Distributed Network Experimentation in the NATO CWIX 2021 Communications Focus Area.

The ability to test C4I systems for multinational interoperability is of key importance for success in future NATO missions. With the growing complexity of experiments, the test infrastructure must adapt to changing requirements as well. In this paper, we present our technical approach to providing a distributed, VPN-based infrastructure, which enabled experimentation in the NATO CWIX 2021 Communications Focus Area. Originally created to deal with the pandemic situation, the approach has shown significant benefits. It supports a hybrid mode of experimentation, with participants distributed across national test sites. In addition, we present an approach to distributed analysis of network experiments that was used in the exercise.