General, Maintainable, Extensible Communications for Computer Generated Forces
Robert E. Wray, James C. Beisaw, Randolph M. Jones, Frank V. Koss, Paul E. Nielsen, Glenn Taylor · 2002
The variety of communications employed by CGFs requires a flexible communications infrastructure that can be readily modified for new applications, new communication devices, and even user preferences. Understanding the variety of CGF communications has led us to re-design the communications infrastructure of TacAir-Soar, a realtime aircraft CGF. The design consists of four major components: consistent communications knowledge, a language for communication events, a message transport infrastructure, and message handlers for communication devices. This paper describes the motivations for these new components, focusing especially on the software engineering approaches that provide a more modular, extensible, and maintainable framework for CGF communications. We also discuss the costs of the new solution and some ideas for reuse in the CGF community.