Page 96 of 146 Vakum VComm User s Manual V1 54 13 3 HAVE QUICK HAVE QUICK HQ is a radio technology that helps to protect UHF radios from being jammed and provides an additional measure of voice communications security It works by establishing a mutually agreed frequency hopping pattern and rate for both the receiver and transmitter A UHF radio must be equipped with HQ capability to interoperate with other HQ radios There are a number of different modes of operation based on the evolution of the technology HAVE QUICK is a crude brute force method of spread spectrum operation Since HAVE QUICK has been introduced other spread spectrum radio standards have appeared which are considered to be more of a standard such as SINCGARS SINCGARS is a more modern standardized approach to anti jam operations and is digital see section 14 3 for more information on SINCGARS All HAVE QUICK radios are AM radios which operate in the frequency range of 225 to 399 975 MHz on a 25 KHz spacing 12 5 kHz bandwidth yielding 7000 frequencies An example of a
153. s filters to filter specific incoming Transmitter PDU or Signal PDU packets Object 2024 VComm Entity Filter shown in Figure 56 can perform a number of filtering tasks when attached to a radio To set more than one mode simply attach additional objects to a given radio Available modes and their descriptions are provided in Table 19 Figure 56 VComm Entity Filter Object Table 19 VComm Entity Filter Modes Mode Description FILTER OFF ENTITY FILTER Filters Transmitter PDUs with the specified ID ENTITY FILTER EXCLUSIVE Filters Transmitter PDUs that are not the specified ID 3 ENTITY FILTER FORCE RX Forces the specified Radio Entity ID transmission frequency to match our radios receiver frequency In other words this mode forces the specified radio entity to be heard regardless of the radios entity s These filter modes can be used to build recorder radios whose audio is routed directly to disk for recording radio traffic In some cases there is a need to separately record what a specific entity would hear using ENTITY FILTER and or specifically what that entity says on the radio ENTITY FILTER EXCLUSIVE while removing all other traffic Of course there are other uses for these filters 13 2 What You Cannot Change in Real Time VComm is very flexible in allowing most of the DIS parameters to be changed during run time Run time for all practical purposes implies that V is executing Most pin values and some static data value
154. s ignored the channel used between two or more intercoms must match exactly for communication to work Tp MES The Simple Intercom has been a de facto DIS standard for several years Simple Intercom is identified within the DIS TRANSMITTER PDU as follows Modulation Type Record System 1 Generic Radio or Simple Intercom Modulation Type Record Major Modulation 0 Modulation Type Record Detail Priority 9 VComm and DIS DIS uses PDUs to exchange information between applications VComm uses the Transmitter PDU Signal PDU and Entity State PDU for DIS functionality The Intercom Control PDU and Intercom Signal PDU are no longer present since no other vendors systems use these PDUs VComm receives Entity State PDUs but does not transmit them 9 1 DIS PDUs VComm DIS radios receive and generate Transmitter and Signal PDUs These PDUs contain all of the information necessary for the receiving application to model a radio ICS and carry signal information which is usually encoded audio for voice communications 9 2 DIS Heartbeat Each VComm radio ICS generates Transmitter PDUs at regular intervals and during state changes while Signal PDUs are sent when a signal is being generated such as when the PTT is active The specification requires a periodic transmission of the Transmitter PDU called the heartbeat and ensures that all applications update properly The DIS Heartbeat is configured for a V application in the Networked Audio page
155. s must usually incorporate the same RTI The following sections describe the operation of VComm when HLA networked audio is enabled 11 1 Federate Object Model All federates in a federation must use the same Federate Object Model FOM Currently the RPR FOM version 1 0 is the most widely used FOM for simulation RPR FOM version 2 0 adds the new portions of IEEE 1278 1a 1998 to the original version 1 0 but version 2 0 is not officially released 11 2 FED File A Federation Execution Data FED file contains information about the FOM that the RTI requires including the names of all object and interaction classes attributes and parameters the hierarchical relationships among the classes and the default transport and order types to use for each class or attribute The FED file is specific to a federation and must be identical for all federates within a given federation The federate that first creates the federation dictates the name of the FED file to all joining federates There may be differences among RTI implementations as to where the FED file must be located In some RTI implementations only the federate that creates the federation execution reads the FED file and the information is automatically distributed to the other federates The MAK RTI requires that the FED file be available and read by each federate in the federation unless specified by a RID file variable that the RTI executive is to distribute the FED file The local RTI c
156. s simplify your V designs by removing the Split Audio Device and Stereo Connection objects Use the VComm GENERIC Radio V8 DIS Only 2026 or VComm GENERIC Radio V8 DIS HLA 2031 A design utilizing a VComm GENERIC radio is presented in Figure 76 Figure 76 VComm GENERIC Radio V8 DIS HLA The antenna position information is now accepted in Geocentric X Y Z coordinates instead of Geodetic Altitude Latitude and Longitude coordinates If your old radio was accepting antenna position in Geodetic coordinates for example an own ship position coming from the host you can convert this position to X Y Z Geocentric coordinates by wiring up object 2029 ALT LAT LONG to Geocentric conversion 21 2 1 Specific Pin Changes Another important change is the Frequency pin In the legacy radios the frequency was expressed in Megahertz MHz The VComm radios expect this input to be in units Hertz Hz Converting from MHz to Hz is easy though All you need is object 1018 Multiply by Static Data Constant with a static value of 1 000 000 as shown above The Volume Squelch and Exercise ID pins remain the same as in the legacy radios Volume and Squelch have a continuous range from 0 to 1 Exercise ID ranges from 1 to 255 The On Off and PTT pins are new and are Boolean in nature with O representing the off state and 1 the on state 21 2 2 Static Data Changes Static data remained pretty much the same With the legacy radios you would use a
157. same function for a signal quality server Please see the section on registry entry settings to see how VComm determines what kind of server to expect If the Terrain Server IP check box is enabled the three edit boxes become active The string entered in the Terrain Server IP edit box represents the server s IP address The Terrain Server Port defaults to 5080 but can be changed if necessary Make sure this corresponds with the port used by the server The Terrain Server Bind Address is used to identify which network adapter VComm should use for remotely accessing the server It is possible to run VComm and the server on the same machine with the same network address In other words the IP address in the Terrain Server IP and Terrain Server Bind Address may be identical Platform Configure 1 0 Drivers Execution Audio Device Order Networked Audio Primary DIS Network Bind To DIS Protocol Version Defaut Y le IEEE 1278 1a 1998 v Send To Port Multicast TTL z 3000 Secondary DIS Network Bind To Enable Secondary Eet Port Multicast TTL VComm Version 8 1 0 357 Audio Buffer Size Bytes Xmit Sample Rate Heart Beat ms Ant Position Threshold m o pe sin ecran Server Terain Server IP oo i a EE WEE Figure 55 Terrain Signal Quality Server Network Configuration SimPhonics Page 95 of 146 Vakum VComm User s Manual V1 54 13 Filters 13 1 Filter Modes Any VComm radio can utilize variou
158. system The CRPT KEY pin provides the key value for the crypto system The CRPT SYS and CRPT KEY pins are connected to data which is sent directly into the Transmitter PDU The CRPT SYS pin in the figure is set to 2 which is the DIS Enumeration for a KY 58 Exercise authorities such as CAF DMO normally provide a crypto key for their exercises to all participants 6 37814e 006 Figure 64 VComm Crypto System Object 15 4 VComm Crypto System Types The currently available VComm Crypto System object types are provided in Table 23 Note that these values come from the DIS Enumerations document and are subject to change At present the KY 58 is modeled when any of the other types are selected i e a value of 1 3 4 or 5 set for the CRPT SYS pin Table 23 VComm Crypto System Value Type 0 Other 1 KY 28 2 KY 58 3 Narrow Spectrum Secure Voice NSVE 4 Wide Spectrum Secure Voice WSVE 5 SINCGARS ICOM 100 KYV 5 ANDVT This enumeration is not yet approved into the DIS standard and may become the next enumeration in this series i e 6 1100 KYV 5 ANDVT Cipher Only Mode This enumeration is not an actual enumeration but a value to indicate cipher only mode 1002 KY 58 Cipher Only Mode This enumeration is not an actual enumeration but a value to indicate cipher only mode SimPhonics Page 109 of 146 et VComm User s Manual V1 54 15 5 Clear Versus Encrypted Voice Reception Table 24 is a state tab
159. t in a single UDP IP packet which is normally less than 1500 bytes Since the header is part of this number VComm Signal PDU sizes are limited to 1024 bytes If you set this field to a greater value an error will be generated The minimum size for this buffer is 256 bytes Note that this value is specified regardless of the compression scheme Also the Audio Buffer Size should always be an even number to end the number of samples on a 16 bit boundary SimPhonics Page 93 of 146 Vakum VComm User s Manual V1 54 12 3 Network Modes VComm uses several methods to determine how individual radios communicate on the network These are combinations of three distinct modes Primary DIS Network Secondary DIS Network DIS Loopback HLA Internally each of these modes is a separate bit mask which can be combined to form unique values Table 18 lists the recognized combinations of these three modes Table 18 VComm Network Modes Description Primary DIS only Secondary DIS oni Secondary DIS onl 3 Primary and Secondary DIS DIS Loop Back VComm can operate without a network connection in software loop back mode only Most VComm radios and intercoms can set this mode with the Send To Network or Send To static data element When in software loop back PDUs are sent from the output directly back into the input of the system bypassing the network interface Remember when you are in software loop back mode there are no p
160. the Multiple Word Of Day MWOD Table 20 shows the individual numbered WOD segments containing six digit values which resemble frequencies in order to be loaded via radio frequency controls The AN ARC 164 and most other HQ radios use channel numbers to load these values and therefore the CHAN numbers are shown Table 20 MWOD Segments Segment Number Value SEGMENT 1 CHAN 20 MA5 SEGMENT 2 CHAN 19 234 500 The first WOD CHAN 20 segment has special meaning The Heti reig dictate one of the following operation modes 300 0 Training 200 0 to 299 9 Tactical 300 1 to 399 9 Tactical The MSME dictate one of the following hopping rates 00 Slow 25 Medium Low 50 Medium High 75 Fast The second WOD CH19 also contains special information for conferencing mode Conferencing mode allows two HAVEQUICK radios to transmit simultaneously and be received by the other NET members The last two digits indicate the conferencing mode 00 Enabled 25 Disabled 50 Enabled 75 Disabled SimPhonics Page 101 of 146 et VComm User s Manual V1 54 13 3 1 4 HAVE QUICK TOD Since radios in HQ mode are frequency hopping they must do so at same instant in time in order to communicate HQ radios have an internal high resolution clock that can be synchronized to other HQ radios or to another time synchronization sources such as a Universal Time Coordinated UTC signal the UTC signal can come from a variety of sources
161. the development of editing changes to the existing IEEE 1278 standard Currently the new DIS standard IEEE 1278 1 200X will most likely be produced sometime in the next year HLA RPR FOM and other key FOMs are derived from this standard SimPhonics Page 20 of 146 Vakum VComm User s Manual V1 54 5 3 General Cautionary Notes There are a few things to look out for when using VComm that can be mentioned right up front that may or may not be a problem for the average user If you are new to VComm it is a good idea to read through these notes 5 3 1 Remote Desktop Remote Desktop establishes a remote session on another computer as if you are at that computer Remote Desktop is sometimes the only way to remotely access a computer that is hidden away inside a flight simulator cabinet Remote Desktop is included with Windows XP Professional and is disabled by default in Windows 7 and Vista Windows Home editions do not have remote desktop SimPhonics systems level products such as SMx have remote desktop enabled by default 5 3 1 1 Remote Sound Devices A problem can occur using Remote Desktop causing the remote machine to disable audio devices There is a setting on the remote desktop software that causes this to happen that is turned on by default The screen shot below shows this setting The Local Resource tab has a Remote computer sound pull down list that must be set to Leave at remote computer This is set to Bring to this computer by d
162. the first part of the incoming signal will be muted even though it should be noisy 14 Cannot Communicate with via HLA The most common cause of HLA problems are RID file parameters being set 26 3 1 Sample HLA MAK RID File Here is a sample RID file that should get you going Be sure to read the RTI Vendor User Manual sections for the RID file parameters These variables are RTI specific although some are common across RTI vendors Refer to the RTI vendors reference materials for more information on RID file variables and their default values re dd dd dd dd dd dd dd dd dd dd dd dd dd dd dd P P Pg Bg M LIP dd dd dd dd dd dd dd dd SimPhonics Inc RID File Basic Setup for Testing SH MM I TAA AAA HL V I HH V HL setqb RTI checkFlag 1 setqb RTI destAddrString 255 255 255 255 setqb RTI useRtiExec 1 setqb RTI internalMsgReliable 0 setqb RTI fomDataReliable 0 setqb RTI udpPort 4000 setqb RTI enableInteractionAdvisory 1 setqb RTI enableClassAdvisory 1 setqb RTI tcpForwarderAddr 127 0 0 1 SimPhonics Page 141 of 146 et VComm User s Manual V1 54 setqb RTI enableRtiexecGUI 1 setqb RTI enableRtiexecGUIConsoleLog 0 setqb RTI enableLrcGUI 1 setqb RTI enableNetworkMonitoring 1 setqb RTI logNetworkMonitorStatistics 0 Diagnostic Configuration setqb RTI notifyLevel 2 setqb RTI logFileName HlaLrcRtiLog log setqb RTI reuseLogFile 1 setqb RTI dumpFed 0 setqb RTI enablePopUpError
163. tion Number 0 Entity Number 0 Radio Identifier 0 Encoding 0 Channel Input Output 1 Figure 37 Setting DIS Radio Identifiers Dynamically SimPhonics Page 68 of 146 Vakum VComm User s Manual V1 54 An external device such as a host computer can provide the radio identifier for a radio by sending this data to VComm via UDP IP or via any other I O device that V supports The same design shown earlier is shown in Figure 38 with an external host computer interface driving object 1094 s pins from the UDP IP I O driver UDP IP UDP IP UDP IP UDP IP Radio Static Data Site Number 0 Application Number 0 Entity Number 0 0 0 1 o N P bal E Radio Identifier Encoding Channel Input Output Figure 38 Using an External Interface to set a Radio Identifier If you had multiple radios to set in this manner you could connect the ports to worksheet connectors and the worksheet connectors to the individual radios 9 15 3 Radio Identifier Conflicts VComm detects and reports possible radio identifier conflicts at runtime This is limited to local conflicts i e VComm will not detect a conflict involving radios on different computers Every time a radio identifier is changed VComm checks to see whether that radio identifier is already assigned to another local radio in the same exercise If a conflict is detected the other radio is disabled and a warning message is displayed This resolves the con
164. trol Advanced Narrowband Digital Voice Terminal Application Programming Interface Airborne Warning And Control System Average Effective Radiated Power Combat Air Force Distributed Mission Operations Comit Consultatif International T l phonig T Close Combat Tactical Trainer Communications and Electronics Command Combat Net Radio Coder Decoder Compressor Decompressor Central Processing Unit Continuous Variable Slope Delta dB Decibel Decibel milliwatts Digital Elevation Model Dynamic Host Control Protocol Distributed Interactive Simulation Dynamic Link Librar Defense Modeling and Simulation Office SimPhonics Page 143 of 146 Vakum VComm User s Manual V1 54 Table 30 Definition of Terms Term Description DOD Department Of Defense Digital Signal Processor Digital Terrain Elevation Data Earth Centered Fixed Cartesian Electronic Protection Measures Federation Execution Data HLA Specific File Federate Object Model HLA Specific Term Frequency Managed Training Global Positioning System Global System for Mobile communications Graphical User Interface Globally Unique Identifier HLA 1 High Level Architecture Hand Held Terminal HAVE QUICK Hertz Input Output Industry Standard Architecture IP Internet Protocol JETDS O JETDS Joint Electronics Type Designation System Kilohertz Thermal Noise Line of Sight LA Q Z C Hz S F I H IP Local Runtime Component HLA Specific Component
165. try to runtime March 6 2009 1 September 25 2006 1 January 3 2007 1 15 February 9 2007 1 16 Updated compressor limiter and band pass filter section March 14 2007 1 17 March 26 2007 1 18 April 9 2007 1 19 Added a section describing Waveform Audio Transmission April 30 2007 Table 1 Revision History Description Date November 20 2005 December 14 2005 March 1 2006 March 14 2006 Formatting changes Reorganization Table of Contents Clarification of HLA MAK RTi installation and minor editorial changes Added Duplex Modes Added network information and setup sections Added interoperability note Entity Attach March 23 2006 April 6 2006 April 20 2006 Added interoperability note for Capture Buffer Added note on May 10 2006 Number of Transmitters for First Radio performance counter Added a section discussing sidetone May 30 2006 Added VComm architecture diagram with description June 1 2006 July 7 2006 Updates for VOX and Stereo Devices Further explanation of July 30 2006 DIS Heartbeat provided Added big endian mode for the PCM 16 CODEC and added July 31 2006 encoder enumeration of 100 for little endian Added a figure describing the VComm SINCGARS object the DIS Heartbeat sections Updated registry settings Updated HLA sections March 26 2008 configuration parameter SimPhonics Page 11 of 146
166. ual V1 54 assigned site or application number This is not necessarily an error it is valid to use values in this range but not doing so avoids possible conflicts with auto generated numbers The construction of the auto generated site and application numbers ensures that any two computers on the same subnet will generate unique simulation addresses When combined with the auto generation of radio numbers this ensures that radios with auto generated radio identifiers on the same subnet will have unique radio identifiers Due to the fact that computers on different networks may have the same IP address i e due to network address translation there is no guarantee of uniqueness across networks In such situations simulation addresses should be assigned manually 9 15 2 Setting Dynamic Radio Identifiers Object 1094 VComm DIS Radio Data can be used to dynamically set the radio identifier and encoding of a radio When this attachable object is used the corresponding static data in the radio is ignored Instead the radio identifier is defined by the inputs to the attachable object Figure 37 shows the data being set via constants In this case the constants are set to zero which will cause the radio to be disabled auto generation is not supported with dynamic radio identifiers In fact setting any of the components of the radio identifier to O or 65535 will disable the radio Radio Static Data Site Number 0 Applica
167. ulation for Simple Intercom Modulation System Generic 1 Major Modulation Simple Intercom 0 Detail Modulation Other 0 This object can set the modulation parameters as shown in Figure 23 Controlling Modulation Parameters The inputs may be constants or may be connected to ports that receive data from another computer via a network or may be computed based on another model etc Figure 23 Controlling Modulation Parameters Modulation Parameters 1 Amplitude 1 AM 6 37814e 006 7 83 Modulation Effects Table 6 Modulation Interoperability shows voice modes VComm supports Light blue boxes indicate where modulation matches enabling communications without modulation effects There are modes where the voice can be heard but effects are modeled such as an AM receiver processing an FM signal and vice versa Other shaded boxes are those where the signal is processed but an effect is applied The signal may not be intelligible when the signal is weak Low SNR SimPhonics Page 44 of 146 et VComm User s Manual V1 54 Table 6 Modulation Interoperability RX TX 7 84 Modulation Usage Guide The tables below list two of the most common types of radios and their settings When the modulation type is unknown use the following tables as a guide Simple Intercom used a 0 as the major modulation enumeration and is unfortunately a de facto standard created by one of the early DIS radio vendors This is an except
168. ution Rate ms Stopped J SimPhonics Page 15 of 146 et VComm User s Manual V1 54 4 2 VoIP Voice over Internet protocol VoIP is a term applied to protocols using Session Initiation Protocol SIP and Real Time protocol RTP VComm is currently designed specifically for DIS even though it is technically a VoIP mechanism VComm does have the ability to bridge from VoIP to and from DIS HLA however See VBridge 4 3 VComm Evolution VComm has evolved from a simple DIS HLA radio package to a full featured DIS HLA VoIP radio simulation system establishing new standards and improving interoperability among the simulation community By far the most realistic system available today VComm focuses on realism and ease of use while abstracting protocol implementations DIS is a broadcast IP technology that is simple and straight forward Information is encapsulated into UDP packets called Protocol Data Units PDUs Each simulation application broadcasts PDU information and other simulation applications receive them in a connectionless fashion HLA is a publish and subscribe mechanism relying on proprietary close architectures and is not as pervasive as DIS as DIS still remains the major means of voice communications in military simulation exercises today HLA is just beginning to be utilized outside of the laboratory for practical purposes and is complex and somewhat difficult to use compared to DIS 4 4 Use Any Sound Device VComm
169. ve the Clear Channel and Padding rows swapped This may be corrected in future versions 2 The DIS IEEE 1278 200X Draft 15 and earlier showed the Clear Channel as an 8 bit data type and not an enumeration and the Padding field has been extended an additional eight bits for 32 bit alignment 14 2 VComm and HAVE QUICK Radios VComm provides HAVE QUICK radio simulation via V objects that attach to existing VComm radios There are two forms of DIS HLA HAVE QUICK radios Basic Fidelity and High Fidelity The Basic Fidelity HAVE QUICK functionality is a de facto standard established by CAF DMO while the High Fidelity HAVE QUICK is a new standard that SimPhonics and other vendors helped to establish for DIS HLA systems and is currently in draft form in IEEE 1278 1a 200X The CAF DMO organization is currently specifying the use of the Basic Fidelity version in their exercises The High Fidelity version requires that the Basic Fidelity version be implemented also in order to maintain compatibility Note When a VComm radio is in HAVE QUICK mode it will be forced into UHF AM mode at a frequency of 312 5 MHz This will override any default or explicit radio mode and frequency settings There was no need to enforce frequency to be at any particular frequency as it is ignored by the model Forcing the radio frequency to be at 312 5 MHz makes no sense and unnecessarily complicates the radio model Hopefully this will be changed in the future 14 2 1 Basic Fi
170. wave dipoles A V wavelength horizontal dipole antenna radiation pattern is shown in Figure 12 The gain in the horizontal plane is 2 15 dBm Dipole axis Dipole axis Figure 12 Horizontal Dipole Pattern 7 5 2 Propagation less DIS De facto Standard There are conditions within the DIS protocol when the propagation loss is assumed to be zero If the location of the transmitter or receiver antenna is set to 0 0 0 or the frequency is less than 100 KHz there is no propagation loss since the location of 0 0 0 is the center of the earth using the DIS world geocentric coordinate system 7 5 3 Antenna Position Threshold The Transmitter Position Threshold is the antenna position change needed to generate a new Transmitter PDU in DIS or an attribute change in HLA The default value is 500 meters This reduces the number of updates that are issued on the network when radios are attached to moving entities SimPhonics Page 33 of 146 et VComm User s Manual V1 54 7 5 4 Free Space Propagation Loss Free space propagation loss is characterized by the following equation which spreads the transmitter power over a sphere whose size is the distance to the receiving antenna The power at the receiving antenna aperture is a unit area of this sphere pra ptgtgr 4rd D D transmitter power power at receiver antenna 8t 8r transmitter Antenna gain receiver antenna gain d distance in meters A wavelength in meters Losses
171. ways to connect M amp S applications together in a plug and play environment SimPhonics Page 87 of 146 et VComm User s Manual V1 54 11 6 3 MAK RTi Notes When using the MAK RTI between only two federates it is possible to run the RTI with only one license However there are issues that should be noted When the federate that created the federation is stopped and restarted the other federate does not receive any object discoveries even though the other federate is still joined This behavior is by design The machine must have a valid and active network connection in order to use this RTI otherwise the V application will hang when started If your MAK RTI installation is using the MAK RTIspy LRC GUI shown in Figure 50 there will be a small glitch in any V audio being generated when an object is registered discovered or deleted anywhere in the federate This GUI should be used for diagnostics only Note that Federates which are in lightweight mode will not show up in the RTi GUI 9 RTI Spy VCommi SW JMOBILE 16 2 ni x File View Using MAK Technologies RTI version 2 3 3 HLA1 3 Joined federation VCommHLA with name YComm SWJMOBILE and handle 16 Reading FED file i Interactions Known objects 2 Nave ande Lade Jeer e 1600001 1600001 RadioTransmitter 4 RadioTransmitter 4 registered 1700001 1700001 RadioTransmitter 4 RadioT ransmitter 4 discovered Figure 50 MAK RTIspy 12 Network
172. with a terrain profile between them The dashed line is the direct line of sight line between the antennas and the dotted line represents the terrain profile The resultant attenuation of 25 4635 dBm is a little bit different than what is shown in Figure 16 25 435596 dBm since the VTS does all of its math in double precision floating point and the VComm object input pins are single precision floating point Terrain Mapped Radio Propagation Loss Transmitter 39 0000N 106 0000E 2600 00H 2561 0000 meters Hot Spot meters Base meters Latitude deg 39 0000 North Sat Terrain Elevation Geocentricx 1368635 3709 13680780930 Longitude deg 106 0000 west East Geocentric Y 4772998 7607 470564550 WGS84 Altitude 2600 0000 meters EE 3993953 2557 ema Receiver 39 0000N 106 1000E 2600 00H 2175 0000 meters Hot Spot meters Base meters Latitude deg 39 0000 North South Terrain Elevation Geocentric X 1376963 7364 1376403 4001 Longitude deg 106 1000 west East Geocentric Y 4770602 7729 4768661 4422 WGS84 Altitude 2500 0000 meters Geocentric Z 3993953 2557 3992317 0227 Line of Sight LOS Calculator LOS Path Point LOS path traversal parameters 39 0000N 106 1000E 2600 00H AtEarth Surface meters ecu 8666 1659 Current Step t 1 0000 Latitude 39 0000 Geocentric X 1376963 7364 Step resolution m 866 6166 LOS Pos m l 8666 1659 Longitude 106 1000 Geocentric Y
173. ype Record for conveying type information for the radio DIS IEEE 1278 1a 1998 and earlier versions Transmit PDU and Entity State PDU have a different structure for Entity Type This was changed in the new proposed standard IEEE 1278 200X draft so that the two structures match and are shown side by side in Table 12 with the VComm behavior for these fields shown on the right Table 12 Radio Entity Type Record IEEE 1278 1a 1998 IEEE 1278 1 200x Draft 13 VComm Behavior Entity Kind 8 bit enum Entity Kind 8 bit enum Always 7 Radio Domain 8 bit enum Domain 8 bit enum User Programmable Country 16 bit enum Country 16 bit enum User Programmable Category 8 bit enum Category 8 bit enum Radio Object Type Nomenclature Version 8 bit enum Subcategory 8 bit enum User Programmable Specific 8 bit enum User Programmable Nomenclature 16 bit enum Extra 8 bit enum User Programmable As Table 13 indicates all fields are programmable via V except Entity Kind which is always 7 Radio and category which is determined by the VComm radio object Voice only communications radios use 1 or Voice Transmission Reception Table 13 shows the first four category enumerations as defined in the SISO enumerations document Table 13 Category Enumerations 0 Other 1 Voice Transmission Reception Most VComm Radios 2 Data Link Transmission Reception 3 Voice and Data Link Transmission Reception Not

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