Executable communication protocols: a project overview

This paper describes an overview of a project experimenting with an idea that executable specifications of communication protocols are a way to achieve interoperability among dissimilar communication systems and that VHDL and its simulation environment are effective tools for developing the specifications. The project develops VHDL behavioral models (executable specifications) of a tactical-to-strategic gateway and two voice-encoding methods, whose specifications are respectively described in the MIL-STD-188-105, “Interoperability and Performance Standard for the All-Digital Tactical-to-Strategic Gateway” and the MIL-STD188-113, “Interoperability and Performance Standards for Analog-to-Digital Conversion Techniques”