Characterization and definition of a software stack for a reference experimental framework

Abstract

In 2006, the US Army Research Laboratory (ARL) and the UK Ministry of Defence (MoD) established a collab- orative research alliance with academia and industry, named the International Technology Alliance in Network and Information Science (ITA)1 to address fundamental issues concerning Network and Information Sciences. Research performed under the ITA was extended through a collaboration between ARL and IBM UK to char- acterize and define a software stack and tooling that will become the reference framework for network science experimentation. A key element to the success and validation of ITA theoretical research is experimentation in a controlled environment that can, as best as possible, emulate the real world conditions and context. Ex- perimental validation in a network emulation environment contributes to the validation of theoretical concepts and algorithms, the investigation of more complex scenarios that span multiple research areas, exposing gaps in the theory that may need special attention, identifying additional areas where the research might focus and develop, and reproducible experimentation, which enables and facilitates the comparison of results from multiple executions of the same experiment. To accomplish these experimentation goals, the framework needs to foster the collaboration across multiple disciplines and facilitate the sharing of existing and new assets in a common emulation environment. The framework also needs to be extensible for the integration of new features, emula- tion models, monitoring, and integration with real, external assets that can be linked to any given experiment. This paper discusses the work resulting from the ARL/IBM UK collaboration to build a framework to support experimentations and foster collaboration within and across different research groups. © 2013 SPIE.